[Corpora-List] VISL and Corpuseye threatened at University of Southern Denmark

[Trevor Jenkins]

On 22 Jun 2011, at 10:36, Ana Frankenberg wrote:

> How horrible! This is really bad news. I am a great fan and  
> certainly want to help maintain VISL, but I think few people will  
> have time to write individually to the authorities you list. Maybe  
> it would be more practical if you circulated a petition, which  
> people like me could then sign?

Whilst I share your opinion on the threatened termination of this  
work there are two objections to a petition. Firstly it is only a  
list of names. It does not document the benefits of the tools have  
been to be persons signing the petition. The decision makers need to  
be aware of the devastation that their decision will wreak upon this  
(our) field. Confront them with the reality that the reputation of  
the university will be reduced amongst their peers. A petition  
doesn't make this clear.

Also a petition doesn't get delivered to the people who matter. It's  
handed over to some underling who has no obligation to pass it on.  
Decision makers are more likely to take note if their inboxes fill up  
with academic and commercial colleagues writing in to say how  
damaging (to their own work and the university stature) this  
whimsical and capricious cut would prove to be for the pursuit of  
knowledge.

Secondly, if someone does create a petition for f*** sake don't make  
it an email with the instruction "send this to everyone you know. Add  
your name and then forward"! Those don't work. There is never a  
resolution and they become nothing more than an urban legend  
circulating long after the issue has completed. Who has the  
responsibility of returning the ever increasing parts of the  
petition. Nothing more than a chain letter.

A central petition hosted on a single host that can verified and  
collate the signatures. It still suffers the problem that it will not  
demonstrate the real objections. Plus anyone can sign a petition.

Regards, Trevor.

<>< Re: deemed!



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