The standards aim to allow each local alphabet to be used widely on ICT platforms, devices, and apps.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Internet Domain Name Registry (PANDI) has lauded efforts made by the National Standardization Agency (BSN) to accelerate the drafting of national standards for the digitalization of traditional scripts.

"The attempt is crucial for us to get the national standard ratification of the traditional scripts soon," PANDI’s deputy head of business development, cooperation, and marketing, Heru Nugroho, said in a press statement issued on Saturday.

PANDI is a non-profit organization comprising Indonesian internet multi-stakeholders. It has been delegated to administer Indonesian domains by the Communication and Information Technology Ministry since June 29, 2007.

Initially, BSN only proposed two national standard formulation programs for a Javanese script keyboard layout and Javanese script fonts, Nugroho noted. But now, its program has been developed to also include the Sundanese and Balinese scripts, he said.

Earlier, PANDI had also tried to register local script domains with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, he informed. However, the attempt was not successful as certain requirements could not be met, he said. For instance, one requirement was that the scripts needed to be officially registered and widely used in Indonesia, he added.

PANDI expected the attempt would increase ICT-based local literacy, Nugroho said.

Meanwhile, BSN’s director of standard development for mechanics, energy, electrotechnical, transportation and information technology, Y. Kristianto Widiwardono, said that the standardization was an effort to preserve traditional Indonesian scripts.

"The standards aim to allow each local alphabet to be used widely on ICT platforms, devices, and apps. The software providers will have references for displaying the characters to make them easier to be used by the public," he added.

Related news: Indonesia to register six traditional scripts with ICANN

Translator: Suryanto, Uyu Liman
Editor: Suharto
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