New directions for the Linganth List

[Richard J Senghas]

Hello Alexandre and all,

Interesting that Alexandre makes that particular suggestion!   
LinguisticList.org is one of the three prime candidates for the new  
site for the Linganth list when it gets moved, in part because they  
have already been archiving the Linganth list for many years now.  I  
agree, they provide excellent services, and I TRUST them.  When I  
first approached them, they were immediately welcoming and seemed  
eager to provide services.  Sonoma State is also a candidate site,  
primarily because I see the folks there face to face (the support  
folks are located in my university's library).  Nothing like local  
support!  However, the archiving and web-hosting aspects at SSU are  
more limited, but the establishment of a Linganth Blog may have just  
made those limitations moot.

Once the Linganth list has been moved (again, probably mid-late  
December or late January), I'm expecting most of the moderator/ 
administration tasks to evaporate (more or less), since almost all  
current listservers allow for web-interface management of list  
accounts in ways that allow the users to switch from digest/regular  
mode at will, or to shift to vacation modes or even drop off without  
involving the list administrator.

I do think it makes sense (given what I have seen from this side of  
it all, and also given what I've seen happen to other lists whose  
subscription is entirely open) to have just a little gate keeping  
continue on Linganth list membership.  (Basically, if we see  
subscription requests come from non-university or known-institutional  
internet domains, then we sometimes ask the requesters how they heard  
of the list, etc.  Generally, that keeps away the spammers.)

I would like very much like to invite one or more rising PhD students  
to share in list-owner role.  I think this would help on the  
recruitment side, would be good for the list, and might even help  
cultivate more networking involving our emerging colleagues.  When  
Linganth started back in the early-mid nineties, the graduate  
students' contributions lent a great deal of energy and innovation  
(and FUN) to the conversations.  (Anyone else remember those  
wonderful, sometimes extensive posts by Aaron Fox when he was either  
manic or trying to avoid his dissertation-in-progress?)   In fact,  
I'd be happy to shift into a secondary position, though remain  
available for the "institutional memory" sort of role, or as familiar  
face for those who've been with us for a while (note there is no  
reference to "old-timers" --ack! I said it, after all).

Best regards to all,

-Richard


On 1 Dec 2006, , at 4:54 PM, Alexandre Enkerli wrote:

> Speaking of which... Is there any way a linguistic anthropology
> (and/or anthropological linguistics) mailing-list could be hosted by
> Linguist List? They already mirror linganth:
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/linganth.html
> If list administration becomes too much of a burden for Richard or for
> the server, we could move some of our discussions to a
> linguistlist.org-hosted mailing-list, which could possibly ease out
> the list management process and make the list more attractive to our
> colleagues in other language sciences.
> The Linguist List and LingLite are excellent examples of what can be
> done with academic mailing-lists. Is there really a reason for
> linguistic anthropologists not to have the same type of resource?
>
> Which is not to say that Richard isn't doing great work or that
> linganth doesn't serve a purpose. I, for one, am quite grateful for
> the gift of linganth. Among hundreds of mailing-lists I have been
> subscribed to, it's one of the coziest.
>
> On 12/1/06, Harold F. Schiffman <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> I would prefer a notice via email that contains a table of contents
>> of new postings, that refers us to a website we can then go to. I get
>> Linguist-List in this format ("Linguist-Lite") and with one of the  
>> email
>> servers I use, I can just click on the messages I want to read,  
>> and ignore
>> the others.
>>
>> Hal Schiffman
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Alexandre
> http://enkerli.wordpress.com/

Richard J Senghas  (Professor of Anthropology, Sonoma State U,  
California)
Visiting Researcher, Institutionen för nordiska språk
Stockholms universitet
S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Richard.Senghas at nordiska.su.se
Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu