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1. Introduction
1.1 Forwards
The Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) has undertook projects to promote
information exchange through the Internet among member country's legislatures.
The APPF General Assembly, held in Korea, in January 1998, adopted a resolution
concerning this plan, which was named the "Asia-Pacific Open Information
Network (APOINT 2001)". During the Executive Committee Meeting in Peru,
September 1998, the APPF Technical Working Group met and discussed the
issue. Accordingly, Japan, as part of the APOINT 2001 project, started
the development of applications for multilingual network environment. Japanese
delegation successfully demonstrated this at the General Assembly in Peru,
January 1999, using a beta version of multilingual kit, which enabled users
to read the Japanese, Korean, Thai, Russian and Chinese languages by Netscape
(ver.3) localized to the Spanish Windows Operation System. Specification
on this multilingual kit is available at the APPF Japanese Secretariat
web page. (<http://www.glocomnet.or.jp/appf/>)
1.2 Development in 1999
The Asia-Pacific Free Font Study Group (AP Font SG) under the contract
of the Japanese secretariat of the APPF developed a Font Archival System
and a multilingual web browser to use it which runs on Linux in 1999. This
development will promotes two objectives: first, the expansion of multilingual
environment of the Linux and secondly establishment of the international
glyph registration system.
1.3 Directions in 1999
AP Font SG made a technological review in mid 1999 before progressing beyond
the beta version. This technical review was to evaluate the similar software
available by commercial base. The original premises of our plan was as
follows:
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Today, parliaments of the Asia-Pacific nations run a homepage, where they
distribute ample informations concerning their activities. Computer systems,
however, are adapted ("localized") to the local language, and to reproduce
different character sets other than their own on an ordinary personal computer
is not an easy task.
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The multilingual software we introduce here enables localized computers,
according to the local language environment, to display the Japanese language.
This tool should accompany the following features:
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This software enable all APPF member country's languages readable by any
localized web browser.
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This software be free and downloadable from any country by those who are
interested in APPF legislature's activities.
AP Font SG found that Microsoft Internet Explorer ver.5 acquired this capacity
and asked a APPF Technical Working Group member country (Peru) to testify
this result and received an affirmative answer.
1.4 Background and Objectives
The AP Font SG is hosted by the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM)
of the International University of Japan. As a research institution of
the social sciences, GLOCOM has, since its foundation in 1991, regarded
it as part of its duty to internationally provide information on Japanese
society, a task which eventually took advantage of the Internet. As we
continued our activities, we came to face a number of requests concerning
multilingual processing of electronic document on the network from domestic
and international users. In particular, international users are in need
of the fonts and tools necessary to read information in Japanese. In order
to address this problem, GLOCOM organized a joint-research collaboration
project, called the 'Open Electronic Document Committee', in which linguists,
network engineers, experts in standardization, and editors are involved.
1.5 Members of the Asia-Pacific Free Font Study Group
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Chair
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Yushi Komachi, Ph.D (Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.)
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Members
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Shuji Matsushita (Professor, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures
of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
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Junichi Hamada (Directer, Institute of Socio-Information and Communication
Studies, University of Tokyo)
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Gen Nagamura (Operating Officer, Seoul Systems Co., Ltd.)
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Akinori Okubo (Manager, Research and Development Center, Ricoh Co., Ltd.)
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Masayuki Hiyama (Technical writer/document designer)
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Hiroshi Koyama (Senior Researcher, GLOCOM, International University of
Japan))
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Koichiro Hayashi (Professor, Keio Gijyuku University)
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Secretariat
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Yasuhide Yamanouchi, Ph.D (Research and Education Group Director, GLOCOM,
International University of Japan)
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Keisuke Kamimura (Research Fellow, GLOCOM, International University of
Japan)
1.6 User support
AP Font SG will be responsible for user support and will also continue
to upgrade the software. As part of the further development programs, we
plan to prepare the following items:
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Bug fixes and bug reports
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Documentation and manuals
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Support for languages other than Japanese
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