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[Wikineurotic] Wiki page BPFK 2003 Report created by mukti



The page BPFK 2003 Report was created by mukti at 23:47 CDT
Comment: As provided by lojbab on mriste

You can view the page by following this link:
 
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/BPFK%202003%20Report



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The new page content follows below.
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''This report was emailed by ((Nick Nicholas|Nick Nicholas)) as chair ("jatna") of the ((BPFK|BPFK)) to the "llg-members" mailing list ahead of the ((LLG 2003 Annual Meeting Minutes|2003 annual members meeting of the LLG)).''



Well. What to say about the BPFK. 

 

The proposal for a baupla fuzykamni, a body to bring to completion the  Lojban prescription and to fill in such gaps of definition of the  language as are necessary for a dictionary to be written, arose out of  discussions on the LLG board on how best to author such a dictionary,  and on how to deal with ongoing disputes and uncertainties as to the  language definition. The official announcement bringing it into being  was November: http://www.lojban.org/llg/baseline.html . 

 

I started work on the BPFK in February (after being distracted between  November and January by a major discussion on jboske about Lojban  gadri, which highlighted what the participants at least now believe to  be a major weakness in the language.) In February, while I was in the  States, I finalised with Robin Powell arrangements for the  infrastructure of the BPFK, namely the Twiki  (http://www.lojban.org/twiki/bin/view/BPFK/WebHome) and the phpbb  discussion board (http://www.lojban.org/phpbb). I envisioned the phpbb  as being the repository of formal discussion, and the Twiki as being  the repository of record, and the venue for votes, with more openended  discussion being diverted to jboske or the main wiki. 

 

The other task that took me a while to complete (March) was a formal  statement of guidelines as to how the BPFK should operate:  http://www.lojban.org/twiki/bin/view/BPFK/GuidelinesForUsing . My  concern throughout has been to place institutional safeguards in place  to ensure the success of the BPFK mission as I see it: to allow  efficient yet comprehensive review of existing identified problems in  Lojban, with fair representation of all views, no compulsion of  inordinate attention on the part of commissioners (a frequent problem  with freer discussion, as amply demonstrated on jboske), and respect  for the proclaimed backwards-compatibility and fulfilment of design  criteria the BPFK has undertaken. 



The BPFK started working through phpbb mid-April. As part of the  division of labour, I have divided Lojban cmavo up into around 70  paradigms. Six paradigms have had commissioners volunteer as shepherds  --- people who will coordinate discussion, keep records of findings,  undertake authoring the summary of existing views and prescription, and  make new proposals they see fit. In my opinion substantive matters for  consideration have been raised for all six paradigms; two have  essentially already seen descriptive records (including of past  prescription and the status quo of usage). No formal votes have been  posted on the twiki yet; see LeChevalier criticism below. 

 

It was decided by the board that an ancillary to the BPFK, the vlatapla  fuzykamni  (VTPFK) be convened to resolve issues of Lojban morphology;  this step was taken because morphology was not explicitly mentioned in  the board statement. Nora Tansky LeChevalier is to chair the commission  once she is released from her administrative duties. Pierre Abbat and  Lionel Vidal have been continuing research into morphological issues. 

 

There have been a number of criticisms of the setup and the functioning  of the BPFK; some I accept, some I don't, though this is not the venue  for me to make detailed comment on them. The issues worth bringing to  the membership's attention are: 

 

1. The guidelines are needlessly complex, and the split between twiki  and phpbb is unnecessary but for the technical requirements of voting.  (Powell). There are some grounds to this, and the role of the twiki  seems to be limited to the (future) formal votes. Commissioners have  appealed to the guidelines to police discussion; since the guidelines  were intended to steer the BPFK in a specific direction following the  board's statement, I regard that as positive. 



2. Polls of a reformist bent on phpbb, even if of an informal nature,  are counterproductive (Kominek vs. Rosta). My ruling (for now, anyway)  is that polls on phpbb, being informal and with no binding consequence,  are harmless. My big picture view, which may well be at variance from  others and need to be curbed, is that my conservatism has nothing to  fear from a vote, particularly given the current strenuous requirement  of consensus-1. 



That said, consensus-1 is a lot easier said than done: 

 

3. The consensus-1 requirement makes it impossible for any change to  happen, of whatever nature, and does not only exclude frivolous change  (Daniel). 



Conversely, 

 

4. The BPFK has no business discussing any change until it first  completes the task of documenting the entirety of the language; indeed,  change as opposed to interpretation of the baseline is not the BPFK's  task. Time must be spent to allow consensus to develop and trust to be  established. As a result, votes should not be administered by  shepherds, but only by the BPFKJ (baupla fuzykamni jatna -- me), and a  time of my choosing --- much later than now. The shepherds should be  preparing full diffs to CLL and other baseline documents, and a fully  explicit formal proposal. Until the BPFK shows it does real work, it is  becoming unproductive, and biassed towards railroading through changes.  The current BPFK does not show indications that it is willing to reach  consensus, and the BPFK needs to be more proactive in this regard. (R.  LeChevalier). 

 

These objections have arisen in the past week, and LeChevalier has not  yet presented his criticisms on a public forum (although there was a  sneak preview on jboske); they may significantly affect how the BPFK  runs. (Then again, they may not.) So I'm afraid this report comes too  early for a resolution to be reported. 

 

The arguments between reformists and conservatives, both on and off the  BPFK forum, have at times been as acrimonious as one would expect, and  it is clear to me that much of my time will be spent, so to speak,  channelling commissioners' energies into more productive outlets; I've  been doing so already. I believe that I still have the confidence of  commissioners that I will run the BPFK fairly and in the best interests  of Lojban, as understood by the current disposition (see guidelines,  board statement, etc.; best summarised, probably, as conservative  formalist). 



And I wish to emphasise that, although this disposition is biassed  against reformists, the shepherds I think it is fair to characterise as  reformist (Llambias and Daniel) have done a commendable job of  documenting existing usage and highlighting issues for consideration in  their paradigms. The shepherds have scrupulously been playing by the  rules, and they have my full confidence; so does the composition of the  commission and the guidelines, which I believe adequate to the task of  keeping the BPFK on the track the board and membership have set for it. 

 

Yes I'm being stuffy and high-falutin'. That's a reaction to the  difficulties of the position. This is a hard job to carry through, and  my metaphor of herding cats was not spoken idly. The next couple of  weeks in particular will be rough, because I will be asking  commissioners to consider whether the BPFK is going the right way, and  how its operation might need to change. 

 

.i ku'i le gugdrpolska punaijecanai ca'o te jinga 




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