From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Wed May 07 2003 - 15:14:02 EDT
Greetings,
We have scheduled the second Initiative for Cuneiform Encoding Conference
(ICE2) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, for
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning, June 5-7, 2003.
The main goal for this conference is to make final decisions on certain
methodological issues pertaining to our proposal to encode the Sumero-
Akkadian cuneiform script system in Unicode. We will also select a new
working group to actually generate the proposal.
The decisions we make at ICE2 will guide our work on the encoding
proposal we intend to formally present at the Unicode Technical Committee
Meeting, hosted by the Digital Hammurabi Project at Johns Hopkins in
November, 2003 <http://www.unicode.org/timesens/calendar.html>.
We will track the progress of our proposal on the ICE website <http://
www.jhu.edu/ice/>, and discussions on specific issues will take place
publicly on the ICE email list <cuneiform@unicode.org>. (Email me and I
can subscribe you to the list.)
All interested and qualified parties are encouraged to participate in
both the ICE2 conference and the email discussions on the ICE list.
--------------------------------
Some of the outstanding methodological issues needing resolution include:
* What exact period will we begin with in our encoding? (We have
previously ruled out archaic cuneiform.)
* How will we treat compound signs, i.e. character sequences made up of
two or more signs written one after the other but treated as one grapheme?
* How will we treat complex signs, i.e. signs made up of two or more
signs written one inside the other and treated as one grapheme?
* How do we encode gunu signs, i.e., signs with added "flourishes"?
* How do we treat diri spellings. i.e., multiple signs treated as one?
* What sequence will we impose on the signs?
* What period will we use for the representative sign glyphs Unicode requires?
* How will we choose sign names?
* What text elements will we encode? - e.g., column, case, and line dividers?
* How will we address numeric and metrological signs?
* How do we deal with mergers and splits - for example, in order to
support round tripping between character and transliteration?
* What about ruby (plain text annotation) - a mechanism in Unicode
whereby we could associate the interpretation of a sign with the sign itself?
-----------------------------------------------
Here is the current list of known attendees, in alphabetical order:
Dr. Miguel Civil, Emeritus Professor of Sumerology, Oriental Institute,
University of Chicago, Editor, Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon
Dr. Jerrold Cooper
Professor of Assyriology, Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University,
Digital Hammurabi Project
Karljuergen Feuerherm
Ph. D. Candidate in Akkadian, University of Toronto, Computer Scientist,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Dr. Madeleine Fitzgerald
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Cultures, UCLA, NSF Digital Libraries Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow for
the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
Edwin Hart
IT staff, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Cale Johnson
Graduate student, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures,
UCLA, staff member of Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
Rick McGowan
Vice President & Senior Software Engineer, Unicode Inc.
David Reynolds
Metadata Specialist, Cataloging, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins
University, Digital Hammurabi Project
Dean Snyder
Scholarly Technology Specialist, Center For Scholarly Resources, Sheridan
Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, Manager of the Digital Hammurabi Project
Dr. Steve Tinney, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Languages and
Cultures, University of Pennsylvania, Director Pennsylvania Sumerian
Dictionary Project
Lee Watkins, Jr.
Director of the Center for Scholarly Resources, Sheridan Libraries, Johns
Hopkins University, Director of the Digital Hammurabi Project
Dr. Bruce Wells
Post-Doc, Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Digital
Hammurabi Project
Dr. Kenneth Whistler
Technical Director & Maintainer of the Unicode Character Database,
Unicode Inc. Software Engineer, Sybase Inc., Linguist, Native American
languages
Respectfully,
Dean A. Snyder
Scholarly Technology Specialist
Center For Scholarly Resources, Sheridan Libraries
Garrett Room, MSE Library, 3400 N. Charles St.
The Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218
office: 410 516-6850 mobile: 410 245-7168 fax: 410-516-6229
Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project: www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi
Manager, Initiative for Cuneiform Encoding: www.jhu.edu/ice
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