SignWriting on "not the wikipedia weekly"

Tue Nov 4 16:47:58 UTC 2008

SignWriting List
November 4, 2008

Hello Gerard and all!
I just listened to the entire podcast program meeting on the "Not the  
Wikipedia Weekly" program.

The audio file is located on this site:

>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ntww35.ogg
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NotTheWikipediaWeekly

This is my summary...I am sure I will not explain everything properly,  
but here is what I remember from what i heard...

It was very pleasant and fun....a conversation in English with people  
from several countries, including the UK and Gerard from the  
Netherlands. They discussed the fact that the name  "Not the Wikipedia  
Weekly" will be re-named as "WikiVoices". They also discussed how to  
type and write in Wiki-based sites...for example, there are articles  
written in Wikipedia that are not the best quality, and so they  
discussed the editing process of Wikipedia articles...and they felt  
that it is a little bit "locked" now that it has become so big that  
the editing process has to be reviewed so it is not locked, but still  
not have bad articles...because some good articles are being edited  
out, and that is frustrating writers...deletionists and inclusionists  
were discussed...they feel that they need to be more welcoming for  
countries outside the western world...that there might be a  
bias...should be tighter with western topics and more open to topics  
from the eastern countries...there is cultural bias that needs to be  
corrected..."Did You Know?" (DYK) is an article on Wikipedia that  
lists new articles just entered...nice "thank you" to the writers of  
new articles...DYK is there for a few hours only on the front page of  
the Wikipedia site to inform new readers of new articles...the reward  
for writing a good article is to get a spot on the main page of  
Wikipedia in Did You Know?...

Then they talked about SignWriting...Gerard explained what it was to  
the group....he explained that Val and Steve informed him that the  
SignWriting MediaWiki Plugin is now in alpha...Gerard did a great job  
discussing the idea that now Sign Languages can be written, in  
vertical columns...and Gerard discussed how do you place a photograph  
in the middle of a Wiki-based article written in SignWriting in  
vertical columns?...and then they discussed Unicode briefly and that  
now we can write SignWriting in the SignWriting MediaWiki  
Plugin...there are hundreds of Sign Languages that will someday have  
their own Wikipedia and that now we have a request for the American  
Sign Language version...then another speaker said it really "blew his  
mind" to realize that the Sign Languages can be written...that it  
helps with education and raises visibility for Sign Language in the  
world...and Gerard said that SignWriting is taught in some schools but  
not in others...it allows signers to read and write in their own daily  
language...when you learn to read and write in your mother tongue then  
we all do better in life ...and they talked about the California based  
non-profit organization...and Gerard suggested that they go to  
SignWriting.org....people said it was a fascinating topic and Gerard  
said that he felt that it will happen more and more now...

Then they moved on to other topics

So that is my summary of what I heard on the program...

THANK YOU Gerard, for your presentation on the program....You did a  
great job explaining it....and thank you for inviting us to  
participate on another program...we look forward to it!

Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

-------------

On Nov 4, 2008, at 7:41 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> November 4, 2008
>
> Hello Gerard!
> Thank you for informing us about the "Not the Wikipedia Weekly".  
> That is a great name! I visited the site and as far as I understand  
> it, it is like a radio program...and audio program...about news on  
> Wikipedia-related topics. I look forward to listening to the whole  
> program shortly...
>
> And I look forward to the SignWriting portion at the end of the  
> program...so I will write again after I have listened to it...too  
> bad our Deaf List members cannot listen to it, but I will write  
> again with a summary of what is said, for the List...
>
> And yes, of course Steve and I will be delighted to be a part of a  
> future episode! Thank you for inviting us to speak. Let's setup an  
> appointment...
>
> "Wikivoices" is a good name! Maybe someday, you can have a visual  
> American Sign Language version as well ;-))
>
> Steve tells me that the SignWriting MediaWiki Plugin has been  
> downloaded 6 times so far.  Steve is curious if we'll get any  
> feedback. Feedback is very welcome...
>
> I will write again with a list of possible questions and maybe the  
> List members can help me finalize the list of questions for you...
>
> More soon -
>
> Val ;-)
>
> Valerie Sutton
> Sutton at SignWriting.org
>
>
> ------------
>
>
> On Nov 4, 2008, at 12:22 AM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
>
>> Hoi,
>> With pleasure I may inform you that the latest episode of "Not the  
>> Wikipedia Weekly", a podcast with news about all things wiki does  
>> include a sizeable portion about SignWriting at the end. It starts  
>> round about the 15th minute of the cast. Now I am not really an  
>> expert on the subject on sign languages and SignWriting and we  
>> talked after the recording about it some more. We think that it  
>> would be great to have an episode just about SignWriting and the  
>> request for an American Sign Language Wikipedia.
>>
>> We have invited Valerie and Steve to be part of this future episode  
>> and it would be cool to have your questions about Wikipedia and  
>> Wikipedia for sign languages. So let us have your questions so that  
>> this episode may even more relevant and interesting..
>>
>> NB as we are giving "not the Wikipedia Weekly" more of a meta  
>> approach, the project will be renamed to "Wikivoices"
>>
>> Thanks,
>>        Gerard
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ntww35.ogg
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NotTheWikipediaWeekly
>

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