Hi Valerie, Thank you for your answer - no I wouldn't attempt to count all SignWriters! I know that task is impossible - mainly it's the Active Literature Puddles that I would like to know where possible - but it's no problem if there is no answer to the number of people using the US lit puddle - i will just state things as they are - that we do not know, it's not a problem. Thank you!! Maria > SignWriting List > September 13, 2012 > > On Sep 13, 2012, at 2:49 AM, MARIA GALEA wrote: >> I need to know how many known writers input into the US Public >> Literature >> Puddle? Can anyone help? > > ------- > > Hello Maria and everyone - > > Regarding the ASL Literature Puddle - I would have to go through each > document in the entire puddle and search for the sources one by one, but > that would not necessarily give you the right sources, because sometimes > one person would enter many old documents for others, so we need to clean > up the Source information in the US Literature puddle and we have not done > that yet - My nephews and others helped us with the SignWriting Document > Preservation Project (http://www.signwriting.org/literature/preservation/) > years ago, and so they entered lots of documents for other people�. > > Regarding finding all the writers who write SignWriting in the world > (grin)� just to share with you... > > We have a way to search for a specific source, in SignPuddle, so if you > were looking for all the documents written by one person, and that person > put his or her name in the Source area, you could find all the documents > written by that person� That is a cool new feature of SignPuddle 2� > > But to find a listing of all sources for all puddle files is hard - I do > not know how to do that - You could go through each file or document and > record the sources one by one�which would be a huge and tiring job - or > maybe someday there would be a way to find that through the software > behind the scenes - I will ask Steve - > > So how many people write SignWriting? > > If that is the question then searching SignPuddle is not the only answer, > since there are other software programs with many writers too�and since > there are some writers who do not use computers at all - and there are > more writers out there that do not use computers than anyone realizes� > > An example is the SignWriting workshop in Amman, Jordan, which I just > posted to the List - in 2010. All the participants were Deaf, and most > wrote by hand, but then they also used other software other than > SignPuddle - I noticed in the photos it looks like they used SWEdit from > Brazil - that is a good program that many people use in Brazil as well - > > And the DELEGS software also has writers - so it is almost impossible to > know how many people write SignWriting documents around the world except > judging by the great photos and emails I get, they certainly are active! > > > > > > > > > Val ;-) > > Valerie Sutton > [log in to unmask] > www.signwriting.org > > > > > > > ASL Wikipedia Project on Wikimedia Labs > http://ase.wikipedia.wmflabs.org > >