Re: Public Review Issues Update

From: Andrew C. West (andrewcwest@alumni.princeton.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 22 2004 - 07:11:25 CST

  • Next message: Peter Kirk: "Re: Egyptological Transliteration Characters"

    On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:06:23 -0700 (PDT), Kenneth Whistler wrote:
    >
    > > Mark Davis wrote:
    > > > All comments are reviewed at the next UTC meeting. Due to the volume, we
    > > > don't reply to each and every one what the disposition was. If actions were
    > > > taken, they are recorded in the minutes of the meetings.
    > >
    >
    > Instead of expecting a bureaucratic response, as if from a
    > governmental organization staffed up with clerks whose job it
    > is to track this kind of stuff, a *practical* approach would be
    > to:
    >
    > A. Check the public minutes when they become available.
    >

    In the case of UTC 99, which was held June 15-18 2004, the minutes were not made
    public until last week, which meant that we had to wait almost four months to
    find out what happened.

    > B. Check the disposition of a Public Review Issue on the
    > website, when it becomes available.
    >

    Or if you're interested in a character proposal check the Pipeline page and the
    Rejected Characters and Scripts page, which are usually updated well before the
    minutes become available.

    > C. If neither of those seems to have explicitly addressed some
    > item that you provided feedback on, then contact (offlist)
    > someone who did attend the meeting in question, and see
    > if they have information about the item in question.
    >

    I agree that Ken, Asmus, Rick etc. are very helpful, and are happy to discuss
    privately issues submitted to the UTC for consideration, but the last thing I
    want to do is bombard them with "What happened to my comments/proposal ?"
    questions.

    I tend to agree with Theo that it would be very helpful that if an issue or
    proposal is discussed by the UTC, the relevant extracts of the minutes are
    forwarded to the person who raised the issue as soon as possible after the UTC
    meeting. This way, if the issue requires clarification or the originator of the
    issue wants to submit a further document, it can be done before the next UTC
    meeting, and does not need to wait until the UTC minutes are made public after
    the next UTC meeting. On the other hand, as a serial offender, I personally
    don't expect explicit feedback for every minor issue that I report on via the
    Unicode reporting form -- I'm thinking more of script proposals and such like.

    > If none of A, B, or C satisfies you, *then* submit another
    > problem report, including a more explicit request in it
    > for an explicit response regarding its disposition.
    >

    Of course, the best solution is "Join Unicode", but I can't see much point in
    the $120 p.a. individual membership, as that still does not get you access to
    UTC documents or the Unicore list, and $1,200 p.a. for associate membership is a
    little bit steep for most of us. Incidentally, I notice that the $600 p.a.
    specialist (?) membership category has silently disappeared, which was the only
    other possible option for individuals who wanted to get involved at the UTC
    level.

    Anyway, just my bent pennyworth, hope no-one's offended.

    Andrew



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