The section “Extension and private-use subtags” was updated to incorporate the new u extension, registered by the Unicode Consortium to add information about language or locale behavior. Editorial improvements were also added to the description of private use subtags in that section.

Translators should consider retranslating the section “Extension and private-use subtags”.

The Unicode 6.0 core specification includes information on scripts newly encoded in Unicode 6.0, as well as many updates and clarifications to other sections of the text. The release of the core specification completes the definitive documentation of the Unicode Standard, Version 6.0.

In Version 6.0, the standard grew by 2,088 characters. Over 1,000 of these characters are symbols used for text exchange on mobile phones. The Unicode Standard now also includes the recently created official symbol for the Indian rupee. After computers and mobile phones update to Version 6.0, the rupee sign will be available for use like the $ or € now.

In addition, this version adds many CJK Unified Ideographs in common use in China, Taiwan, and Japan,as well as characters for African language support, including extensions to the Tifinagh, Ethiopic,and Bamum scripts. Three scripts are supported for the first time: Mandaic, Batak, and Brahmi.

In October of 2010, the other portions of Unicode 6.0 were released: the Unicode Standard Annexes, code charts, and the Unicode Character Database. This allowed vendors to update their implementations of Unicode 6.0 as quickly as possible.

For more information on all of The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, see http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/

The program for the Pisa workshop is filling up. If you are still intending to submit a talk proposal, please do so as soon as possible in order to secure a place. We advise you not to wait until the March 1st deadline.

We have already accepted many interesting talks, and are looking forward to hearing speakers from organizations such as CNGL, CWI/W3C, DFKI, Facebook, FAO of the UN, Lionbridge, Microsoft, Opera, SAP, TAUS, Thompson Reuters, and many others.

See the Call for Participation for details about how to register for the workshop and propose a talk.

The MultilingualWeb project, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the W3C, is looking at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the multilingual Web. The project will raise visibility of what’s available and identify gaps via a series of four events, over two years.

The next workshop takes place in Pisa, Italy on 4-5 April 2011.

Comments are being sought on a new draft of the W3C Note “Working with Time Zones” prior to final release. The new document provides guidelines and best practices for working with time and date values and how time zones affect applications and document formats.

Please send any comments to www-international@w3.org (subscribe) by 28 February.

Read the new draft.

Editor: Addison Phillips, Lab126.

The 29th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2011) will be held in Hyderabad, India between 28 March and 1 April, 2011. It will include a W3C track dedicated to encouraging the development of the Web across languages, scripts and cultures.

The W3C is running an Accessible and Multilingual Web Camp on 30 March. Attendees will be able to discuss issues and topics in breakout groups as well as hearing prepared talks.

If you are interested in participating, please confirm your interest in the related wiki for this developer camp. Please do suggest discussion topics as well!

(A partnership program is also available, providing various benefits.)

One of the most popular Opera extensions is Translate, which translates a page using an automatic service. But some pages have already been translated, and checked for quality manually. HTML has provided markup to make this clear (rel="alternate" hreflang="xx" as attributes to a link) for more than a decade, but this has not been implemented in browsers, which makes it hard for users to discover.

The new Opera extension Swaplang, developed specifically for the MLW project, is an example of how a browser might natively implement this functionality. If a page uses the proper HTML markup, it shows that there are alternatives available and lets you select between them. To try it, go to the Swaplang download page with Opera 11 (or higher) and install it

If you need a test page, try Character Encodings.

The extension is still in development, with some enhancements expected. The source code is available under the Apache 2.0 open source license, in case you would rather take it in your own directions…

La marca de orden de bytes (BOM) en HTML (The byte-order mark (BOM) in HTML)

Declaración de codificaciones de caracteres en HTML (Declaring character encodings in HTML)

Normalización en HTML y CSS (Normalization in HTML and CSS)

These articles were translated into Spanish thanks to Spanish Translation Services, Trusted Translations, Inc.

Zeichencodierungen (Character encodings)

HTML und XHTML ausliefern (Serving HTML & XHTML)

Verwendung von b- und i-Elementen (Using b and i elements)

The translations of the following articles were also updated.

Zeichencodierung für Anfänger (Character encodings for beginners)

Verwendung von Zeichen-Escapes in Markup und CSS (Using character escapes in markup and CSS)

These articles were translated into German thanks to Gunnar Bittersmann.

4-5 April 2011, Pisa, Italy. Hosted jointly by the Istituto di Informatica e Telematica and Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.

The MultilingualWeb project is looking at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the Web multilingually. The project aims to raise the visibility of existing best practices and standards and identify gaps. The core vehicle for this is a series of four events which are planned for the coming two years.

After the highly successful workshop in Madrid last year, this workshop will continue to survey currently available best practices and standards aimed at helping content creators, localizers, tools developers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web.

Participation is free. We welcome participation from both speakers and non-speaking attendees. For more information, see the Call for Participation

Bidi- Pierdere de spatii (Bidi space loss)

HTML, XHTML, XML si Codurile de Control (HTML, XHTML, XML and Control Codes)

Cand sa folosim negocierea limbajului (When to use language negotiation)

These articles were translated into Romanian thanks to Costea Marian.