Page History
IDN Variant Project — Latin Case Study Team (2011-06-18)
Minutes of meetings
Attendees (note, some were only present for one or the two sessions)
Jothan Frakes (team leader), Harald Alvestrand, Andrzej Bartosiewicz, Eric Brown, Kim Davies, Dennis Jennings, Cary Karp, Francisco Obispo, Nicholas Ostler, Giovanni Seppia, Will Shorter, Andrew Sullivan.
Discussion Highlights
1. The team reviewed the draft definitions. The team did not consider there were any significant issues regarding the definitions that the team wanted to see changed in the document. It was proposed that the group consider using the terminology developed by Unicode where possible, as many of the issues the group will be reviewing have already been study by that organisation.
2. With respect to character variants versus string variants, there was considerable discussion. It was noted the difficult bringing some of the issues presented in the paper into "useful focus". The team discussed the term "variant", including a specific request not to use the term due to its varying definitions. Based on the discussions, Cary noted some work he had done regarding classifying different types of Latin 'variants' and that he could share it with the group. There was also a discussion about the need to create a Latin "Language Character Repertoire". It was observed the Unicode standard already provides such a classification.
3. Ultimately, the group agreed to review the questions document in order to identify which questions were appropriate to tackle for the Latin context.
4. It was noted the need to consider user experience and user expectations, and that should feed into some of the initial discussion. For example, the ability to enter addresses into keyboard may be a key issue in other teams that dictates their requirements for variants — Latin should consider similar issues, even though the answer might be they are fully satisfied already.
5. The team reviewed the deadline of September 30 and considered it achievable. The meeting agreed to have meetings every two week during the development period. Given the team's composition, it would likely be early to mid morning in the US, and late afternoon to early evening in Europe. The work of the group would focus on spending the first month (July) gathering information, the second month (August) assembling the information, and the third month (September) completing the report.
6. The group considered whether to have a face-to-face meeting. The group felt it was not likely such a meeting would be needed, but agreed that we'd leave the opportunity open for consideration until the end of July.
7. A draft work plan needs to be developed to share with the group. One comment was that the work plan should consider cross-fertilisation (particularly with Cyrillic and Greek) somewhere in the process.
Action Items
1.1 All team members to respond prompty to poll on when to conduct future meetings (due 2011-06-24)
1.2 All team members to fill out a Statement of Interests (due 2011-07-15)
1.3 Cary Karp to provide a starting classification for the types of "Variant" as thy relate to Latin from existing material (ie Homographic Variant Character/String, Homophone Variant String, Orthographic Variant, etc.) (due date 2011-07-07)
1.4 All team members to read the draft questions, and identify (a) something you can provide an answer so. (if, please answer); (b) something you think is good but should have an answer; (c) missing and should be added or considered; (d) should be removed or identified as out of scope, irrelevant, or not applicable in Latin. (due date 2011-07-07)
1.5 Kim Davies and Jothan Frakes to develop a draft workplan for review at the first telephone meeting (due 2011-07-07)
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the group will be held by telephone in approximately 2 weeks. A poll has been circulated to team members to identify what time works best for them to schedule recurring meetings every 2 weeks.
