ELReq Rises in October!

Greetings All,

Quite the momentous month for ELReq!  2011 is off to a terrific start and
we'll strive to keep it going.  Here's a synopsis of recent events:

Several members of the Ethiopic Layout Requirements Task Force were able to
meet in Addis Ababa in early October. In a matter of days the group was
able to meet with the CEO, IT Manager, and other staff at the Berhanena
Selam Printing Press (the nation's largest), the President of the Ethiopian
Writer's Association, Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and
head of the Academy of Ethiopian Languages and Cultures.

The objectives of ELReq were reviewed with each party and they were very
receptive to the goals of the task force and understood well the need for
better software support for Ethiopic requirements through rule
recommendations.  Assorted notes from these meetings:

* Face to face meetings are essential to engaging stakeholders.
Stakeholders met were very open and willing to discussing layout topics and
to supporting the initiative with materials and by arranging meetings with
their staff and membership.  However, the culture and practice of online
(email and web based) discussion has not been established in this community.

* Stakeholders pointed to the need for an offline survey to collect
feedback from specialists. This is in keeping with their expectations and
regular mode of engagement. An online survey would not be utilized.

ELReq does have an offline survey available it has been sent now to several
points of contact for review. The survey is in need of some updates and
revisions.  A translator is also being sought to produce an Amharic version.

* Berhanena Selam does not have a formal style guide reference that they
follow for layout and formatting.  Rather, they have a collection of well
prepared documents developed in the past that they follow as exemplars for
good layout.  We have been offered scans of these materials.

* Berhanena Selam offered to introduce us to the Ethiopian Printers
Association.  We will follow up when the survey has been updated.

* The Ethiopian Writers Association offered to host a meeting with their
membership where ELReq can be presented and the survey circulated. We will
pursue this to arrive at a collective view of the association.

* While stakeholders show willingness to help resolve ELReq issues,
engagement will necessarily be offline.  This presents some burden to task
force members in Addis Ababa to arrange meetings and to coordinate with
willing parties to discuss issues, collect materials, distribute, collect
and consolidate surveys.  Funding to support these activities would be very
helpful and will be pursued.

Also in October, a presentation on ELReq was made at the 20th International
Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES 20) which notably drew the interest
of the Ethiopian Studies group at the University of Hamburg. The Ethiopian
Orthodox Church was engaged through a presentation at the 2nd International
Conference on Ethiopian Church Studies just this past weekend with a very
positive reception.

Lots of momentum to capitalize on with willing parties who now await the
translated survey.  I'll post an update here once we have the translation
available, your review and feedback will be crucial.

cheers,

-Daniel