[LINK] Arabic and the net

[Tom Worthington]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Egypt puts archives on Web to boost Arabic content 
> Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:13pm EST  http://www.reuters.com ...

The National Archives of Egypt have a web site in English by default 
<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.eg/> and Arabic as an option 
<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.eg/nae/ar>.

Presumably with the domain name in Arabic script, this will be reversed: 
  Arabic by default and other languages as an option.

By the way, the web designs for English and Arabic are mirror images of 
each other for the National Archives of Egypt home page. Because Arabic 
is read left to right, the most important information on the page is 
placed in the left column, rather than the right, as it is for English.

However, I couldn't find anything about the Arabic script domain name 
for Egypt at the Egyptian Universities Network (EUN), who run the 
registry for Egypt: <http://www.egregistry.eg/index-e.php>.

At present they still seem to be just issuing ".eg". By the way there is 
limited information in their English pages, but the Arabic translates 
well: 
<http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.egregistry.eg%2F&sl=ar&tl=en>.

The domain name arrangements were put in place a year ago: 
<http://www.icann.org/en/cctlds/eg/eg-icann-letters-02nov08-en.pdf>.

ps: These deligations can be politically sensitive. As an example for 
".ps" "Palestinian Territory, Occupied": 
<http://www.icann.org/en/general/ps-report-22mar00.htm>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274