Return-Path: Message-Id: Date: Sat, 20 Jul 91 01:12 EDT From: lojbab (Bob LeChevalier) To: lojban-list Subject: historical event Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Sat Jul 20 01:12:57 1991 X-From-Space-Address: lojbab I am pleased to announce an historic event. LLG has submitted a proposal to the US Dept. of Defense agency DARPA for research funding to implement a Lojban-based natural language processing system. The side benefits would include funsing for several people to work on the dictionary, which won't get it done sooner, but will make it much better. And if we get it, our incessant financial problems will cease. Our odds, probably not too likely but we can hope, and I think the proposal is well-done. I will note in case people need such encouragement, that people who get funding support to work on this project will be the people who have done the there are a large number of programmaers and systems people in the community who would like to work on such a project if they could get paid for it. We will be giving priority to those with knowledge that is relevant to the job, which includes knowing a good deal of Lojban. We also will be trying to reward people who have given a lot of effort or support in the past, although there are far too many who deserve such reward for us to even start to give them all their due. This is of course counting our unhatched chickens, but I have no doubt that we will eventually win some bid for Lojban-related research. Many people have said they were putting off working on Lojban because it People have told me that their time for Lojban had to be limited because they ahd to make a living, etc, etc, etc. We now have one bit of proof that we intend Lojban to have practical application, and not in the indefinite future. So you can stop procrastinating. We are of course hoping that if we get the bid, that large numbers of people will volunteer to do various side efforts that are not directly part of the effort, since this first project will be the one wherein we show that Lojban is worth something. A significant need will be people who are will to make ing to makee lots of words (with place strcutures) for concepts to be added to the dictionary data base. I have a file with several thousand already, but English has a lexicon in thehundreds of thousands, and Lojban, with one definition per word, will need millions. We also will need people who know other languages to make lists of words needed to translate concepts from those languages, especially where there is no exact English equivalent. All of this requires, of course, that you know the gismu vocabulary very well. Whether we get this bid or not, it has already sparked two or three side benefits. The proposal writing effort is recapturable for each new grant or contract proposal, since most of what we wrote applies to any Lojban research effort. Also, we have made a couple of contacts with people who have some specific applications where Lojban may be useful, and having done this bid makes them realize that we are serious and ready to support them, thus giving us additional opportunities for new proposals. Finally, it seems that we have roused some interest at a major university linguisitics department (no names until I can say that this interest is real), which we may be able to turn into some type of association that enhances our credibility in the academic community (and also helps us win later proposals, since it shows we aren't amateurs working in isolation). Now all we have to do is win the proposal. (What we submitted was actually the pre-proposal and if they are interested, we submit such things as a detailed research program and cost information. The efforts is compettitive at both steps, and also at a third step, which is getting funds from Congress in a declining defense budget era. But lets face those other problems when we come to them.) Here's to a suddenly brighter future for Lojban. ---- lojbab = Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 lojbab@snark.thyrsus.com