LLG 2002 Second Board Meeting Minutes: Difference between revisions

From Lojban
Jump to navigation Jump to search
mNo edit summary
 
m (Gleki moved page lLG 2002 Second Board Meeting Minutes to LLG 2002 Second Board Meeting Minutes over a redirect without leaving a redirect: Text replacement - "^lLG " to "LLG ")
 
(6 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:


.i latmo jicmu fu'ivla fa zo '''mabrnmakropode''' (tozoigy. Macropus, ''abl.'' Macropode gy.toi)
==  2002 MINUTES OF THE SECOND MEETING OF THE BOARD ==
 
Provisional until accepted at the 2003 meeting
 
== MINUTES OF THE SECOND 2002 MEETING OF THE BOARD ==
 
=== THE LOGICAL LANGUAGE GROUP, INC. ===
 
Time of meeting: November 25, 2003 at 10:36 PM EDT.
 
The following are the official minutes of the November 25 Board meeting, which is the only meeting that was concluded before June 15 when the member's meeting started.  All proxies in the meeting were specified on all votes.  The final motion established a transition to an online meeting, which met from shortly after adjournment until June 15. The meeting had been originally called on September 4 to be held on September 24, but it was decided by mutual consent to hammer out the issues in discussion and conduct the formal meeting briefly.  Thus, it was more like 11 weeks of discussion leading to the actual votes, though the discussion actually ended around 2 weeks before the formal meeting. Numbers are non-contiguous because the original meeting notice included several topics and issues that did not generate motions.
 
The meeting of the Board of LLG was called to order 10:36 pm EDT 11/25/2002.
 
No minutes were read.
 
Point of procedure: waive reading of motions since they are known (per message on Board list).
 
Roll call - all represented in person or by proxy:
 
Charles Hope (xod)      -      proxy to Nora LeChevalier
 
John Cowan              -      proxy to Robert LeChevalier
 
Shawn Lasseter          -      proxy to Nora LeChevalier
 
Nick Nicholas          -      proxy to Nora LeChevalier
 
Nora LeChevalier        -      present
 
Robert LeChevalier      -      present
 
John Clifford (pc)      -      (resigned)
 
Only those motions proposed in advance are being addressed.
 
1A      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
1B      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
1C      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
1D      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
1E      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
1F      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, 4-2
 
2      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
4A      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
4B      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, 3-2
 
5      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
8      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, 5-0
 
12      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
14      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
X      - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, 4-0
 
final  - moved , seconded ,    -      passed, unanimous
 
Proxies having expired, the meeting suspended at 10:45 PM EDT 11/25/2002 for
 
lack of quorum, to be resumed in accordance with the final motion when all
 
members declare that they are present on the Board mailing list. Here are the
 
preannounced motions, which are long because they include the full text of the
 
baseline statement:
 
 
Subject: [[llg-board|llg-board]] Board motions for Agenda Item 1
 
(The statement below incorporates all of Nick's comments, as I responded to
 
them.  I never got comments from anyone else.)
 
1A. I move that the LLG Board approve the publishing of the following
 
statement as official policy of LLG on the Lojban List, the Lojban
 
Beginners List, and the Lojban Announcement List, on the lojban.org
 
website, subject to approval of an informal referendum  [clarification:
 
informal in that voting is not restricted to voting members of LLG].
 
1B. I move that in publishing that statement of policy, that there be a
 
referendum of support for the policy as described in the announcement,
 
conducted by poll and email as described in the statement, with a polling
 
period of 10 days.
 
1C. I move that Nick Nicholas be appointed Chair of The Lojban Language
 
Design Commission, responsible to implement the policy expressed in the
 
following statement, and especially to complete the lexicon definition work
 
needed to publish a Lojban baseline dictionary, and to report to the Board
 
on a monthly basis on the commission's progress.  Nick's appointment is not
 
conditional on the referendum results, and may start organizational work
 
immediately, and is encouraged to issue public statements on his proposed
 
procedures.
 
1D. I move that the Language Design Commission be permitted to issue errata
 
to existing baseline documents under conditions of consensus as described
 
in the policy.
 
1E.  I move that the Language Design Commission be open to volunteer
 
membership by anyone who believes that they have some skill in the
 
language, who is willing to be an active participant, and who agrees with
 
the goals of the commission specified in the policy statement.  If the
 
Commission Chair feels that a volunteer member is failing to fulfill the
 
responsibilities of a Commission member as defined by the Chair, or if the
 
volunteer is regularly impeding the achievement of consensus in a manner
 
that the Chair feels is obstructing fulfillment of the goals of the
 
Commission, the Chair may ask the volunteer to resign or may ask the Board
 
to remove the volunteer from the Commission.
 
1F.  I move that the President contact The Loglan Institute, Inc.
 
informally, to indicate that a representative of that organization is
 
welcome to participate in the Commission activities under the same
 
conditions as other volunteers. [clarification: this has been removed from
 
the policy statement and will be handled privately]
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
NEW STATEMENT OF OFFICIAL LLG POLICY
 
Because of questions that arose on Lojban List and in other discussions
 
regarding the nature and status of the Lojban baseline, the LLG Board of
 
Directors has examined the topic in light of what has been said in the
 
past.  We discovered to our chagrin that prior statements, and indeed the
 
official baseline announcement, were to some extent contradictory.  Rather
 
than trying to sort out what we meant in prior statements, it has been
 
decided to issue a new statement of LLG policy on the baseline and freeze
 
to supplant all prior statements, and to specifically answer questions that
 
have been raised.
 
Furthermore, because progress on the dictionary and other critical
 
endeavors has been stalled for too long, the Board of Directors proposes to
 
implement a new plan to complete documentation of the baseline language
 
design as defined by the above policy.
 
This policy and plan are hereby submitted to the community (not merely the
 
voting membership of LLG), seeking its mandate of support.  Those members
 
of the community who are subscribers to the yahoogroups edition of Lojban
 
List will have the option to vote using the Yahoo poll system; those
 
members of the community who are subscribers to the lojban.org mirror of
 
Lojban List, and those on the Lojban Beginners List who are not also on
 
Lojban List, are asked to vote by email submission to [email protected]
 
This statement specifically supplants the official statement on the
 
baseline which may be found at
 
http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9703/msg00012.html
 
and approved motions regarding the baseline in the 1996 and 1997 annual
 
meetings, and well as impromptu comments by Bob LeChevalier over the years.
 
ANNOUNCEMENT
 
by Robert LeChevalier
 
President of The Logical Language Group, Inc.
 
on behalf of the Board of Directors
 
It has now been 5 years since the publication of The Complete Lojban
 
Language, by John Cowan and the accompanying baseline of the Lojban grammar.
 
When that baseline was declared, it was expected that a collection of word
 
lists would be published shortly thereafter in lieu of a dictionary, that
 
upon that publication, the documented lexicon would be baselined, and the
 
combination of lexicon and reference grammar would be frozen for a minimum
 
of 5 years while language usage grew.  That collection of word lists has
 
not yet been published; our statement, that the language design was
 
"complete", was therefore premature.
 
The Board of Directors intends to remedy this situation and reach a
 
definite ending point for the "design" phase of the language as soon as
 
possible, with the goal of having the LLG membership declare the language
 
baseline to be complete at the annual meeting of the LLG in the summer of
 
2003.
 
Upon that completion, the language design (baseline) will be frozen,
 
excepting only for the addition of new lujvo, fu'ivla, and cmene, the
 
experimental use of cmavo within the experimental space, and rafsi fu'ivla
 
and compounds in accordance with the description in the reference grammar.
 
The actual baseline and freeze initially will be on the English language
 
text.  Translations of baseline materials to other languages as well as
 
enhanced English definitions may be added to the baseline at a later date
 
having been reviewed for consistency; translations need not be literal
 
translations of the English.  Translation of the baseline documents is
 
encouraged, whether or not the translation is intended to be reviewed for
 
formal incorporation into the baseline.  See the policy below on LLG
 
support for baseline compliance.
 
During the baseline freeze, LLG will not consider any change proposals to
 
the language, and will encourage anyone seeking to have a proposal
 
considered after the freeze ends, to formally write their proposal up in
 
Lojban.  Any such proposals will be collected in a controlled "wiki" format
 
and accessible on the lojban.org website, but will not be formally
 
considered.  If errors in the baseline documents are detected during the
 
baseline period, they shall be similarly documented in Lojban, and may be
 
formally considered by the appropriate language standard group of the time
 
(which by default will be the rump form of the commission established below).
 
The language design freeze will last for a minimum 5 years after its
 
initial declaration, and may be extended on a year by year basis until such
 
time as discussion of language problems, and potential changes to fix those
 
problems, is substantially discussed in Lojban by skilled users of the
 
language.  When that situation is deemed to occur, the question of
 
maintaining the baseline, or terminating the freeze in the language
 
prescription will be turned over to the Lojban-using community.
 
COMPLETION OF THE DESIGN PHASE
 
The specific requirement to complete the design phase will be the
 
preparation for publication of a baseline version of the following:  gismu
 
list with rafsi, cmavo list, a limited number of lujvo (100-500) with place
 
structures to serve as examples, and if time permits, a sampling of
 
reviewed and defined fu'ivla borrowings and cmene names, also to serve as
 
examples.
 
With a rising tide of usage, accompanied by substantive debates about the
 
logic and semantics of the language, we have learned a lot in the last 5
 
years.  The baseline being assumed, most of these debates have been
 
resolved as semantic enrichment of the documented grammar and word
 
lists.  But some inconsistencies were noted; some errors were recognized in
 
the published texts; and some questions arose that were not answered in the
 
word lists, where those answers are fundamental to the meanings of
 
words.  The new policy endeavors to provide official resolution to these
 
questions, and to correct noted errors.
 
Because 5 years have passed, and there has been some usage of the language,
 
it is appropriate to consider usage and the issues that have arisen, in a
 
strictly controlled and very conservative review of the design, as part of
 
the big push to get the last of the documented pieces in place.  If this
 
review results in consensus agreement that certain changes are appropriate,
 
to be consistent both with actual usage and the engineering goals of the
 
language, they will be incorporated as part of the discontinuity between
 
the existing provisional baselines and the actual design baseline covering
 
the full language.
 
THE LANGUAGE DESIGN COMMISSION
 
The Board of Directors intends to commission a review of submitted issues
 
to be considered as part of the process of preparing the final
 
baseline.  This commission will complete the following tasks:
 
A. The primary task of the language design commission (banpla fuzykamni)
 
will be to complete brief definitions of the cmavo.  The target date for
 
this effort shall be 15 May 2003, in order for consideration by the members
 
at the annual meeting of 2003; if that target date cannot be met, then the
 
member ratification of the final baseline declaration will be delayed until
 
the following year.  It is intended that this effort shall take priority
 
over work on other tasks charged to the byfy.
 
B. The secondary task of the byfy will be to define, with place structures,
 
between 100 and 500 lujvo including those most frequently used in actual
 
text.  Some portion of these lujvo should be words fitting the patterns of
 
the jvojva as described in The Complete Lojban Language, and some should be
 
explicitly chosen as examples of naturalistic or metaphoric lujvo that
 
cannot be predicted based on jvojva.  The format for place structure
 
definitions will use conventions in the manner of the jvojva examples in
 
The Complete Lojban Language.
 
C. The tertiary task of the byfy will be to define with place structures a
 
small number of example fu'ivla from multiple fields, and to prepare a
 
small list of validated Lojbanized cmene from a variety of source languages.
 
D. The final task of the byfy will be to consider other proposals for
 
justified changes to the various baseline documents based on the following
 
principles:
 
1. Because all portions of the language (except for the lujvo, fu'ivla and
 
cmene lists) have been under a preliminary baseline, the status quo is
 
presumed by default.
 
2. In the event of inconsistencies, the published printed text of The
 
Complete Lojban Language, will take precedence by default.
 
3. The published gismu and cmavo lists will be presumed as valid, by
 
default.  The byfy can choose at its discretion whether to abide by the
 
intent of earlier language designers or by the strict wording used, and can
 
add clarification or modify the wording based on its decisions.
 
4. The byfy will have the power to correct typographical errors, to resolve
 
contradictions and inconsistencies (including any that are internal to the
 
reference grammar), and to expand upon the text of word definitions in
 
order to clarify meaning.
 
5. If usage has established a pattern clearly inconsistent with the
 
existing documents, but consistent with the design goals for the language,
 
the byfy review will have the power to approve changes to the baseline to
 
reflect that usage.  A critical goal is to preserve the fundamental design
 
goal that Lojban words have a unitary and self-consistent meaning.  Thus,
 
if multiple meanings for a word have emerged in actual Lojban text, the
 
byfy shall select one meaning, justifying any change from the
 
default.  Usage based on alternate meanings shall not be acknowledged in
 
the baseline documentation, and are formally discouraged by LLG.  Usage
 
patterns cannot be established on the basis of only one or two individuals,
 
however prolific; they must represent the practice of a plurality of
 
competent Lojbanists.
 
6. If formal logical analysis is inconsistent with either usage or the
 
documented status quo, the byfy may consider adding a brief note to this
 
effect.
 
7. Changes will be documented, including the text of the change, the nature
 
of the change as typo or other correction, expansion of definition,
 
conflict resolution, elimination of inconsistency, or reflection of usage,
 
and the rationale justifying the change (including examples of usage).  A
 
collection of multiple related changes (such as typographical corrections),
 
provided that all are accepted by consensus, may be combined in one change
 
record.
 
8. Reflecting the desire of the community for language stability, the byfy
 
will prefer a position as close as possible to the status quo in case of
 
uncertainty.
 
9. Changes must be approved by consensus, with specific procedures to
 
determine consensus decided by the byfy subject to Board of Directors
 
review.  In general, a single objector shall not be presumed to deny
 
consensus.  If the byfy cannot reach a consensus, and the status quo is
 
unacceptable, the Board will make a decision among alternatives presented
 
by the byfy after consulting with the community, or may choose to delegate
 
the decision to another body.
 
10. Any decision of the byfy which would affect the text of the reference
 
grammar (including the formal grammar and EBNF in the appendices), shall be
 
documented as an erratum to that document.  When the final baseline is
 
declared, a complete set of approved errata will be published by LLG, and
 
insofar as it is possible, LLG will consider producing a set of PDF-form
 
pages which could be inserted in a copy of the existing book.
 
If the byfy does not complete its work by the 2003 LLG members meeting,
 
then the Chair will, as part of that meeting, report on the progress of the
 
effort and present a revised schedule for completion which will be subject
 
to ratification by the members.
 
The Board of Directors appoints Nick Nicholas as Chair of the commission,
 
to report regularly on the progress of the commission to the Board and LLG
 
membership, and to have other executive powers as agreed to by the
 
commission members by consensus.
 
The Commission will be established by special mailing list at
 
lojban.org.  The Board invites all Lojbanists who believe that they have
 
demonstrated some skill in using the language to voluntarily participate in
 
the commission activities.  Participation will require being responsive to
 
requests by the Chair, and being willing to actively seek consensus; level
 
of participation will be determined by the individuals.  If this open
 
membership becomes unwieldy, or factions develop that are preventing
 
progress, the Chair will seek a modification of this open membership policy
 
from the Board, but our stated preference is to be as inclusive as possible
 
of all Lojbanists who are willing to help in the critical effort of cmavo
 
list documentation.
 
Nick Nicholas has some specific intentions to automate the efforts of the
 
byfy as much as possible, which he will communicate to the community and/or
 
the byfy members at his discretion.  The LLG Board calls on members of the
 
community with appropriate software and web experience to support his plans
 
with the highest priority, so as to get the effort off to a rapid
 
start.  He has agreed that if the automation he desires is not in place by
 
a date specific (within 3 months) that he will communicate, that the
 
documentation effort will proceed manually, or with whatever limited tools
 
are available at that point.
 
The Board of Directors calls upon the webmaster of lojban.org to provide
 
software, mailing list, and web support for the byfy and its activities, as
 
requested by the Chair, and to coordinate volunteers who are providing
 
software and web design.  The byfy shall be an official committee of LLG,
 
as documented on the appropriate web page.
 
BASELINE COMPLIANCE
 
Because the Lojban community that has emerged comes from a variety of
 
language backgrounds, and because different members of the community have
 
their own goals and priorities for use of the language,  LLG must establish
 
a baseline compliance policy that respects the rights of individuals using
 
the language, one which is not too heavily tied to the necessary reliance
 
on English in the original language documentation.
 
LLG formally reiterates that the Lojban language design is in the public
 
domain, and any person has the right to use the language in any way he
 
wishes, towards any goals.  On the other hand, LLG must strongly encourage
 
people to adhere to the baseline as defined, in the interest of unity of
 
the language community.
 
Following the formal declaration of the baseline, the LLG Board will assign
 
a committee, probably a rump form of the byfy, with the task of supporting
 
baseline compliance.  Any person or group who creates a text in Lojban, or
 
who writes or translates language description materials or language
 
teaching materials in any language, may submit that effort to the committee
 
for review; the committee may also choose to review an effort on its own
 
without formal submission.
 
In the long term, this committee should become an independent entity not
 
under the jurisdiction of the LLG Board or membership, although the Board
 
or members might retain the right of consent to proposed members of this
 
committee.  The implementation of this independence should await the
 
capability of fluent language communication on all matters regarding the
 
language, since discussion in Lojban should be a fundamental principle for
 
the operation of such an independent standard entity.
 
The purpose of this review will be to assign one of the following levels of
 
declared compliance with the baseline:
 
I. Baseline-Standard
 
This standard will be reserved for texts and materials that have
 
been certified to be compliant with the existing baseline by multiple
 
people recognized to be skilled in the language, and then approved by the
 
LLG Board or its delegated committee to be officially incorporated in the
 
baseline standard.
 
An example might be an official dictionary prepared from the
 
baseline word lists, or translations of baseline materials into languages
 
for which we have several fluent speakers among the skilled Lojban community.
 
All materials that are part of the baseline standard will be set
 
aside on the official web site in a manner clearly distinguishable from
 
other materials.
 
II. Baseline-Compliant
 
This standard will be for texts and materials that have been
 
certified to be compliant with the existing baseline, but which cannot be
 
declared standard either because
 
a.  the material is in a language such that there are insufficient
 
reviewers who competent in both Lojban and the target language to certify
 
the highest level of compliance;
 
b.  the text, while thoroughly reviewed, is of a nature not
 
appropriate to serve as a language standard;
 
c.  the text, while thoroughly reviewed, includes material
 
extraneous to the baseline (such as experimental cmavo or speculative
 
usages) that the committee does not wish to become a standard for the
 
language by assigning the highest level of approval.
 
An example of the first sort would be translations of the gismu
 
list or other documents into a language for which we cannot get multiple
 
fluent speakers skilled in Lojban to review it, but at least one skilled
 
Lojbanist reviewed it beside the original author/translator.
 
An example of the second sort would be a significant translation
 
or writing piece in Lojban, which has been certified as compliant by
 
multiple reviewers, but because it is a translation and/or a work of
 
literature, does not actually define a standard for others to
 
follow.  Because we have decided not to have a baseline-standard textbook
 
at this point, the textbook by Nick Nicholas and Robin Turner fits this
 
category.
 
An example of the third sort might be the Proposed Interpretive
 
Conventions page on the wiki.
 
III.  LLG-Approved Author/Editor
 
This standard indicates that the work has been written or edited
 
by someone recognized by the compliance committee as skilled enough in
 
Lojban to perform the task, with the author/editor indicating his own level
 
of compliance with the baseline as part of the work.  This allows for works
 
where we have no capability for independent certification, and also
 
recognizes that a certain level of competence in the language provides its
 
own authority.  Experimental usages and non-compliant dialects can be
 
tolerated, but the author/editor must explicitly note that the work is not
 
baseline compliant (and preferably will indicate which usages are not
 
compliant).
 
Ju'i Lobypli and other LLG publications shall be produced to this
 
standard of compliance, with the editor being approved to serve as the
 
compliance authority or delegating that authority to others as she/he sees
 
fit.
 
IV.  LLG-Sanctioned
 
This standard is reserved for efforts such as the Lojban wiki, and
 
jboske discussions, where LLG wishes to encourage public activity in and
 
about Lojban, but where the editor/author, project director, or
 
contributors do not wish to guarantee or enforce baseline compliance.
 
V.  LLG-Accepted Non-Compliant
 
This standard is for works known by the author/editor, or
 
determined by the compliance committee, to not comply with the baseline,
 
but which provide substantial and helpful assistance to Lojbanists.  This
 
provides recognition and respect to useful works, while warning users to
 
beware of errant usages.  The two versions of the draft textbook, having
 
obsolete and therefore incorrect information in them, would fit in this
 
category in their current form.  Writings of language inventor James Cooke
 
Brown, written in and about other versions of Loglan, would also fit this
 
category.
 
DEFINITION OF "BASELINE" AND "FREEZE"
 
There has been confusion over these terms in the past, which are mostly
 
resolved by setting forth this new policy.  However, in the event that
 
confusion again arises, these terms are more explicitly defined and
 
distinguished.
 
A language "baseline" is a snapshot of a portion or all of the language
 
design as documented at a particular point in time.  Baselines are declared
 
so that everyone has a single image of what the standard for the language
 
is, for purposes of discussion and usage.  While we might like all usage to
 
be compliant with the baseline, usage will inherently involve some trial
 
experimentation, and in any event people learning the language will not
 
always write in a manner consistent with the formal language description.
 
Baselines are not necessarily "frozen", but are changed only under formal
 
procedures with all changes being documented.  A "freeze" is when the
 
organization managing the baseline commits itself for a period of time
 
wherein it will not consider such changes because of the need for an
 
extended period of stability in the baseline.  Most of the language design
 
has been under such a freeze for approximately the last 5 years, but people
 
have been unable or unwilling to work on completing the documentation of a
 
baseline lexicon under the freeze conditions.  The efforts of the byfy
 
described above will necessarily amount to a lifting of the freeze to
 
ensure consistency among all the baseline materials, but any changes to
 
existing baseline materials will be documented and justified, so baseline
 
practices will continue.  After the baseline is declared complete, a new
 
freeze will then be imposed.
 
INCORPORATION OF PRIOR STATEMENT
 
The following material from the 1997 baseline declaration is reiterated in
 
the current statement, with a couple of notes as indicated.  These
 
statements apply after the language baseline is declared complete and the
 
freeze is again imposed.
 
>LLG will actively seek to expand the Lojban user community, and will
 
>encourage that community to actively use the language.  That use will
 
>likely result in enormous growth of the lexicon using the highly
 
>productive methods designed into the language.  In addition, usage may
 
>resolve hitherto undecided issues, and may bring to light and resolve
 
>other issues not yet identified.  This growth and evolution will take
 
>place informally, and without any restraints from LLG, in the manner of
 
>natural language evolution.
 
>
 
>Presuming that an active community forms, further language evolution
 
>will NOT take place by prescriptive changes produced by the Lojban
 
>designers.
 
>LLG's long-term role will be to promote the language and to serve a
 
>research and description function in analyzing how Lojban speakers
 
>actually use the language.
 
>
 
>
 
>ALL UNRESOLVED ISSUES TO BE RESOLVED BY ACTUAL USAGE
 
>
 
>Design points not covered in the reference grammar and/or the dictionary
 
>are intended to be resolved by actual usage, preferably by skilled
 
>speakers of the language.  LLG may report on such usage when questions
 
>arise, but will not rule prescriptively on whether the usage is
 
>"correct" or not.  If a usage occurs in natural communication and it is
 
>comprehended and accepted by other Lojbanists, then the usage is de
 
>facto "valid".
 
>
 
>Some Lojban supporters have asked that LLG make specific plans for a
 
>language review following the 5 year period, that it establish a
 
>committee and/or plan a formal procedure for proposing and discussing
 
>proposals during that period for consideration and implementation
 
>following the period.  The LLG Board of Directors believes that this is
 
>contrary to the intended purpose of the baseline and freeze, which is to
 
>turn over the language to the users of the language, and to remove LLG
 
>from ANY prescriptive role which constrains the natural evolution of the
 
>language.
 
>
 
>LLG makes the commitment, however, that should it ever decide to
 
>establish any such procedures after the 5 year period, that all
 
>discussions of possible changes will occur solely in the Lojban
 
>language, ensuring that only actual users of Lojban will participate in
 
>any decision process.
 
>
 
>Editors of publications sponsored by LLG shall have their own discretion
 
>to accept or reject or edit Lojban text according to their own criteria,
 
>which may include conformance with the language prescription.  If they
 
>do so, however, their decisions will be personal, as individual
 
>Lojbanists using the language, and based on their own competence in the
 
>language.  Editors shall not prescribe language usage on behalf of LLG.
 
>Similarly, members and officers of LLG ... who are
 
>actively speaking and using the language, may express opinions about
 
>Lojban text and issues, but shall do so as Lojban users independent of
 
>their LLG roles.
 
Any editor may of course consult with the committee described above for
 
certifying baseline compliance, in deciding whether a Lojban text conforms
 
with the language prescription.
 
>EXPERIMENTAL USAGES
 
>
 
>The Lojban design includes language space specifically for trying new
 
>ideas in language usage.  All cmavo (structure-words) of the form "xVV"
 
>are formally undefined, as are all cmavo-form words formed by adding one
 
>or more apostrophe and additional vowels onto the currently-used forms
 
>VV and CVV.  There is also a ... concept for a specific subset of
 
>6 letter fu'ivla (borrowing) space to be used as experimental "fu'ivla
 
>gismu"; these would have the ability to be compounded into lujvo
 
>(compounds).  The lujvo of course would also be experimental.
 
>
 
>These experimental word forms may be freely used to experiment with new
 
>usages in actual communication.  We intend (but will not enforce) that
 
>the "xVV" cmavo space be permanently experimental, meaning that if
 
>Lojban users wish to adopt an experimental usage that has been found
 
>workable, we urge that they choose a cmavo from the longer undefined
 
>cmavo space for permanent usage.  The very small number of undefined
 
>cmavo in the regular cmavo space could also be used, but we urge that
 
>they be reserved only for the most useful, widely accepted, and
 
>frequently used new ideas.
 
[Note:  the byfy will, as part of the process of documenting the cmavo
 
list, have the authority to assign meanings to unused cmavo.  These
 
assignments will be for two purposes:
 
a.  If an experimental cmavo has seen significant actual usage by multiple
 
skilled users of the language during the last 5 years, the byfy may assign
 
a cmavo in non-experimental space to that usage, recognizing that the usage
 
is no longer experimental.
 
b.  If multiple conflicting interpretations of the meaning or usage of a
 
particular cmavo exist, the byfy may select one of these meanings as the
 
standard one, and assign the other meaning(s) or usage(s) to other unused
 
cmavo in non-experimental space.
 
Recognizing that most experimental cmavo in current use have been of the
 
CVVV form, the byfy will have the authority, if it runs out of unused cmavo
 
space in implementing a and b above, to move the xVV cmavo space out of the
 
experimental realm and assign that as well.  This however is a more
 
significant change than merely adding cmavo, and should be thoroughly
 
justified.
 
Newly assigned cmavo shall utilize only existing selma'o, since a baseline
 
change to the formal grammar such as would be needed to handle a new
 
selma'o would require the highest level of justification, and shouldn't be
 
considered unless a serious error or conflict is identified as part of the
 
work of the byfy.
 
We note that there is one case that has been identified where the formal
 
grammar and the text of the reference grammar conflict in a minor way.  The
 
byfy will have the responsibility to resolve such conflicts.  The Board
 
leaves to the discretion of a consensus of the byfy whether to consider
 
additional grammar rules that are consistent with usage and with design
 
goals, do not conflict with any existing standard, and can be successfully
 
YACCed, such as the ongoing discussion of ka'enai; a new official parser
 
must be created if any changes are approved (additional cmavo assignments
 
will require a new parser as well).  The requirement for consensus and full
 
documentation will make such changes difficult enough that the Board does
 
not fear that any changes approved will be excessive or unwarranted.]
 
Experimental usages will not appear in the baseline lexicon.  The editor of
 
the official dictionary publication will have the discretion to include an
 
appendix documenting experiments that have seen significant usage, noting
 
the fact that these experiments are not officially approved.
 
>Likewise, user additions to the regular 5-letter gismu forms are
 
>discouraged but no ban will be enforced. LLG intends to independently
 
>verify any user-added gismu for consistency with the existing
 
>prescription, and will document deviations descriptively, but will not
 
>suggest or enforce alterations.
 
>
 
>Lojban allows for unrestricted creation of lujvo compounds and fu'ivla
 
>borrowings in accordance with rules and conventions discussed in the
 
>reference grammar.  Users are encouraged to coin new words in these
 
>forms as needed in speech and writing.
 
[Users are strongly encouraged to provide documentation of such coinages,
 
with definitions and place structures, when they first use them, so that
 
their intent is known.  Most lujvo and fu'ivla that have been coined during
 
the last few years have not had such documentation; as such any effort to
 
add them or document them in dictionary form may assign a meaning or place
 
structure different than the person who coined the word might have
 
intended.  LLG will provide a means to document such words, accessible via
 
the lojban.org web site.]
 
>LLG intends to document new lujvo and fu'ivla that come into use.
 
>Consistency or conflict with the lujvo-place structure conventions may
 
>be analyzed, but LLG will not suggest or enforce alteration to match the
 
>conventions.  Recognizing that Type IV fu'ivla are difficult to make
 
>with assurance of validity, LLG intends to provide a service to
 
>Lojbanists who wish to verify that a proposed word follows the
 
>prescription.  Individual Lojbanists providing this service on behalf of
 
>LLG may suggest alterations, but LLG as an organization will not enforce
 
>any changes.
 
>
 
>People using Lojban are encouraged to send archives of texts to
 
 
>This will allow research analysis and documentation of
 
>Lojban usages in the text. Labelling the text "nopublic" or "not for
 
>public archive" will restrict the text to archives that will be
 
>available only to bona fide researchers.
 
The work of the byfy commission is dependent on having as complete a corpus
 
of Lojban usages as possible, so please submit any existing texts as early
 
as possible in order for them to be used.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
End of statement.
 
 
Subject: [[llg-board|llg-board]] Motions for Agenda Items other than 1
 
Having gotten no comments, I am republishing the motions for consideration,
 
numbered by agenda item.  I'll issue a call for proxies in a couple of
 
minutes.
 
2. I move that the level 0 book be published via POD upon Nick's editorial
 
release, price to be determined based on the terms of the POD service
 
used.  The specifics of POD will be determined by the president and the POD
 
committee, with the Board kept informed.
 
4A. I move that the annual meeting be called for Sunday June 15, 2003 at
 
6PM EDT, to be held online using IRC or some similar means to more
 
effectively include non-US Lojbanists.  Formal notice of this meeting will
 
be snail-mailed to all members before May 15, 2003, including a proposed
 
agenda and any bylaw amendments to be considered at the meeting.  This
 
meeting may be continued over multiple sessions if needed, but if it has
 
not concluded before July 15, 2003, then it will be adjourned until
 
Saturday, July 26, 2003 at 2PM EDT, to be conducted in person at LogFest.
 
4B. I move that LogFest community events and activities be held primarily
 
at a hotel or public facility to be determined, rather than at a private
 
residence, on the weekend of July 25-27, 2003.
 
5. I move that LLG ask Jay Kominek to produce an issue of JL of at least 40
 
printed pages, appropriate for resuming publication of that journal.  On
 
the basis of this sample JL, the President (who will consult the Board) is
 
empowered to name Jay as Editor of JL.  The target date for republication
 
will be no later than April 1, 2003 (but can be earlier).
 
8. I move that LLG establish an honorary "contributing membership", with
 
annual dues set at US $50, and a sustaining membership, with annual dues
 
set at US $100; these memberships are independent of voting membership in
 
LLG, which shall require no monetary contribution, but voting members are
 
encouraged to obtain honorary memberships as well.  Names of honorary
 
members will be posted on the Lojban web page, and in at least one issue of
 
JL and LK per year.  No other special benefits will be associated at this
 
time.
 
12. I move that the standing procedure for LLG operations will be that the
 
President and other officers shall
 
consult informally with the full Board via this list, making sure that the
 
Board has been fully notified and that a majority of the Board has approved
 
of the decision.  If any Board member calls for it, then the Board will
 
take a formal vote on the matter.
 
14. I move that LLG produce a new order form reflecting what LLG is
 
prepared to actually deliver in prompt response to an order, either in
 
paper or via POD.  Such order form will be completed by the end of 2002 and
 
shall replace other versions on LLG's web site.
 
X. I move that LLG terminate acceptance of credit card payment, in lieu of
 
Pay Pal, as of the end of 2002 (in order to reduce expenses).
 
(final) I move that this meeting be held in continuance indefinitely, using
 
the llg-board list as its standard medium, with voting on motions recorded
 
by specific email sent to the list.  The Chairman of the meeting shall,
 
upon deciding that a motion is ready for a vote, shall post the motion,
 
with all members responding in person or by proxy via the list within 7
 
days, with the vote being considered valid if all members vote and/or are
 
present directly or by proxy.  If not all members register as present
 
(whether or not they vote) for purposes of a motion, then the requirement
 
for 100% quorum and/or proper notice shall not have met.
 
All members shall state that they are present on the llg-board
 
list to establish their presence for a quorum.  Any member may ask for a
 
verification at any time that business is being conducted, that all members
 
remain present, in which case the Chair will call for a response and no
 
business will be transacted until all members have acknowledged presence.

Latest revision as of 08:47, 2 October 2014

2002 MINUTES OF THE SECOND MEETING OF THE BOARD

Provisional until accepted at the 2003 meeting

MINUTES OF THE SECOND 2002 MEETING OF THE BOARD

THE LOGICAL LANGUAGE GROUP, INC.

Time of meeting: November 25, 2003 at 10:36 PM EDT.

The following are the official minutes of the November 25 Board meeting, which is the only meeting that was concluded before June 15 when the member's meeting started. All proxies in the meeting were specified on all votes. The final motion established a transition to an online meeting, which met from shortly after adjournment until June 15. The meeting had been originally called on September 4 to be held on September 24, but it was decided by mutual consent to hammer out the issues in discussion and conduct the formal meeting briefly. Thus, it was more like 11 weeks of discussion leading to the actual votes, though the discussion actually ended around 2 weeks before the formal meeting. Numbers are non-contiguous because the original meeting notice included several topics and issues that did not generate motions.

The meeting of the Board of LLG was called to order 10:36 pm EDT 11/25/2002.

No minutes were read.

Point of procedure: waive reading of motions since they are known (per message on Board list).

Roll call - all represented in person or by proxy:

Charles Hope (xod) - proxy to Nora LeChevalier

John Cowan - proxy to Robert LeChevalier

Shawn Lasseter - proxy to Nora LeChevalier

Nick Nicholas - proxy to Nora LeChevalier

Nora LeChevalier - present

Robert LeChevalier - present

John Clifford (pc) - (resigned)

Only those motions proposed in advance are being addressed.

1A - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

1B - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

1C - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

1D - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

1E - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

1F - moved , seconded , - passed, 4-2

2 - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

4A - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

4B - moved , seconded , - passed, 3-2

5 - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

8 - moved , seconded , - passed, 5-0

12 - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

14 - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

X - moved , seconded , - passed, 4-0

final - moved , seconded , - passed, unanimous

Proxies having expired, the meeting suspended at 10:45 PM EDT 11/25/2002 for

lack of quorum, to be resumed in accordance with the final motion when all

members declare that they are present on the Board mailing list. Here are the

preannounced motions, which are long because they include the full text of the

baseline statement:

To: [email protected]

Subject: llg-board Board motions for Agenda Item 1

(The statement below incorporates all of Nick's comments, as I responded to

them. I never got comments from anyone else.)

1A. I move that the LLG Board approve the publishing of the following

statement as official policy of LLG on the Lojban List, the Lojban

Beginners List, and the Lojban Announcement List, on the lojban.org

website, subject to approval of an informal referendum [clarification:

informal in that voting is not restricted to voting members of LLG].

1B. I move that in publishing that statement of policy, that there be a

referendum of support for the policy as described in the announcement,

conducted by poll and email as described in the statement, with a polling

period of 10 days.

1C. I move that Nick Nicholas be appointed Chair of The Lojban Language

Design Commission, responsible to implement the policy expressed in the

following statement, and especially to complete the lexicon definition work

needed to publish a Lojban baseline dictionary, and to report to the Board

on a monthly basis on the commission's progress. Nick's appointment is not

conditional on the referendum results, and may start organizational work

immediately, and is encouraged to issue public statements on his proposed

procedures.

1D. I move that the Language Design Commission be permitted to issue errata

to existing baseline documents under conditions of consensus as described

in the policy.

1E. I move that the Language Design Commission be open to volunteer

membership by anyone who believes that they have some skill in the

language, who is willing to be an active participant, and who agrees with

the goals of the commission specified in the policy statement. If the

Commission Chair feels that a volunteer member is failing to fulfill the

responsibilities of a Commission member as defined by the Chair, or if the

volunteer is regularly impeding the achievement of consensus in a manner

that the Chair feels is obstructing fulfillment of the goals of the

Commission, the Chair may ask the volunteer to resign or may ask the Board

to remove the volunteer from the Commission.

1F. I move that the President contact The Loglan Institute, Inc.

informally, to indicate that a representative of that organization is

welcome to participate in the Commission activities under the same

conditions as other volunteers. [clarification: this has been removed from

the policy statement and will be handled privately]


NEW STATEMENT OF OFFICIAL LLG POLICY

Because of questions that arose on Lojban List and in other discussions

regarding the nature and status of the Lojban baseline, the LLG Board of

Directors has examined the topic in light of what has been said in the

past. We discovered to our chagrin that prior statements, and indeed the

official baseline announcement, were to some extent contradictory. Rather

than trying to sort out what we meant in prior statements, it has been

decided to issue a new statement of LLG policy on the baseline and freeze

to supplant all prior statements, and to specifically answer questions that

have been raised.

Furthermore, because progress on the dictionary and other critical

endeavors has been stalled for too long, the Board of Directors proposes to

implement a new plan to complete documentation of the baseline language

design as defined by the above policy.

This policy and plan are hereby submitted to the community (not merely the

voting membership of LLG), seeking its mandate of support. Those members

of the community who are subscribers to the yahoogroups edition of Lojban

List will have the option to vote using the Yahoo poll system; those

members of the community who are subscribers to the lojban.org mirror of

Lojban List, and those on the Lojban Beginners List who are not also on

Lojban List, are asked to vote by email submission to [email protected]

This statement specifically supplants the official statement on the

baseline which may be found at

http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9703/msg00012.html

and approved motions regarding the baseline in the 1996 and 1997 annual

meetings, and well as impromptu comments by Bob LeChevalier over the years.

ANNOUNCEMENT

by Robert LeChevalier

President of The Logical Language Group, Inc.

on behalf of the Board of Directors

It has now been 5 years since the publication of The Complete Lojban

Language, by John Cowan and the accompanying baseline of the Lojban grammar.

When that baseline was declared, it was expected that a collection of word

lists would be published shortly thereafter in lieu of a dictionary, that

upon that publication, the documented lexicon would be baselined, and the

combination of lexicon and reference grammar would be frozen for a minimum

of 5 years while language usage grew. That collection of word lists has

not yet been published; our statement, that the language design was

"complete", was therefore premature.

The Board of Directors intends to remedy this situation and reach a

definite ending point for the "design" phase of the language as soon as

possible, with the goal of having the LLG membership declare the language

baseline to be complete at the annual meeting of the LLG in the summer of

2003.

Upon that completion, the language design (baseline) will be frozen,

excepting only for the addition of new lujvo, fu'ivla, and cmene, the

experimental use of cmavo within the experimental space, and rafsi fu'ivla

and compounds in accordance with the description in the reference grammar.

The actual baseline and freeze initially will be on the English language

text. Translations of baseline materials to other languages as well as

enhanced English definitions may be added to the baseline at a later date

having been reviewed for consistency; translations need not be literal

translations of the English. Translation of the baseline documents is

encouraged, whether or not the translation is intended to be reviewed for

formal incorporation into the baseline. See the policy below on LLG

support for baseline compliance.

During the baseline freeze, LLG will not consider any change proposals to

the language, and will encourage anyone seeking to have a proposal

considered after the freeze ends, to formally write their proposal up in

Lojban. Any such proposals will be collected in a controlled "wiki" format

and accessible on the lojban.org website, but will not be formally

considered. If errors in the baseline documents are detected during the

baseline period, they shall be similarly documented in Lojban, and may be

formally considered by the appropriate language standard group of the time

(which by default will be the rump form of the commission established below).

The language design freeze will last for a minimum 5 years after its

initial declaration, and may be extended on a year by year basis until such

time as discussion of language problems, and potential changes to fix those

problems, is substantially discussed in Lojban by skilled users of the

language. When that situation is deemed to occur, the question of

maintaining the baseline, or terminating the freeze in the language

prescription will be turned over to the Lojban-using community.

COMPLETION OF THE DESIGN PHASE

The specific requirement to complete the design phase will be the

preparation for publication of a baseline version of the following: gismu

list with rafsi, cmavo list, a limited number of lujvo (100-500) with place

structures to serve as examples, and if time permits, a sampling of

reviewed and defined fu'ivla borrowings and cmene names, also to serve as

examples.

With a rising tide of usage, accompanied by substantive debates about the

logic and semantics of the language, we have learned a lot in the last 5

years. The baseline being assumed, most of these debates have been

resolved as semantic enrichment of the documented grammar and word

lists. But some inconsistencies were noted; some errors were recognized in

the published texts; and some questions arose that were not answered in the

word lists, where those answers are fundamental to the meanings of

words. The new policy endeavors to provide official resolution to these

questions, and to correct noted errors.

Because 5 years have passed, and there has been some usage of the language,

it is appropriate to consider usage and the issues that have arisen, in a

strictly controlled and very conservative review of the design, as part of

the big push to get the last of the documented pieces in place. If this

review results in consensus agreement that certain changes are appropriate,

to be consistent both with actual usage and the engineering goals of the

language, they will be incorporated as part of the discontinuity between

the existing provisional baselines and the actual design baseline covering

the full language.

THE LANGUAGE DESIGN COMMISSION

The Board of Directors intends to commission a review of submitted issues

to be considered as part of the process of preparing the final

baseline. This commission will complete the following tasks:

A. The primary task of the language design commission (banpla fuzykamni)

will be to complete brief definitions of the cmavo. The target date for

this effort shall be 15 May 2003, in order for consideration by the members

at the annual meeting of 2003; if that target date cannot be met, then the

member ratification of the final baseline declaration will be delayed until

the following year. It is intended that this effort shall take priority

over work on other tasks charged to the byfy.

B. The secondary task of the byfy will be to define, with place structures,

between 100 and 500 lujvo including those most frequently used in actual

text. Some portion of these lujvo should be words fitting the patterns of

the jvojva as described in The Complete Lojban Language, and some should be

explicitly chosen as examples of naturalistic or metaphoric lujvo that

cannot be predicted based on jvojva. The format for place structure

definitions will use conventions in the manner of the jvojva examples in

The Complete Lojban Language.

C. The tertiary task of the byfy will be to define with place structures a

small number of example fu'ivla from multiple fields, and to prepare a

small list of validated Lojbanized cmene from a variety of source languages.

D. The final task of the byfy will be to consider other proposals for

justified changes to the various baseline documents based on the following

principles:

1. Because all portions of the language (except for the lujvo, fu'ivla and

cmene lists) have been under a preliminary baseline, the status quo is

presumed by default.

2. In the event of inconsistencies, the published printed text of The

Complete Lojban Language, will take precedence by default.

3. The published gismu and cmavo lists will be presumed as valid, by

default. The byfy can choose at its discretion whether to abide by the

intent of earlier language designers or by the strict wording used, and can

add clarification or modify the wording based on its decisions.

4. The byfy will have the power to correct typographical errors, to resolve

contradictions and inconsistencies (including any that are internal to the

reference grammar), and to expand upon the text of word definitions in

order to clarify meaning.

5. If usage has established a pattern clearly inconsistent with the

existing documents, but consistent with the design goals for the language,

the byfy review will have the power to approve changes to the baseline to

reflect that usage. A critical goal is to preserve the fundamental design

goal that Lojban words have a unitary and self-consistent meaning. Thus,

if multiple meanings for a word have emerged in actual Lojban text, the

byfy shall select one meaning, justifying any change from the

default. Usage based on alternate meanings shall not be acknowledged in

the baseline documentation, and are formally discouraged by LLG. Usage

patterns cannot be established on the basis of only one or two individuals,

however prolific; they must represent the practice of a plurality of

competent Lojbanists.

6. If formal logical analysis is inconsistent with either usage or the

documented status quo, the byfy may consider adding a brief note to this

effect.

7. Changes will be documented, including the text of the change, the nature

of the change as typo or other correction, expansion of definition,

conflict resolution, elimination of inconsistency, or reflection of usage,

and the rationale justifying the change (including examples of usage). A

collection of multiple related changes (such as typographical corrections),

provided that all are accepted by consensus, may be combined in one change

record.

8. Reflecting the desire of the community for language stability, the byfy

will prefer a position as close as possible to the status quo in case of

uncertainty.

9. Changes must be approved by consensus, with specific procedures to

determine consensus decided by the byfy subject to Board of Directors

review. In general, a single objector shall not be presumed to deny

consensus. If the byfy cannot reach a consensus, and the status quo is

unacceptable, the Board will make a decision among alternatives presented

by the byfy after consulting with the community, or may choose to delegate

the decision to another body.

10. Any decision of the byfy which would affect the text of the reference

grammar (including the formal grammar and EBNF in the appendices), shall be

documented as an erratum to that document. When the final baseline is

declared, a complete set of approved errata will be published by LLG, and

insofar as it is possible, LLG will consider producing a set of PDF-form

pages which could be inserted in a copy of the existing book.

If the byfy does not complete its work by the 2003 LLG members meeting,

then the Chair will, as part of that meeting, report on the progress of the

effort and present a revised schedule for completion which will be subject

to ratification by the members.

The Board of Directors appoints Nick Nicholas as Chair of the commission,

to report regularly on the progress of the commission to the Board and LLG

membership, and to have other executive powers as agreed to by the

commission members by consensus.

The Commission will be established by special mailing list at

lojban.org. The Board invites all Lojbanists who believe that they have

demonstrated some skill in using the language to voluntarily participate in

the commission activities. Participation will require being responsive to

requests by the Chair, and being willing to actively seek consensus; level

of participation will be determined by the individuals. If this open

membership becomes unwieldy, or factions develop that are preventing

progress, the Chair will seek a modification of this open membership policy

from the Board, but our stated preference is to be as inclusive as possible

of all Lojbanists who are willing to help in the critical effort of cmavo

list documentation.

Nick Nicholas has some specific intentions to automate the efforts of the

byfy as much as possible, which he will communicate to the community and/or

the byfy members at his discretion. The LLG Board calls on members of the

community with appropriate software and web experience to support his plans

with the highest priority, so as to get the effort off to a rapid

start. He has agreed that if the automation he desires is not in place by

a date specific (within 3 months) that he will communicate, that the

documentation effort will proceed manually, or with whatever limited tools

are available at that point.

The Board of Directors calls upon the webmaster of lojban.org to provide

software, mailing list, and web support for the byfy and its activities, as

requested by the Chair, and to coordinate volunteers who are providing

software and web design. The byfy shall be an official committee of LLG,

as documented on the appropriate web page.

BASELINE COMPLIANCE

Because the Lojban community that has emerged comes from a variety of

language backgrounds, and because different members of the community have

their own goals and priorities for use of the language, LLG must establish

a baseline compliance policy that respects the rights of individuals using

the language, one which is not too heavily tied to the necessary reliance

on English in the original language documentation.

LLG formally reiterates that the Lojban language design is in the public

domain, and any person has the right to use the language in any way he

wishes, towards any goals. On the other hand, LLG must strongly encourage

people to adhere to the baseline as defined, in the interest of unity of

the language community.

Following the formal declaration of the baseline, the LLG Board will assign

a committee, probably a rump form of the byfy, with the task of supporting

baseline compliance. Any person or group who creates a text in Lojban, or

who writes or translates language description materials or language

teaching materials in any language, may submit that effort to the committee

for review; the committee may also choose to review an effort on its own

without formal submission.

In the long term, this committee should become an independent entity not

under the jurisdiction of the LLG Board or membership, although the Board

or members might retain the right of consent to proposed members of this

committee. The implementation of this independence should await the

capability of fluent language communication on all matters regarding the

language, since discussion in Lojban should be a fundamental principle for

the operation of such an independent standard entity.

The purpose of this review will be to assign one of the following levels of

declared compliance with the baseline:

I. Baseline-Standard

This standard will be reserved for texts and materials that have

been certified to be compliant with the existing baseline by multiple

people recognized to be skilled in the language, and then approved by the

LLG Board or its delegated committee to be officially incorporated in the

baseline standard.

An example might be an official dictionary prepared from the

baseline word lists, or translations of baseline materials into languages

for which we have several fluent speakers among the skilled Lojban community.

All materials that are part of the baseline standard will be set

aside on the official web site in a manner clearly distinguishable from

other materials.

II. Baseline-Compliant

This standard will be for texts and materials that have been

certified to be compliant with the existing baseline, but which cannot be

declared standard either because

a. the material is in a language such that there are insufficient

reviewers who competent in both Lojban and the target language to certify

the highest level of compliance;

b. the text, while thoroughly reviewed, is of a nature not

appropriate to serve as a language standard;

c. the text, while thoroughly reviewed, includes material

extraneous to the baseline (such as experimental cmavo or speculative

usages) that the committee does not wish to become a standard for the

language by assigning the highest level of approval.

An example of the first sort would be translations of the gismu

list or other documents into a language for which we cannot get multiple

fluent speakers skilled in Lojban to review it, but at least one skilled

Lojbanist reviewed it beside the original author/translator.

An example of the second sort would be a significant translation

or writing piece in Lojban, which has been certified as compliant by

multiple reviewers, but because it is a translation and/or a work of

literature, does not actually define a standard for others to

follow. Because we have decided not to have a baseline-standard textbook

at this point, the textbook by Nick Nicholas and Robin Turner fits this

category.

An example of the third sort might be the Proposed Interpretive

Conventions page on the wiki.

III. LLG-Approved Author/Editor

This standard indicates that the work has been written or edited

by someone recognized by the compliance committee as skilled enough in

Lojban to perform the task, with the author/editor indicating his own level

of compliance with the baseline as part of the work. This allows for works

where we have no capability for independent certification, and also

recognizes that a certain level of competence in the language provides its

own authority. Experimental usages and non-compliant dialects can be

tolerated, but the author/editor must explicitly note that the work is not

baseline compliant (and preferably will indicate which usages are not

compliant).

Ju'i Lobypli and other LLG publications shall be produced to this

standard of compliance, with the editor being approved to serve as the

compliance authority or delegating that authority to others as she/he sees

fit.

IV. LLG-Sanctioned

This standard is reserved for efforts such as the Lojban wiki, and

jboske discussions, where LLG wishes to encourage public activity in and

about Lojban, but where the editor/author, project director, or

contributors do not wish to guarantee or enforce baseline compliance.

V. LLG-Accepted Non-Compliant

This standard is for works known by the author/editor, or

determined by the compliance committee, to not comply with the baseline,

but which provide substantial and helpful assistance to Lojbanists. This

provides recognition and respect to useful works, while warning users to

beware of errant usages. The two versions of the draft textbook, having

obsolete and therefore incorrect information in them, would fit in this

category in their current form. Writings of language inventor James Cooke

Brown, written in and about other versions of Loglan, would also fit this

category.

DEFINITION OF "BASELINE" AND "FREEZE"

There has been confusion over these terms in the past, which are mostly

resolved by setting forth this new policy. However, in the event that

confusion again arises, these terms are more explicitly defined and

distinguished.

A language "baseline" is a snapshot of a portion or all of the language

design as documented at a particular point in time. Baselines are declared

so that everyone has a single image of what the standard for the language

is, for purposes of discussion and usage. While we might like all usage to

be compliant with the baseline, usage will inherently involve some trial

experimentation, and in any event people learning the language will not

always write in a manner consistent with the formal language description.

Baselines are not necessarily "frozen", but are changed only under formal

procedures with all changes being documented. A "freeze" is when the

organization managing the baseline commits itself for a period of time

wherein it will not consider such changes because of the need for an

extended period of stability in the baseline. Most of the language design

has been under such a freeze for approximately the last 5 years, but people

have been unable or unwilling to work on completing the documentation of a

baseline lexicon under the freeze conditions. The efforts of the byfy

described above will necessarily amount to a lifting of the freeze to

ensure consistency among all the baseline materials, but any changes to

existing baseline materials will be documented and justified, so baseline

practices will continue. After the baseline is declared complete, a new

freeze will then be imposed.

INCORPORATION OF PRIOR STATEMENT

The following material from the 1997 baseline declaration is reiterated in

the current statement, with a couple of notes as indicated. These

statements apply after the language baseline is declared complete and the

freeze is again imposed.

>LLG will actively seek to expand the Lojban user community, and will

>encourage that community to actively use the language. That use will

>likely result in enormous growth of the lexicon using the highly

>productive methods designed into the language. In addition, usage may

>resolve hitherto undecided issues, and may bring to light and resolve

>other issues not yet identified. This growth and evolution will take

>place informally, and without any restraints from LLG, in the manner of

>natural language evolution.

>

>Presuming that an active community forms, further language evolution

>will NOT take place by prescriptive changes produced by the Lojban

>designers.

>LLG's long-term role will be to promote the language and to serve a

>research and description function in analyzing how Lojban speakers

>actually use the language.

>

>

>ALL UNRESOLVED ISSUES TO BE RESOLVED BY ACTUAL USAGE

>

>Design points not covered in the reference grammar and/or the dictionary

>are intended to be resolved by actual usage, preferably by skilled

>speakers of the language. LLG may report on such usage when questions

>arise, but will not rule prescriptively on whether the usage is

>"correct" or not. If a usage occurs in natural communication and it is

>comprehended and accepted by other Lojbanists, then the usage is de

>facto "valid".

>

>Some Lojban supporters have asked that LLG make specific plans for a

>language review following the 5 year period, that it establish a

>committee and/or plan a formal procedure for proposing and discussing

>proposals during that period for consideration and implementation

>following the period. The LLG Board of Directors believes that this is

>contrary to the intended purpose of the baseline and freeze, which is to

>turn over the language to the users of the language, and to remove LLG

>from ANY prescriptive role which constrains the natural evolution of the

>language.

>

>LLG makes the commitment, however, that should it ever decide to

>establish any such procedures after the 5 year period, that all

>discussions of possible changes will occur solely in the Lojban

>language, ensuring that only actual users of Lojban will participate in

>any decision process.

>

>Editors of publications sponsored by LLG shall have their own discretion

>to accept or reject or edit Lojban text according to their own criteria,

>which may include conformance with the language prescription. If they

>do so, however, their decisions will be personal, as individual

>Lojbanists using the language, and based on their own competence in the

>language. Editors shall not prescribe language usage on behalf of LLG.

>Similarly, members and officers of LLG ... who are

>actively speaking and using the language, may express opinions about

>Lojban text and issues, but shall do so as Lojban users independent of

>their LLG roles.

Any editor may of course consult with the committee described above for

certifying baseline compliance, in deciding whether a Lojban text conforms

with the language prescription.

>EXPERIMENTAL USAGES

>

>The Lojban design includes language space specifically for trying new

>ideas in language usage. All cmavo (structure-words) of the form "xVV"

>are formally undefined, as are all cmavo-form words formed by adding one

>or more apostrophe and additional vowels onto the currently-used forms

>VV and CVV. There is also a ... concept for a specific subset of

>6 letter fu'ivla (borrowing) space to be used as experimental "fu'ivla

>gismu"; these would have the ability to be compounded into lujvo

>(compounds). The lujvo of course would also be experimental.

>

>These experimental word forms may be freely used to experiment with new

>usages in actual communication. We intend (but will not enforce) that

>the "xVV" cmavo space be permanently experimental, meaning that if

>Lojban users wish to adopt an experimental usage that has been found

>workable, we urge that they choose a cmavo from the longer undefined

>cmavo space for permanent usage. The very small number of undefined

>cmavo in the regular cmavo space could also be used, but we urge that

>they be reserved only for the most useful, widely accepted, and

>frequently used new ideas.

[Note: the byfy will, as part of the process of documenting the cmavo

list, have the authority to assign meanings to unused cmavo. These

assignments will be for two purposes:

a. If an experimental cmavo has seen significant actual usage by multiple

skilled users of the language during the last 5 years, the byfy may assign

a cmavo in non-experimental space to that usage, recognizing that the usage

is no longer experimental.

b. If multiple conflicting interpretations of the meaning or usage of a

particular cmavo exist, the byfy may select one of these meanings as the

standard one, and assign the other meaning(s) or usage(s) to other unused

cmavo in non-experimental space.

Recognizing that most experimental cmavo in current use have been of the

CVVV form, the byfy will have the authority, if it runs out of unused cmavo

space in implementing a and b above, to move the xVV cmavo space out of the

experimental realm and assign that as well. This however is a more

significant change than merely adding cmavo, and should be thoroughly

justified.

Newly assigned cmavo shall utilize only existing selma'o, since a baseline

change to the formal grammar such as would be needed to handle a new

selma'o would require the highest level of justification, and shouldn't be

considered unless a serious error or conflict is identified as part of the

work of the byfy.

We note that there is one case that has been identified where the formal

grammar and the text of the reference grammar conflict in a minor way. The

byfy will have the responsibility to resolve such conflicts. The Board

leaves to the discretion of a consensus of the byfy whether to consider

additional grammar rules that are consistent with usage and with design

goals, do not conflict with any existing standard, and can be successfully

YACCed, such as the ongoing discussion of ka'enai; a new official parser

must be created if any changes are approved (additional cmavo assignments

will require a new parser as well). The requirement for consensus and full

documentation will make such changes difficult enough that the Board does

not fear that any changes approved will be excessive or unwarranted.]

Experimental usages will not appear in the baseline lexicon. The editor of

the official dictionary publication will have the discretion to include an

appendix documenting experiments that have seen significant usage, noting

the fact that these experiments are not officially approved.

>Likewise, user additions to the regular 5-letter gismu forms are

>discouraged but no ban will be enforced. LLG intends to independently

>verify any user-added gismu for consistency with the existing

>prescription, and will document deviations descriptively, but will not

>suggest or enforce alterations.

>

>Lojban allows for unrestricted creation of lujvo compounds and fu'ivla

>borrowings in accordance with rules and conventions discussed in the

>reference grammar. Users are encouraged to coin new words in these

>forms as needed in speech and writing.

[Users are strongly encouraged to provide documentation of such coinages,

with definitions and place structures, when they first use them, so that

their intent is known. Most lujvo and fu'ivla that have been coined during

the last few years have not had such documentation; as such any effort to

add them or document them in dictionary form may assign a meaning or place

structure different than the person who coined the word might have

intended. LLG will provide a means to document such words, accessible via

the lojban.org web site.]

>LLG intends to document new lujvo and fu'ivla that come into use.

>Consistency or conflict with the lujvo-place structure conventions may

>be analyzed, but LLG will not suggest or enforce alteration to match the

>conventions. Recognizing that Type IV fu'ivla are difficult to make

>with assurance of validity, LLG intends to provide a service to

>Lojbanists who wish to verify that a proposed word follows the

>prescription. Individual Lojbanists providing this service on behalf of

>LLG may suggest alterations, but LLG as an organization will not enforce

>any changes.

>

>People using Lojban are encouraged to send archives of texts to

[email protected]

>This will allow research analysis and documentation of

>Lojban usages in the text. Labelling the text "nopublic" or "not for

>public archive" will restrict the text to archives that will be

>available only to bona fide researchers.

The work of the byfy commission is dependent on having as complete a corpus

of Lojban usages as possible, so please submit any existing texts as early

as possible in order for them to be used.


End of statement.

To: [email protected]

Subject: llg-board Motions for Agenda Items other than 1

Having gotten no comments, I am republishing the motions for consideration,

numbered by agenda item. I'll issue a call for proxies in a couple of

minutes.

2. I move that the level 0 book be published via POD upon Nick's editorial

release, price to be determined based on the terms of the POD service

used. The specifics of POD will be determined by the president and the POD

committee, with the Board kept informed.

4A. I move that the annual meeting be called for Sunday June 15, 2003 at

6PM EDT, to be held online using IRC or some similar means to more

effectively include non-US Lojbanists. Formal notice of this meeting will

be snail-mailed to all members before May 15, 2003, including a proposed

agenda and any bylaw amendments to be considered at the meeting. This

meeting may be continued over multiple sessions if needed, but if it has

not concluded before July 15, 2003, then it will be adjourned until

Saturday, July 26, 2003 at 2PM EDT, to be conducted in person at LogFest.

4B. I move that LogFest community events and activities be held primarily

at a hotel or public facility to be determined, rather than at a private

residence, on the weekend of July 25-27, 2003.

5. I move that LLG ask Jay Kominek to produce an issue of JL of at least 40

printed pages, appropriate for resuming publication of that journal. On

the basis of this sample JL, the President (who will consult the Board) is

empowered to name Jay as Editor of JL. The target date for republication

will be no later than April 1, 2003 (but can be earlier).

8. I move that LLG establish an honorary "contributing membership", with

annual dues set at US $50, and a sustaining membership, with annual dues

set at US $100; these memberships are independent of voting membership in

LLG, which shall require no monetary contribution, but voting members are

encouraged to obtain honorary memberships as well. Names of honorary

members will be posted on the Lojban web page, and in at least one issue of

JL and LK per year. No other special benefits will be associated at this

time.

12. I move that the standing procedure for LLG operations will be that the

President and other officers shall

consult informally with the full Board via this list, making sure that the

Board has been fully notified and that a majority of the Board has approved

of the decision. If any Board member calls for it, then the Board will

take a formal vote on the matter.

14. I move that LLG produce a new order form reflecting what LLG is

prepared to actually deliver in prompt response to an order, either in

paper or via POD. Such order form will be completed by the end of 2002 and

shall replace other versions on LLG's web site.

X. I move that LLG terminate acceptance of credit card payment, in lieu of

Pay Pal, as of the end of 2002 (in order to reduce expenses).

(final) I move that this meeting be held in continuance indefinitely, using

the llg-board list as its standard medium, with voting on motions recorded

by specific email sent to the list. The Chairman of the meeting shall,

upon deciding that a motion is ready for a vote, shall post the motion,

with all members responding in person or by proxy via the list within 7

days, with the vote being considered valid if all members vote and/or are

present directly or by proxy. If not all members register as present

(whether or not they vote) for purposes of a motion, then the requirement

for 100% quorum and/or proper notice shall not have met.

All members shall state that they are present on the llg-board

list to establish their presence for a quorum. Any member may ask for a

verification at any time that business is being conducted, that all members

remain present, in which case the Chair will call for a response and no

business will be transacted until all members have acknowledged presence.