Re: Arabic encoding model (alas, static!)

From: Gregg Reynolds (unicode@arabink.com)
Date: Wed Jul 06 2005 - 19:21:05 CDT

  • Next message: Gregg Reynolds: "Re: Arabic encoding model (alas, static!)"

    asadek@st-elias.com wrote:
    >

    >
    > Sounds a bit like a veto to me and not seeking consensus, was the
    > advice of the WG2 members even sought?
    >

    I think the more interesting question is: what is the composition of
    these mysterious bodies? How many native speakers of ______ (fill in
    your favorite language) are members? How many of them use the ____
    language on a daily basis? That statistic would be much more revealing
    than which committee agreed with which, IMHO.

    To me, at least, "UTC" and "WG3098098534543" seem to be very fearsome
    creatures, not so different from the politburo. I'm not saying they
    *are* like that. I guess I'm saying they have a PR problem.

    More generally: how's about the Unicode Consortium, with it's unlimited
    resources, creates an outreach program? Or maybe even an internship
    program targeting minority language communities? Maybe it's been done.
      Still something doesn't smell right about a "universal" encoding whose
    mailing list consists almost exclusively of westerners. Inevitably
    questions like "well, who made that decision?" will arise. Would it not
    be worth a little bit of money to try to find members of minority
    linguistic communities and make a special effort to make them feel
    welcome? (BTW, I have occasionally received emails from people in the
    Arab world regarding issues brought up on this list. It seems
    reasonable to conclude they don't feel comfortable contributing
    directly, partly because of linguistic difficulties. But I strongly
    suspect part of the reason is this list is, to be honest, not a very
    friendly place.) This seems like a problem to me.

    -g



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