Les disparités culturelles et linguistiques de la Francophonie comme atout de son développement technologique en communication et en éducation

International audienceIn a world characterized by cultural and linguistic diversities, the French language community has always acted in symbiosis with the local languages and cultures of its geopolitical area. The Agency of French speaking Universities (AUF), an important academic actor in the field of education and research for many emerging countries, performs a strategic role in the field of e-Learning standardization defending the French language peculiarities in the international educational standardisation contexts and promoting its close cooperation and exchange with cultural and linguistic diversities of its international partners. This paper highlights some results of seven years of active contribution of AUF delegation to ISO Subcommittee 36 (SC36) charged with international e-Learning standards development. Our contribution to the work of SC36, has demonstrated the strategic importance of defending the cultural and linguistic diversities of all partner languages of AUF as a step against the world digital divide. We are intenting to bridge the selective and realtively closed framework of e-Learning standards and the emerging world e-learning communities through technical and research connectors. These principles must obviously go beyond the wishful thinking and be converted into concrete implementation of projects, strategies and actions. This is particularly the case of AUF delegation to SC36 with the creation of events and development of tools and resources that reinforce our positions into the ISO standards development for Information Technologies for Learning, Education and Training (ITLET). We conclude by the need for these projects to be subscribed within a framework of collaboration taking the French speaking world as a pragmatically concrete construction of these synergies.Dans un monde marqué par des disparités culturelles et linguistiques, la francophonie agit depuis sa création dans une optique de partenariat avec les langues et les cultures de son aire géopolitique. L'AUF, acteur universitaire de la francophonie dans le domaine de l'enseignement et de la recherche, s'acquitte d'une mission stratégique dans le domaine de la normalisation de la formation à distance en défendant les particularités francophones dans les instances internationales de la normalisation sur la base d'une disparité culturelle et linguistique qui la caractérise. Cet document rend compte des aboutissements de 7 années de participation à la normalisation de l'e-Learning notamment en tant que délégation de l'AUF auprès de l'ISO-SC36 (sous comité chargé de la normalisation et de l'interopérabilité des TICE). Notre suivi des travaux de cette instance, démontre l'importance de mettre en avant les disparités culturelles et linguistiques comme autant de richesses cognitives ouvertes par les diverses langues partenaires de la Francophonie. Ces pétitions de principes doivent évidement dépasser le stade du vœu pieu et être concrètement mise en œuvre dans des actions. C'est notamment le cas de notre participation à la création d'événements renforçant nos positions dans le dispositif d'élaboration des normes ISO des TICE. Nous conclurons sur la nécessité pour ces projets de s'inscrire dans un cadre de collaboration prenant la Francophonie comme un niveau pragmatiquement concret de construction de ces synergies mais en s'inscrivant dans des horizons obligatoirement plus vastes dans des alliances avec les cultures linguistiques historiques et nouvelles entrantes dans le développement de la mondialisation

Les big-data : pistes de reflexions historiques, ethiques et epistemologiques pour l’appropriation sociale ; retours et attentes d’experimentations en learning analytics

In this paper, we aim to explore ways of transformations of the new techno-culture that will become essential to appropriate two emerging technologies closely related: Big-datas and Datas Analytics. We discuss as well the history of big-datas and statistical analysis but also their digital pre-warning. In terms of multivariate statistical analysis, we discuss the epistemological issues but also ethical Copernican reversal caused by this analysis (discussed Benzécri / Bourdieu). The questions to being techno-digital, closely related with human intelligence, it also upset by its implementation collaborative networks, are quickly raised (Heidegger, Simondon, Derrida and the current bibliography). We conclude by stating the close involvement of our ITEN-UNESCO Chair for ISO standardization of ICT and Learning Analytics standardization project that just opened. We also present our project Muren HD (digital humanities involving crowdsourcing synergy for education, research and heritage in a culturally Euro-Mediterranean context); a project that is part of education-research-project IDEFI Créatic

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Pour diffuser localement des contenus Web y compris dans des milieux non connectés

L’objectif est de créer un dispositif (ou système d’information) mobile capable de reproduire périodiquement des contenus scientifiques hébergées sur un portail institutionnel et les diffuser sur des serveurs miroirs mobiles déployés dans des zones peu ou pas connectée

Langues en danger et multilinguisme numérique

À l’ère de la mondialisation et des réseaux numériques, les langues dites « minorées » ou « en danger » sont devant un double dilemme : réussir leur modernité numérique en acceptant un « douloureux » réaménagement linguistique ou aller vers une extinction progressive face à des langues hégémoniques « prédatrices » qui dominent l’espace digital sur les réseaux.Langues orales et écritures en danger non romanisées sont les plus concernées par les mesures de protection de la diversité culturelle et linguistique sur Internet. L’audiovisuel numérique et l’encodage multi-écriture par Unicode leur offrent des alternatives innovantes, consensuelles et normalisées, pour s’affirmer. Tout dépendra de la synergie que leurs communautés de pratiques créeront autour d’elles pour les placer au cœur du débat sur la fracture numérique

La temporalité ‘Hype Cycle’ des standards e-Learning dans le contexte de pays émergents

International audienc