Reviving the SEALANG list

[Doug Cooper]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
Dear SEAlangers and interested parties:
 
  In case you haven't noticed, the Southeast Asian Languages discussion group,
SEALANG-L, has been out of operation since January.  Files were not backed up,
so it is neither possible to restore the list nor to find the subscribers (this
mailing was scavanged by hand from old posts and conference papers).  After
discussion with Khun Marut of NECTEC (given responsibility by the very busy
Khun Trin), we agreed that with NECTEC's financial and security constraints
(eg. backups are still not done, uploads cannot be permitted), managing the
list from elsewhere would be more reliable and allow expanded services.
 
  Accordingly, I have established a "new" list, called SEALANG, at the domain
seasrc.th.net.  List focus and policies remain as before.  Key e-addresses are:
 
        http://seasrc.th.net/sealang  (the new SEALANG Web site)
        majordomo at seasrc.th.net       (to subscribe -- see details below)
        sealang at seasrc.th.net         (to post messages; pls subscribe first)
        doug at nwg.nectec.or.th         (list mgr.; questions and suggestions)
 
  Many thanks to NECTEC for their long-time support of this effort; and as
always, a moment of remembrance for SEALANG's prime mover, Mr. Gwyn Williams,
who died at a tragically young age last year.
 
  The remainder of this letter describes the purpose of SEALANG, and explains
how to post and subscribe to the group.
 
  Sincerely,
  Doug Cooper
  Southeast Asian Software Research Center, Bangkok -- http://seasrc.th.net
 
ABOUT SEALANG
  SEALANG is a non-moderated mailing list originally founded by Gwyn Williams
and Trin Tantsetthi in 1994, and  devoted to scholarly discussion relevant to
Southeast Asian languages.  The core SEA languages belong to five major
families: Austronesian (AN); Mon-Khmer (Austro-Asiatic; AA, including Munda);
Tai-Kadai (TK); Tibeto-Burman (TB; a branch of Sino-Tibetan ST); and Hmong-Mien
(HM; also known as Miao-Yao). SEALANG interests also extend to languages of the
Sino-Tibetan family, as well as the Austronesian family, spoken in Vietnam and
Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Java, and the Micronesian,
Melanesian, Polynesian, and Madagascar regions.
 
  Languages of historical importance, particularly Pali and Sanskrit, and more
recent European languages (eg. English) are included in the discussion to the
extent to which they bear on SEA.
 
  Most past discussion has focused on linguistics. I would like to encourage
greater participation from computational linguistics and computer science,
especially in regard to building research tools for SEA languages.  Typical
postings include:
 
   Queries and discussion related to SEA languages.
   Posting of calls for conference papers and participation.
   Announcements of the release of books, software, data, etc.
   Job and funding announcements.
 
  The overall high quality of SEALANG posts is widely believed to be due to the
good judgement, self-restraint, and mutual respect of its subscribers ;-)
 
TO SUBSCRIBE TO SEALANG:
  Send a message to:
 
     majordomo at seasrc.th.net
 
In the body of your letter, include the line:
 
    subscribe sealang yourname at your.email.address
 
Don't forget to use your actual name and e-mail address.  Note that you will
not receive messages posted to SEALANG until you subscribe.
 
TO POST MESSAGES ON SEALANG:
  Send your message to:
 
     sealang at seasrc.th.net
 
FOR FURTHER DETAILS:
  Please visit the SEALANG Web site at http://seasrc.th.net/sealang
 
ABOUT SEASRC:
  SEASRC is a non-profit research center, based in Bangkok, and focused on
computational linguistics and software development for non-Roman alphabet SEA
languages.  The TH.NET domain is hosted in the US with a T3 link to the
Internet; it is backed up daily.  Posts through the old sealang-l address at
NECTEC will remain valid.