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From: scott@sage.uchicago.edu (Scott Deerwester)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,sci.lang,sci.lang.japan,soc.culture.china,comp.windows.news,comp.windows.x
Subject: Multilingual computing mailing list
Summary: It's a {mailing list} about {multilingual computing}.
Keywords: polyglot mailing list
Message-ID: <1990Aug7.151114.20508@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 7 Aug 90 15:11:14 GMT
References: <1990Aug2.190426.9579@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: scott@sage.uchicago.edu (Scott Deerwester)
Organization: CILS / UofC
Lines: 42

It looks like I've backed myself into a committment to moderate a
mailing list on multilingual computing.  I've gotten 40 or so
subscription requests since posting an article last week.  The
response was almost unanimous (one person didn't think that it was
necessary).  A few people (three, I think) said that they would prefer
a news group, were there sufficient demand for it -- sci.lang.comp was
suggested.  Although that sounds like a wonderful idea (I'd prefer
comp.polyglot, personally), one of the major reasons for making this a
mailing list is that the multilingual computing community is
sufficiently far flung that there are important segments of it that
don't have access to news.  There is also ample precedent for feeding
a mailing list into a news group or vice versa if both exist.

I also received mail from a few people who thought that a "multi-
lingual mailing list", i.e. a mailing list in which people can
contribute in other languages than English, is a great idea.  I think
so too, but this mailing list is devoted to discussing the use of
computers to deal with other, and especially multiple languages.
Sorry for the ambiguity.  Maybe we should all just switch to Loglan
and be done with it.

So, the mailing list will be called Polyglot.  It will be a moderated
digest (as opposed to a simple reflector).  The addresses are:

For contributions	polyglot@tira.uchicago.edu
Everything else		polyglot-request@tira.uchicago.edu

The first few issues will focus on descriptions of existing work.
There are some very interesting groups out there, doing some very
interesting work, and I've asked some of them to write a few
paragraphs on what they do.  I'll also probably write up what we're
doing at the University of Chicago.  The normal range of topics will
be covered -- announcements, questions about software, discussion
about anything related to multilingual computing, etc.

Now I'm going to have to learn MH and deliver so I can deal with all
of this traffic...
-------
Scott Deerwester		| Internet: scott@tira.uchicago.edu
Center for Information and	| Phone:    312-702-6948
   Language Studies		| 1100 E. 57th, CILS
University of Chicago		| Chicago, IL 60637