[Wikipedia-l] Re: Treat like Hieroglyphics (was Re: new request for ASL/English wikipedia)

[Mark Williamson]

I'm curious as to what makes it look best to you as far as
intelligibility. Most of the information available about Stokoe is
obviously biased due to the fact that it's actually FROM the
SuttonSignWriting website.

Stokoe and HamNoSys are very easy to write using computers, and can
use fonts and normal text rather than special markup languages.
(clustering "sig" characters in Stokoe present a difficulty, but not
an impossibility, for the average font-founder)

Text in HamNoSys can be used to generate signs in a virtual reality
environment in real time, thus widely increasing the usability scope
(most deaf people can't read in signed languages, but being able to
watch an article, even as it's edited and undergoes drastic changes,
would be a definite plus).

Text in HamNoSys can also be converted on-the-spot to Stokoe or
SignWriting (to Sutton SignWriting would be difficult, but then so is
any programming involving Sutton SignWriting).

Stokoe has no copyright.

HamNoSys might be copyrighted, I'm not sure.

SuttonSignWriting is definitely copyrighted. Even though they allow
for it to be used free of charge, it's not a "free" writing system and
I think that it wouldn't be very Wikimedia-like to use it as the
primary writing system for any Wikipedia.

Now, I have said the thing regarding on-the-spot signed language
generation in at least 4 separate e-mails to this list. Nobody has
responded to any of them. People continue to draft proposals or ask
questions which would easily be answered by reading my e-mails.

Now, I know that some people have blocked my address; that's their
problem, even though they're wasting everybody's time by asking
questions which have already been answered or drafting proposals
without seeing mine first. But quite a few of the people in this
thread have responded to other e-mails by me quite recently, and in
the most recent case, somebody actually responded to my response to
their e-mail, in which I told them I'd answered all of their questions
earlier.

This is one of those cases where it would save everybody time, energy,
and inbox space to read all of the e-mails in any thread to which they
intend to contribute.

Mark

On 14/09/05, Craig Franklin <craig at halo-17.net> wrote:
> Scríobh Phil Boswell:
> 
> >I wondered whether it could be possible to create a SignWriting extension
> to
> >Mediawiki, along the same lines as WikiHiero, which used SWML as the
> source.
> >This would at the very least allow us to display the signs in articles
> about
> >them, and might provide some sort of kick-start for more extensive usage.
> 
> SignWriting looks like the best system as far as intelligibility goes, but
> isn't it copyrighted?  I mean, I know that the creator has made it free for
> use and all (see http://signwriting.org/about/questions/quest0004.html ),
> but doesn't that still make it ineligible for use in a Wikimedia project?
> It would be like using a special copyrighted ortography for English, or a
> copyrighted conlang (Toki Pona, anyone?).
> 
> Yet another issue that must be addressed, I suppose.
> 
> Cheers,
> - Craig [[en:Lankiveil]]
> 
> 
> -------------------
> Craig Franklin
> PO Box 764
> Ashgrove, Q, 4060
> Australia
> http://www.halo-17.net - Australia's Favourite Source of Indie Music, Art,
> and Culture.
> 
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