Plans for this project

[John Burton]

Hello All, an update on plans for this list.

I am in PNG at the moment, but will be back in Canberra indefinitely in a
couple of weeks.
It is my intention to start more systematically to work on the Mihalic
dictionary revision and the first thing I propose to do is to create a web
version of the old one. I then propose that we use the list as a means of
going through the entries and adding new content to them, which will then be
posted on the dictionary site as we go along. New content will be
distinguished typographically and with attribution.

I have several questions. Firstly, what do people think about the security
of posting what amount to an entire book on the web before it is published
in a conventional way? Copyright belongs to us, but I don't want to run into
any unpleasantness with disputes over it. (For example, would we have to
withdraw the web site for a commercial publisher to put money into
publishing it later?)

Secondly, we need more list members. You numbered about 50 when I last
enquired, but we will need to rake in all the PNG students (who can spell -
let's forget the science graduates eh) we can who are email connected. I
cannot do this on my own - who can help me?

Thirdly, should we be systematic about selecting topics/words for discussion
or just jump about as we feel like it? Starting at Anis and ending at
Zurenuoc might get a bit tedious What about a limit of a month on any one
topic area?

On some other matters, I recently received a manuscript from Peter
Muhlhausler in the form of a marked up version of Mihalic that was to have
gone to the publishers in 1980 or so. For various reasons this never
happened and Peter has been kind enough to offer it to us, as long as any
use we make of it is acknowledged. I will be attempting to do this after
posting the original Mihalic content.

Wolfgang Wendt of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria contacted me
recently. He says 'My concern is that the predominantly Lutheran areas and
the specific Tok Pisin used by the members of ELC-PNG are also incorporated.
For this reason I have informed selected Bavarian staff working in ELC-PNG
and suggested to pick up this challenge in co-operation with their PNG
national colleagues.' Good!

John Burton