Diffusion of SignWriting

Sat Aug 25 18:13:31 UTC 2012

SignWriting List
August 25, 2012

See my answer below….

> On Aug 25, 2012, at 8:08 AM, MARIA GALEA wrote:
> 
>> Dear Val,
>> 
>> I am writing something little about the diffusion of SignWriting and I
>> know you had mentioned to me that there are now works that are being
>> carried out in/about SignWriting that do not come to your attention till a
>> late stage or even once the work is completed.
>> 
>> Could you share with me (and the List - copied them in, according to your
>> request ;) some specific example/s of work/s that you learnt about late –
>> where people simply adopt and use SignWriting naturally without consulting
>> with you.
>> 
>> Maria
>> 
> 

-------

Hello Maria and everyone!
Thank you for posting your messages to the SignWriting List. That is my request and preference. Posting SignWriting or Movement Writing related messages to the SignWriting List is a gift to everyone…All messages on the SignWriting List are archived in one of four Archives on the web, for others to read and research later:

SignWriting List Archives
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/

Plus, it is better for me personally, since there are times when I am not able to get to my email fast enough, and in the meantime, other SignWriting experts can help each other on the List and so information moves forward faster…

So thank you for asking your questions to the List.

Now, to answer your question below…

Half the people I work with today, were people who had creatively created their own SignWriting projects on their own, without ever contacting me, and then one day I look on Google for "SignWriting" and I find a brand new project listed that uses SignWriting! I get fascinated and read about the new project, and then I happily dance around my office!!  huge grin ;-)))

I LOVE the magic of searching Google for SignWriting and finding new projects almost weekly!

And that is what I want. I never wanted to control SignWriting and know about every project in advance…That would be unrealistic and not good for the writing system…For a writing system to really be used by thousands of people, it has to be free to use, and has to be open to allow for other people to be themselves and be completely creative…otherwise it will never grow naturally…because there is no way for one person like myself to know what is best for other sign languages or other people - I just offer my invention free of charge freely on the internet…with hopes that it will evolve in a positive fashion - and it has! So many thanks to everyone for their creativity using the SignWriting script ;-)

Including you, Maria - I am excited to read your dissertation when it is ready.

Regarding documenting all these projects - that is one job I am trying to keep up with, and not succeeding with, because there are so many projects. I continually work on updating my web sites, but there are over 3000 web pages, overloaded with information already - but the new projects deserve to be documented on the web too…so I am slowly trying to find ways to improve our documentation of projects that we do find…

An example of this is the SignWriting Software Forum. There are so many software developments for SignWriting it is hard to keep up, but I do want to announce that I recently updated that web page:

SignWriting Software Forum
http://www.SignWriting.org/forums/software

When you arrive there, refresh your browser to see the changes. Scroll down - you will see so many links it is hard to know which one to choose! But THANK YOU to all the software developers…and Bill Reese, your photo of your SignPuddle display is now at the top of the SignWriting Software Forum web page…Thank you for your presentations of SignPuddle at your conference in Tampa every November…

So Maria, start with the SignWriting Software Forum above, and I will list some of the projects I recently found out about, in my next message…

Thanks for posting to the List -

Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
signwriting at mac.com
www.signwriting.org

ASL Wikipedia Project on Wikimedia Labs
http://ase.wikipedia.wmflabs.org

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