Some people use other terms, such as ‘globalization’ to refer to the same concept.Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.Internationalization is often written “i18n”, where 18 is the number of letters between ‘i’ and ‘n’ in the English word.Internationalization typically entails: Designing and developing in a way that removes barriers to localization or international deployment…. Examples include date and time formats, local calendars, number formats and numeral systems, sorting and presentation of lists, handling of personal names and forms of address, etc. Separating localizable elements from source code or content, such that localized alternatives can be loaded or selected based on the user’s international preferences as needed.Notice that these items do not necessarily include the localization of the content, application, or product into another language; they are design and development practices which allow such a migration to take place easily in the future but which may have significant utility even if no localization ever takes place.How to get involved?Both as an individual or an organisation W3C Internationalization welcomes people around the globe to help improve the appropriateness of the Web for multiple cultures, scripts and languages.
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