Russ, Bernie and others have written eloquent pieces that address the concerns, whines and gripes of non-mobilites, long-time netizens, and mobile newbies. I’ve fit into several of these categories at various times, and had hoped to join the hardcore mobile generation during our now-aborted stay in Cork. Upon return to east Hawai‘i island, I began to investigate our wireless options, and found them limited. Our area has neither DSL nor cable. My son’s Verizon mobile phone is only marginally usable on our lanai (porch) but nowhere in the house. He bought a 3G card that works near the eastern edge…
Thinking Ulukau and Social Networks
I spent two days in strategic planning meetings with Keiki Kawai‘ae‘a, the director of our Hawaiian Language Center and Bob Stauffer, the manager of Ulukau, our Hawaiian language digital library. Ulukau really started out as a skunkworks project, modeled after the M?ori N?pepa program. It has since passed that site in size and scope. It started several years ago with 50 hits per month and now serves over 6,000,000 documents a year. As we were talking about the site, Keiki compared the site to a traditional library, and says she wanted and atmosphere that felt more like Borders. I suggested…
Is Google In Your Language Still Alive?
Google offers an impressive list of languages in its language options, including Klingon, Elmer Fudd, and Pig Latin. The language interface options states “If you don’t see your native language here, you can help Google create it by becoming a volunteer translator,” and provides a link for the Google In Your Language program. Looks impressive. I recently learned that some people in Aotearoa have translated the Google search interface into M?ori, and I have tried in vain to reach the person responsible for coordinating this within Google so that we could provide a Hawaiian translation. No joy. There is a…
Conversation On Hawaiian Social Network Space
I spent nearly an hour on Skype with Conn Ó Muíneacháin in Ireland this morning. The topic: minority languages in the social network space. I was sick as a dog all weekend, and while lying in bed had a lot of time to ponder our college’s next move in regards to providing telecommunication services through the medium of Hawaiian. While Conn has no specialized training in language perpetuation or sociology (nor do I), I felt that he is very much a kindred spirit in his desire to be able to use his language in as many daily contexts as are…
iPhone Supports Hawaiian Diacritics!
A colleague of mine showed up to work with an iPhone, so the first thing we did was to check if its email program supports Hawaiian characters. He already had it set up to check his .Mac account, so he sent himself an email from GMail which used the Hawaiian keyboard that ships with OS X. A few moments later is showed up on his iPhone, with the diacritics showing in both the subject field as well as the body text. Amazing! We haven’t found a way to generate the ‘okina and kahak? on the iPhone, but at least it…
Hawaiian Social Network Quandry
One of the blessings of being away in Ireland for nine months is that it will give me some separation and time to think out the future of our Hawaiian language technology initiatives, such as Leok? (our Hawaiian language intranet system built on FirstClass), Ulukau (our Hawaiian digital library) and the use of the Ka Leo Hawai‘i archives (about 700 hours worth of interviews with Hawaiian language speakers conducted in the 1970s and 1980s). I have been wavering back and forth as to whether or not it is worthwhile to us to continue using FirstClass, or move on to some…
N? H?k? Hanohano 2007
Kenneth and I did not win any awards for Makuak?ne, but had a great time anyway. He did win Compilation Album of the Year (with several co-producers). Here are some pics from the event.
N? H?k? Pio ‘Ole Online
At the request of the HARA Board of Governors, I’ve posted the audio file for “N? H?k? Pio ‘Ole” on the HARA welcome page. The original plan was to have it played going into and coming back from commercial breaks at the N? H?k? Hanohano Awards this year, but it looks like it may not be used in that way because of how tight the schedule is. Please keep in mind that this was originally intended to be a demo, and re-recorded if it won, however, there was not enough time to do so. My deepest mahalo nui to the…
Streak Ended
My string of good news was snapped this morning when I received an email informing me that my article submission for the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM) Yearbook was not accepted for publication. The readers offered some valid criticism and useful suggestions, but I doubt that I will have much time to make corrections for a while.
When It Rain It Pours – And It’s A Good Thing
They say bad news travels in threes, sometimes good news does, too. First, I found out late last week that I’m on the final ballot for two N? H?k? Hanohano Awards, along with Kenneth Makuak?ne, and he’s also up for Hawaiian Album of the Year. To top it off, my composition “N? H?k? Pio ‘Ole” was selected as the theme song for the 30th anniversary celebration for the awards. Over the weekend my daughter found out she was one of thirty students who have been accepted to attend the Curie Academy at Cornell University. It is a week-long program in…