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Volunteer needed to write English AND Lojban poster text

One of the members of Auxlang has proposed a little test, one somewhat skewed against a language like Lojban, but still worthwhile should we choose to participate.
By next Thursday, the 23rd, he needs to receive a text per the description below. The poster is going to prepare posters regarding each of the languages submitted and post them in the Cambridge MA area. The idea is a multi-facetted test: 1) to determine how many people in that area are familiar with the various languages, and/r who support them, 2) for those languages that claim at-sight readability, whether indeed those languages are readable (Lojban is not a contender in this arena), and 3) bring these people together for a discussion on neutral territory of the pros and cons of the various languages.
I would like to see Lojban represented. If I were doing it, I would use the bulletized summary of Lojban found on our home page, and try to find some suitable text - in my opinion there would be something poetic as well as something prosaic. But all this is probably not possible in the short space being allotted.
As people know, I am not particularly skilled at brevity, so I would like someone else who thinks they can do better to provide Charles with a poster text. If more than one volunteers I suggest that the posters post their text to the list so that others besides myself pick the one to be submitted.
One suggestion, not explicitly prohibited, would be to include our web site address in the blurb. 

Time is short, but the amount to be written is short as well.

lojbab


Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 14:53:15 -0500
From: Charles George Haberl <haberl@FAS.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal

> This is very much what I had in mind. However, I still have reservations
> about individual posters for each language. Would it make sense to scrap
> that aspect, and advertise an IAL workshop?

I would not be opposed to this idea. Chris and Zeno are very much
correct when they state that the person-on-the-street might be attracted
to a flashy poster, without noting the relative merits of the IAL
represented.
However, I am still interested in "beating the bushes" for folks
who are currently involved with one or the other IAL. Perhaps we would be
best advised to adopt Zeno's proposal of a standardized poster. At the
moment I'm not quite sure what such a poster would entail (any
suggestions?) However, we are working against a deadline, so I will
suggest the following:
The poster should include the name of the IAL, a short blurb on
the language (in English and/or the language of choice), and a sample of
the language itself (especially if the author has chosen to compose the
information previous information in English). By "short blurb" I intend
100 words or less a piece. All told, the total amount of text should not
exceed 200 words. I will format the text to be in the same typefont and
to occupy roughly the same space on each page.
We will shoot to have the Cambridge IAL workshop on the 7th of
April. I will advertise this workshop, in English, without mentioning any
of the languages involved. As for the people who respond to the posters
in the various IALs, I will attempt to ascertain whether they have any
real experience with IALs (beyond simple name recognition), and depending
on the volume of responses, I will decide whether we should consider a
second, separate, workshop for folks already involved with IALs. However,
I think it unlikely that this will be much of a consideration.

Tell me what you think,
Charles H.
vima_kadphises@yahoo.com


----
lojbab lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org (newly updated!)