ELL: Transparent Language Systems offer and smaller c

Tue Apr 13 21:08:34 UTC 1999

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Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 21:08:34 +0000
From: Marion Gunn <mgunn at ucd.ie>
Organization: ucd <http://listserv.heanet.ie/>
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Subject: Re: ELL: Transparent Language Systems offer and smaller c
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MQuinlan at transparent.com wrote:
>
> > In this Irish case, what was the cost of the project? can we get that?
> >
> > Matthew McDaniel
>
> Mathew,

>...
> In the case of Irish, we know we cannot get it on the retail shelf in
> the U.S., but we think over time it may sell reasonable well in Ireland.
>

It may, but only if properly advertised. If you want, I can offer you
(FREE) a one-line entry in "Eolaire na Gaeilge", which is a sort of
Yellow Pages for Irish Services, owned by my company (Everson Gunn
Teoranta). My co-owner is out of th ecountry at present, but, if you
send me your one-liner, I'll discuss entering it when he comes home.

> We have also created another package using our LanguageNow! technology,
  called
  > "51 Languages of the World" which has a small amount of content for 51
  > Languages. Again, we thought we might be able to sell it (we were right)
  and

  Not surprised. Sounds great. Will it run on an Apple Mac?

  >...
  > On the Irish project, for instance, the potential Irish-market sales gave
  > us a
  > way around the no-demand problem. It may not sell, but I think it will, so
  > we
  > did it. And the Bord na Gaeilge gave us the ability to deal with the
  > langauge

  Make sure you mention Bord na Gaeilge in your one-line advert, so we can
  link their site to your entry.

  > issues and get them more or less "right" without setting ourselves up as
  > arbitrators of regional rivalries etc. That's a huge help, because we
  > don't want
  > to get it wrong, but we don't want to get stuck in unending and
  > essentially
  > unresolvable discussions about language either. (Although a lot of people
  > in our
  > company think of those kinds of discussions as recreation, so some of it
  > is
  > fine.)

  Must be (ex-)academics.:-)

  >...
  > we figured if we had a lot of languages in one box, a store could
  > just stock the one box, and the aggregate of sales of the one box might
  > make the
  > turns. It did. We actually started out with "31 Languages of the World"
  > and it
  > was successful enough that we upgraded it a few weeks ago to "51" and
  > that's
  > just starting to ship into the stores now.
  >

  Great.

  > So the obvious business thing is to ignore non-commercial languages. We
    have a
    > huge number of products we are doing involving major languages. Just the
    > Internet projects alone are more than we have the capability to do.
    >
    > But, if possible, it would be nice to make packages for very low-density
    > languages. That's the idea of the ELRP Project. The "Cultural Partner"
    cannot
    > afford the project, but in this world there must be groups or
    individuals who
    > care enough about revitalizing the language of a culture that they will
    put up
    > some money.
    >

    Yes. Amazing how people think that by freeloading (sorry -- downloading
    things free on the Net) they qualify as philanthropists.:-)

> Philanthropists like to do good things, but to have them part with their
  money I

  By which, you must mean real philanthropists, as distinct from the
  above!

  > felt they probably wanted  to know that
  >    - their money will be used effectively (We reuse our LanguageNow!
  > engine
  > which is the expensive part resulting in great value)

  Good.

  >    - their money won't be wasted (we can give good assurances the project
         will
	 > succeed based on past projects)

	 Better.

	 >    - that the first grant won't turn into requests for more and
                more money (thus
		> the fixed price)

		Wise.

		>    - and that the result will be valuable (they can see the
                       completed project in
		       > other languages before they start).

		       Best.
		       Marion Gunn
		       (co-owner, Everson Gunn Teoranta
		       <http://www.indigo.ie/egt/>)

		       ps.
		       As we say in Irish: "Maith th., a Mhich.l"
		       (approx. translation, for a
		       change, into Australian: "Good on you, Michael")

		       >
		       > Michael
		       >
		       > ------------------------
		       > Michael Quinlan
		       >...
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		       =========================================================================
		       Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 18:12:33 +1300
		       To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
		       From: nEnIu <hiasl at geocities.com>
		       Subject: Re: Re[2]: ELL: Transparent Language Systems
		       offer and smaller
		         c
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		       Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 18:12:33 +1300
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		       Subject: Re: Re[2]: ELL: Transparent Language Systems
		       offer and smaller
		         c
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		       >Thus far we have done all of our langauge packages out
                        of our own pocket. Thus
			>far: Spanish, French, German, Latin, Italian,
                        Russian, Swedish, Dutch,
			>Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Irish.
			>turns. It did. We actually started out with "31
                        Languages of the World" and it
			>was successful enough that we upgraded it a few weeks
                        ago to "51" and that's
			>just starting to ship into the stores now.
			Why didn't your package include esperanto ?

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