ANNOUNCING SPECIAL FEATURE...SignWriting Encyclopedia Projects

Mon May 31 17:15:22 UTC 2010

SignWriting List
May 31, 2010

Hello Ingvild!
Thank you for this excellent idea in your message below, which gives me a great chance to bring up this related project:

SignWriting Document Preservation Project
http://www.signwriting.org/literature/preservation/

Do you remember awhile back I asked the SW List if anyone had old documents they could give me, that we could copy into SignPuddle Online, both dictionaries and documents?

Well, the above web page explains that project, and lists some of the documents my nephews have copied into SignPuddle, sign by sign...in the past two years. There are actually more documents than the ones listed on that web page...and I plan to make an accurate and detailed listing later, of all the documents that have been copied.

And the copied documents in SignPuddle still need to be edited by the original authors, because of course small mistakes could have been made during the copy process, and I am planning to go in and check the copy work myself for possible errors, and I have not had the chance to do that with every document yet, so you can see this is ongoing but important work.

And the offer still stands - If anyone has old documents they would like to send to me, written in SignWriting, written by hand, or by SignWriter DOS or Java, or any other software, or published documents that you might wish to be publicly posted in SignPuddle Online, then we will be happy to do the copy work for free. It helps preserve literature written in SignWriting before the development of our current software ...so I am grateful whenever anyone gives us an old document to copy - it is remarkable to see all the hard work and care that people have devoted to these old documents, which were at the time, pioneering efforts that deserve to be preserved.

Now, the document you mention in your email below, Ingvild, on Ponce de Leon, written in SignWriting from Catalan, Spain, was actually on our List of documents that we had planned to copy into SignPuddle, as a part of the preservation project, but it has not been done yet. Once it is copied into SignPuddle, it is easy to transfer the article into the new SignWriting Wiki:

SignWriting Wiki for All Sign Language
http://www.signbank.org/wiki

Right now, we only have a flag for American Sign Language in the SignWriting Wiki. When you click on the above link and go to the Wiki, you will see an American flag and click on that to go to the articles written in ASL. We can add other countries any time, so what other countries would like a Wiki in their sign language? Spain? Catalan? and what about Norway? Germany? Tunisia? all countries are welcome - just tell us - smile....

To write articles for the new SignWriting Wiki, go to your country's SignPuddle Online and write your encyclopedia article there, and then tell us when the article is ready, and we can teach you how to transfer it into the Wiki...or we can do the transfer for you...

So Ingvild, do you have any Norwegian articles that you would like to have copied that would fit an Encyclopedia? Your work on physics and Norwegian Sign Language, if it had an article written in Norwegian Sign Language, would be perfect!

Val ;-)

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

On May 31, 2010, at 2:32 AM, Ingvild Roald wrote:

> Interesting and exiting :)
>  
> I have before me the booklet written by Steve & Dianne Parkhurst (2004) on Pedro Ponce de León, written in Castillian sign language. There are several booklets written by the same authors. Could these be placed in the Wikipedia as well? Then we would suddenly have some proof of the concept of written articles in signed languages. (Same goes for textbooks written in other SLs, like the Nicaraguan)
> 
> Ingvild 
> 
> 
>  
> > Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 11:39:17 -0700
> > From: sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG
> > Subject: Re: ANNOUNCING SPECIAL FEATURE...SignWriting Encyclopedia Projects
> > To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACC.EDU
> > 
> > SignWriting List
> > May 28, 2010
> > 
> > Hello Everyone!
> > The first two articles added to the ASL SignWriting Wiki are actually based on the ASL videos by Lucinda O'Grady Batch, of the history of Charles-Michel de l'Épée and the history of Laurent Clerc. Both videos were first transcribed into SignWriting by Charles Butler, and placed in SignPuddle Online, and then Adam Frost transferred them into the SignWriting Wiki for people to read. You can read them at these links:
> > 
> > ASL SignWriting Wiki
> > http://www.signbank.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ASL
> > 
> > History of Charles-Michel de l'Épée
> > http://www.signbank.org/wiki/index.php?title=Charles-Michel_de_l%27%C3%89p%C3%A9e
> > 
> > History of Laurent Clerc
> > http://www.signbank.org/wiki/index.php?title=Laurent_Clerc
> > 
> > I want to thank Lucinda O'Grady Batch and Charles Butler for your original work...as you can see...it is very valuable to our new SignWriting Wiki!
> > 
> > Charles, you will find your name and credits on the Wiki pages - Adam can explain where - I am new to the technology myself - smile -
> > 
> > Val ;-)
> > 
> > -----------
> > 
> > 
> > On May 28, 2010, at 11:13 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:
> > 
> > > SignWriting List
> > > May 28, 2010
> > > 
> > > ANNOUNCING SPECIAL FEATURE
> > > Posted May 27, 2010
> > > 
> > > Go to:
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Site
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 1. SignWriting Encyclopedia Projects
> > > Writing Encyclopedias in the Sign Languages of the World
> > > http://www.signwriting.org/encyclopedia
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 2. SignWriting Wiki
> > > Wiki-style Articles written in Any Sign Language
> > > http://www.signbank.org/wiki
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 3. Blogs on SignWriting
> > > Links to blogs around the world
> > > http://www.signwriting.org/blogs
> > > 
> > > 
> > > The new SignWriting Wiki is open to anyone who wishes to add a category for their sign language, and start writing articles in SignWriting using SignPuddle Online, and then transferring the articles from SignPuddle Online into the SignWriting Wiki for viewing and reading by the general public.
> > > 
> > > The SignWriting Wiki is the incubator, or the development site, for a future ASL Wikipedia (or Wikipedias in any sign language we hope someday). 
> > > 
> > > The SignWriting Wiki is the test area for our new software, the SignWriting MediaWiki Plugin, by Steve Slevinski. Anyone is welcome to add articles written in SignWriting. Write to the SW List if you need instruction as to how to add your own articles. We hope you will!
> > > 
> > > In the future, it will be possible to write the SignWriting articles directly in the SignWriting Wiki, without having to transfer them from SignPuddle Online...so there is ongoing software development behind the scenes to make this happen...
> > > 
> > > But for right now, this is a big "first step" and I want to thank Steve Slevinski, Adam Frost, and Gerard Meijssen from the Language Committee of the Wikimedia Foundation, for their hard work and encouragement...
> > > 
> > > I hope many of you will enjoy this new toy to play with...the SignWriting Wiki...and we are all here for tech support, so write to the SignWriting List with your technical questions..... it is good for us that you ask questions because this gives us feedback, which is invaluable -
> > > 
> > > Val ;-)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Valerie Sutton
> > > Sutton at SignWriting.org
> > > 
> > > SignWriting
> > > Read & Write Sign Languages
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org
> > > 
> > > SignPuddle
> > > Create SignWriting Documents Online
> > > http://www.SignBank.org/signpuddle
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Wiki
> > > Wiki-style Articles in Sign Languages
> > > http://www.signbank.org/wiki
> > > 
> > > SignWriting List
> > > Technical Support: Ask questions...
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org/forums/swlist
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Literature Project
> > > Writing Literature in Sign Languages
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org/literature
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Encyclopedia Projects
> > > Writing Encyclopedias in Sign Languages
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org/literature
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Sponsors Forum
> > > Help Educational Non-Profit Organization
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org/forums/sponsors
> > > 
> > > SignWriting Shop
> > > Books, DVDs, Lessons, Services
> > > http://www.SignWriting.org/shop
> > > 
> > > Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting
> > > Center For Sutton Movement Writing
> > > a US educational nonprofit organization
> > > PO Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038, USA
> > > Tel: 858-456-0098 Skype: valeriesutton
> > > 
> > 