Date:         Tue, 11 Sep 2001 21:34:57 GMT
Reply-To:     Scripted@sesame.demon.co.uk
Sender:       E-MELD Language Codes Group
              <E-MELD-CODES@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
From:         John Clews <Scripted@SESAME.DEMON.CO.UK>

For information: comments and queries are welcome. I'd be glad for
opinions on the scope of the E-MELD codes section of the NSF project,
and how it might relate to work in ISO, and also how it might differ
from work in ISO.

Currently I know nothing of E-MELD, edxcept that exists, and that I
am on the email list, thanks to Anthony Aristar.

In case you are in a similar position regarding work in ISO, the
following update may be of interest.

Best regards

John Clews

Keytempo Limited (Information Management),
8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG
Email: Scripts@sesame.demon.co.uk
tel: +44 1423 888 432;

Committee Chair of  ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages;
Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization;
Committee Member of ISO/TC37: Terminology

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Meeting report: ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 (Coding systems), Toronto, 2001-08-14


1. Meeting arrangements

ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 (Coding systems), met on 2001-08-14, with
participants from Norway, Canada, Austria, USA, France, Spain, Japan,
and UK.


2. Progress on existing standards

ISO 639-1:2001 is agreed and awaits publication. It is intended that
this replaces ISO 639. The issue of freezing the 2-letter repertoire
remains open. It is planned that the tables are available via the
Internet.


3. Open discussion on extending language code standards

The meeting mainly comprised an Open discussion about language coding
and the need and feasibility to standardize and extend existing
language coding.

Jennifer De Camp (US) described user needs and requirements,
espcially in the IT area.

Peter Constable (USA) covered problems of mapping similar entities in
different language coding schemes, and noted SIL's contact with IT
users and developers.

Jake Knoppers (Canada) described the use of language codes in
relation to other data elements, and problems of combinations,
especially in EDI and E-commerce applications.

Haavard Hjulstad (Norway) also touched on this, but also provided a
paper on taxonomy codes for language groups.


4. Action agreed

ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 agreed to recommend that ISO/TC37/SC2 should
progress a New Work Item, and set up a Task Force of
ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1, which would begin by identifying the User
requirements, and also examine possible methodology(ies).

Task Force members will be Gerhard Budin (Austria, Chair), Haavard
Hjulstad (Norway), Jennifer De Camp (USA), and John Clews (United
Kingdom). It is planned that October 15 2001 will be an initial
reporting date to ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1.

Further progress is likely at various points between then and
August 2002, when the next ISO/TC37 meetings will take place
(2002-08-19 through 2002-08-23).

It was also hoped to report something of this nature to the Unicode
conference.

------------------------------------------------------------

--
John Clews,
Keytempo Limited (Information Management),
8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG
Email: Scripts@sesame.demon.co.uk
tel: +44 1423 888 432;

Committee Chair of  ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages;
Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization;
Committee Member of ISO/TC37: Terminology