Unicode® Script Ad Hoc Group
The goal of the Unicode Script Ad Hoc Group is to provide recommendations to the
Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) on encoding proposals and other documents.
These recommendations reflect the collective discussion of the participants, and are
intended to guide further discussion at the UTC meetings, particularly regarding complex
topics that require an extended, in-depth discussion. Preparation of summary
recommendations makes the decision process during plenary UTC meetings more efficient.
The recommendations are not binding—the Unicode Technical Committee makes
the final decisions on all proposals.
A secondary goal of the Script Ad Hoc Group is to assist proposal authors in
updating their proposals to meet the exacting technical requirements of the UTC.
Rather than forwarding a recommendation for a promising, but incomplete, proposal to the UTC,
where the proposal
might simply be rejected for incompleteness, the Script Ad Hoc Group is authorized to work with
authors in an iterative process, providing specific feedback for improvement
and suggesting further discussion and updating of the proposal. Such interaction
can assist new proposals authors who may be unfamiliar with the details of
the Unicode Standard or the standardization requirements of the UTC.
The scope of the Script Ad Hoc Group includes all proposals for the encoding
of new scripts, modern or historic, as well as proposals for non-emoji symbols,
punctuation, or notational systems. Emoji proposals are out of scope; they are
handled instead by the
Unicode Emoji Subcommittee.
The Script Ad Hoc Group meets face-to-face on a regular basis, usually
one day a month in San Francisco. Meetings are scheduled in an effort to
guarantee that a full, quarterly report of proposal reviews can be
provided in a timely manner to each meeting of the Unicode Technical Committee.
Note: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, until further notice, all
Script Ad Hoc Group meetings are held via teleconference or video conference.
The Script Ad Hoc Group meetings are organized and chaired by Deborah Anderson
and Roozbeh Pournader.
Participation is by language experts from the Unicode Technical Committee
or by permission of the chair. Especially for complex script topics, the Script
Ad Hoc Group reaches out to proposal authors, to ensure that their feedback is
part of the process, and so they may answer questions that the proposal reviewers
may have about various character proposals.
Each quarter, before a UTC meeting, the chair of the Script Ad Hoc Group prepares a
report for the UTC, encompassing the recommendations of all the Script Ad Hoc
Group meetings since the prior UTC. These reports are added to the
UTC document
register as publicly accessible documents.
For convenience in reference, a complete list of all
Script Ad Hoc Group reports,
dating back to 2010, is also
maintained.
The Script Ad Hoc Group engages in frank discussions regarding complex,
technical content. As an ad hoc group reporting to the UTC, it follows the
same general rules regarding confidentiality of meeting discussions. Citing
from the Technical Committee Procedures of the Unicode Consortium,
"Discussions during meetings are confidential and are not to be shared
publicly without explicit permission of the chair."
Intermediate drafts of
the Script Ad Hoc Group reports are also confidential, until they can be
vetted and any errors corrected. The final reports, which then
represent the Script Ad Hoc Group consensus recommendations, are
public documents.
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