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Michael Everson
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{{Short description|American-Irish type designer (born 1963)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}} {{independent sources|date=November 2024}} [[File:Michael Everson - Wikimedia 2011 hackathon in Berlin 087.jpg|thumb|Everson in 2011]] '''Michael Everson''' (born January 1963) is an American and Irish [[linguistics|linguist]], [[Character encoding|script encoder]], [[typesetting|typesetter]], [[type designer]] and [[Publishing|publisher]]. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over one hundred books since 2006. His central area of expertise is with [[writing system]]s of the world, specifically in the representation of these systems in formats for [[computer]] and digital media. In 2003 Rick McGowan said he was "probably the world's leading expert in the computer encoding of scripts"<ref name=expert>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07EED9143DF936A1575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=For the World's ABC's, He Makes 1's and 0's|date=September 25, 2003|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=May 23, 2008|last=Erard|first=Michael}}</ref> for his work to add a wide variety of [[Writing systems|scripts]] and [[Character (computing)|characters]] to the [[Universal Character Set]]. Since 1993, he has written over two hundred proposals<ref>{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Everson|publisher=Evertype|url=http://www.evertype.com/formal.html|title= Papers formally submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2|date=January 27, 2007}}</ref> which have added thousands of characters to [[ISO/IEC 10646]] and the [[Unicode]] standard; as of 2003, he was credited as the leading contributor of Unicode proposals.<ref name=expert/> ==Life== {{BLP sources section|date=August 2018}} Everson was born in [[Norristown, Pennsylvania]], and moved to [[Tucson, Arizona]], at the age of 12. His interest in the works of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] led him to study [[Old English language|Old English]] and then other [[Germanic languages]]. He read German, Spanish, and French for his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] at the [[University of Arizona]] (1985), and the History of Religions and [[Indo-European linguistics]] for his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (1988){{citation needed|date=July 2020}}. In 1989, a former professor, Dr. [[Marija Gimbutas]], asked him to read a paper<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evertype.com/misc/basque-jies/basque-jies.html|title=Tenacity in religion, myth, and folklore|publisher=Evertype.com|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> on [[Basque mythology]] at an [[Indo-European studies|Indo-Europeanist]] Conference held in Ireland; shortly thereafter he moved to [[Dublin]], where he studied as a [[Fulbright Scholar]] in the Faculty of [[Celtic Studies]], [[University College Dublin]] (1991).<ref name="urlEvertype: About Michael Everson">{{cite web|url=http://www.evertype.com/misc/bio.html|title=About Michael Everson|work=Evertype.com|access-date=November 28, 2010}}</ref> He became a [[naturalization|naturalized]] Irish citizen in 2000, although he retains American citizenship.<ref name="expert" /> ==Work== Everson is active in supporting minority-language communities, especially in the fields of [[character encoding]] [[standardization]] and [[internationalization]]. In addition to being one of the primary contributing editors of the Unicode Standard, he is also a contributing editor to [[ISO/IEC 10646]], registrar for [[ISO 15924]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/iso15924/|title=ISO 15924 Registration Authority|publisher=ISO, Unicode, Inc., & Evertype|year=2004|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> and subtag reviewer for [[BCP 47]]. He has contributed to the encoding of many scripts and [[character (computing)|characters]] in those standards, receiving the Unicode [[Bulldog Award]] in 2000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/conference/bulldog.html|title=The Bulldog Award|publisher=Unicode, Inc.|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> for his technical contributions to the development and promotion of the Unicode Standard. In 2004, Everson was appointed convenor of [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] TC46/WG3 (Conversion of Written Languages), which is responsible for [[transliteration]] standards. Everson is one of the co-editors (along with Rick McGowan, Ken Whistler, and V.S. Umamaheswaran) of the Unicode roadmaps that detail actual and proposed allocations for current and future Unicode scripts and blocks.<ref name="UnicodeRoadmap">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/|title=Roadmaps to Unicode|website=unicode.org}}</ref> On July 1, 2012, Everson was appointed to the [[Volapük Academy]] by the [[Cifal]], [[Brian Reynold Bishop|Brian R. Bishop]], for his work in [[Volapük]] publishing.<ref>[http://volapük.com/kadam/Dalebud_Cifala_de_2012-07-01,_Num-_1.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123110829/http://xn--volapk-7ya.com/kadam/Dalebud_Cifala_de_2012-07-01%2C_Num-_1.html |date=January 23, 2013 }}</ref> ===Encoding of scripts=== Everson has been actively involved in the encoding of many scripts<ref>{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Everson|publisher=Evertype|url=http://www.evertype.com/formal.html|title=Papers formally submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 (Universal Character Set)|date=March 19, 2009|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards, including [[Avestan alphabet|Avestan]], [[Balinese alphabet|Balinese]], [[Bamum language|Bamum]], [[Bassa alphabet|Bassa Vah]], [[Batak script|Batak]], [[Braille]], [[Brāhmī script|Brāhmī]], [[Bugis|Buginese]], [[Buhid script|Buhid]], [[Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics|Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics]], [[Carian language|Carian]], [[Cham script|Cham]], [[Cherokee syllabary|Cherokee]], [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]], [[Cuneiform script|Cuneiform]], [[Cypriot syllabary|Cypriot]], [[Deseret alphabet|Deseret]], [[Duployan shorthand|Duployan]], [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], [[Elbasan alphabet|Elbasan]], [[Ethiopic]], [[Georgian alphabet|Georgian]], [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]], [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]], [[Hanunó'o alphabet|Hanunóo]], [[Aramaic alphabet|Imperial Aramaic]], [[Inscriptional Pahlavi]], [[Pahlavi scripts|Inscriptional Parthian]], [[Javanese script|Javanese]], [[Kayah Li script|Kayah Li]], [[Khmer alphabet|Khmer]], [[Lepcha script|Lepcha]], [[Limbu alphabet|Limbu]], [[Linear A]], [[Linear B]], [[Lycian script|Lycian]], [[Lydian script|Lydian]], [[Mandaic alphabet|Mandaic]], [[Manichaean alphabet|Manichaean]], [[Meitei Mayek]], [[Mongolian script|Mongolian]], [[Burmese script|Myanmar]], [[Nabataean alphabet|Nabataean]], [[New Tai Lue (Unicode block)|New Tai Lue]], [[NKo (Unicode block)|N'Ko]], [[Ogham]], [[Ol Chiki script|Ol Chiki]], [[Old Hungarian alphabet|Old Hungarian]], [[Old Italic alphabet|Old Italic]], [[Old North Arabian alphabet|Old North Arabian]], [[Old Persian]], [[Old South Arabian alphabet|Old South Arabian]], [[Old Turkic script|Old Turkic]], [[Osmanya script|Osmanya]], [[Palmyrene script|Palmyrene]], [[Phaistos Disc]], [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]], [[Rejang script|Rejang]], [[Runic alphabet|Runic]], [[Samaritan script|Samaritan]], [[Saurashtra language|Saurashtra]], [[Shavian alphabet|Shavian]], [[Sinhala script|Sinhala]], [[Sundanese script|Sundanese]], [[Baybayin|Tagalog]], [[Tagbanwa alphabet|Tagbanwa]], [[Tai Le script|Tai Le]], [[Tai Tham]], [[Thaana]], [[Tibetan alphabet|Tibetan]], [[Ugaritic script|Ugaritic]], [[Vai script|Vai]], and [[Yi script|Yi]], as well as many characters belonging to the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]], and [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] scripts. ===Encoding of symbols=== Everson authored or co-authored proposals for many symbol characters for encoding into Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. Among those proposals submitted to [[ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2]]/WG 2 that have been accepted and encoded: N2586R ({{unichar|267E|PERMANENT PAPER SIGN}} and four other miscellaneous symbols<ref name="n2586r">{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2586r.pdf|title=Proposal to encode five miscellaneous symbols in the UCS|date=September 4, 2003|website=unicode.org}}</ref> admitted into Unicode 4.1), N3727 (the 26 [[Regional Indicator Symbol]]s used in pairs to generate [[national flag]]s in [[emoji]] contexts;<ref name="n3727">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09379-n3727-regionalindicators.pdf|title=Proposal to encode Regional Indicator Symbols in the UCS|date=September 18, 2009|website=unicode.org}}</ref> adopted into Unicode 6.0), and N4783R2 ([[chess notation]] symbols<ref name="n4783r2">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17033r2-n4783r2-chess-notation.pdf|title=Proposal to encode symbols for chess notation|date=January 26, 2017|website=unicode.org}}</ref> encoded into Unicode 11.0). Among proposals that have not yet been approved for encoding: N1866 (an early proposal for encoding [[Blissymbols]] into the [[Supplementary Multilingual Plane]] of Unicode;<ref name="n1866">{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n1866.pdf|title=Encoding Blissymbolics in Plane 1 of the UCS|date=September 10, 1998|website=unicode.org}}</ref> still listed in the SMP roadmap as of Unicode 15.0<ref name="RoadmapSMP-11-0-2">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/smp-15-0-2.html|title=Roadmap to the SMP|date=April 9, 2023|website=unicode.org}}</ref> although no further action had been taken on it for years). Everson, along with [[Doug Ewell]], [[Rebecca Bettencourt]], Ricardo Bánffy, Eduardo Marín Silva, Elias Mårtenson, Mark Shoulson, Shawn Steele, and Rebecca Turner, is a contributor to the Terminals Working Group researching obscure characters found in legacy [[character set]]s used by [[home computer]]s (or "microcomputers"), terminals, and other legacy devices made from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s; thanks to their proposal L2/19-025, 212 graphic characters for compatibility with [[MSX]], [[Commodore 64]], and other microcomputers of the era, as well as [[Teletext]], were encoded in the [[Symbols for Legacy Computing]] block,<ref name="L2-19-025">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19025-terminals-prop.pdf|title=Proposal to add characters from legacy computers and teletext to the UCS|date=January 4, 2019|website=unicode.org}}</ref> while 731 additional characters from L2/21-235 have been accepted for a future version of the standard.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22016.htm#170-C15|title=Approved Minutes of UTC Meeting 170|date=January 25, 2022|website=unicode.org}}</ref> ===Font development=== In 1995 he designed a [[Unicode font]], [[Everson Mono]], a [[monospaced]] [[typeface]] with more than 4,800 characters. This font was the third Unicode-encoded font to contain a large number of characters from many character blocks, after [[Lucida Sans Unicode]] and [[Unihan font]] (both 1993). In 2007 he was commissioned by the International Association of Coptic Studies to create a standard free Unicode 5.1 font for Coptic, ''Antinoou'', using the Sahidic style.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evertype.com/fonts/coptic/ |title=Antinoou - A standard font for Coptic |publisher=Evertype |access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> ===Conscript Unicode Registry=== Together with [[John W. Cowan|John Cowan]], he is also responsible for the [[ConScript Unicode Registry]], a project to coordinate the mapping of [[artificial script]]s into the Unicode [[Private Use Area]]. Among the scripts "encoded" in the CSUR, [[Shavian]] and [[Deseret alphabet|Deseret]] were eventually formally adopted into Unicode; two other conscripts under consideration are [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s scripts of [[Tengwar]] and [[Cirth]]. ===Language and locale information=== Everson has also created locale and language information for many languages, from support for the [[Irish language]] and the other [[Celtic languages]] to the [[minority languages|minority]] [[Languages of Finland]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Everson|publisher=Evertype|url=http://www.evertype.com/standards/se/loc.html|date=March 14, 1997|title=Sami locales|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> In 2000, together with Trond Trosterud, he co-authored Software localization into Nynorsk Norwegian, a report commissioned by the [[Norwegian Language Council]]. In 2003 he was commissioned by the [[United Nations Development Programme]] to prepare a report<ref>{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Everson|first2=Roozbeh|last2=Pournader|url=http://www.evertype.com/standards/af/af-locales.pdf|title=Computer Locale Requirements for Afghanistan|date=July 29, 2003|publisher=Evertype}}</ref> on the computer locale requirements for the major languages of [[Afghanistan]] ([[Pashto language|Pashto]], [[Dari (Eastern Persian)|Dari]], and [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]), co-authored by Roozbeh Pournader, which was endorsed by the Ministry of Communications of the [[Politics of Afghanistan|Afghan Transitional Islamic Administration]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.unescap.org/rural/doc/pai/paivol13no2.pdf|title=Afghans beat language obstacle to entering digital age|journal=Poverty Alleviation Initiatives|date=April–June 2003|volume=13|issue=2|publisher=United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific|author=Lepage, Marc|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012190755/http://www.unescap.org/rural/doc/pai/paivol13no2.pdf|archive-date=October 12, 2006}}</ref> More recently, [[UNESCO]]'s Initiative B@bel<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=16541&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050313172859/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D16541%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 13, 2005 |title=UNESCO B@bel Initiative |publisher=Portal.unesco.org |access-date=November 21, 2011 }}</ref> funded Everson's work to encode the [[N'Ko script|N'Ko]] and [[Balinese alphabet|Balinese]] scripts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=17490&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=110024633|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107040404/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=17490&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=110024633|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 7, 2016|title=Development of a Unicode standard for the West African Language N'ko|work=Multilingualism in Cyberspace|publisher=[[UNESCO]]|date=November 12, 2004|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> ===Work on a standard for Cornish=== In 2007 he co-authored a proposal for a new standard written form of [[Cornish language|Cornish]], called [[Kernowek Standard]].<ref>[http://www.kernowak.com/kernowak-revision-15.pdf] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927214309/http://www.kernowak.com/kernowak-revision-15.pdf |date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref> Following the publication of the [[Standard Written Form]] in 2008, Everson and a group of other users examined the specification and implemented a set of modifications to it, publishing a formal specification in 2012.<ref>Williams, Nicholas. 2012. ''Desky Kernowek: A Complete Guide to Cornish''. Cathair na Mart: Evertype. {{ISBN|978-1-904808-99-2}}</ref> ===Publishing at Evertype=== {{As of|March 2014}} Everson operates a publishing company, Evertype, through which he has published a total of 295 books.<ref name="Evertype_cat">{{cite web|title=Evertype complete catalogue|url=http://www.evertype.com/catalogue.html|publisher=Evertype.com|access-date=December 26, 2019}}</ref> These include a wide range of titles by various authors and editors, with Everson himself as co-author of one, editor of several, and having adapted or revised several more. He also designed fonts for several.<ref name="Evertype_cat"/> Everson has a particular interest in [[Gaelic type]]face design, and does a considerable amount of work [[typesetting]] books in Irish for publication by Evertype.<ref name="Evertype_tset">{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Everson|publisher=Evertype|url=http://www.evertype.com/books.html|title=Books typeset by Michael Everson|date=October 5, 2006|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> Another project consists of his publications of translations of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' in many languages, amongst which are [[minority language]]s and [[constructed language]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evertype.com/carrolliana.html|title=Evertype Publications - Wonderland and Carrolliana|publisher=Evertype.com|access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> Translations are available in [[Cornish language|Cornish]], [[Esperanto]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]], [[Irish language|Irish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Jèrriais]], [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]], [[Latin language|Latin]], [[Lingua Franca Nova]], [[Lingwa de planeta]], [[Low German]], [[Manx language|Manx]], [[Plautdietsch language|Mennonite Low German]], Borain [[Picard language|Picard]], [[Sambahsa]], [[Scots language|Scots]], [[Shavian]] transliteration, [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Ulster Scots dialects|Ulster Scots]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]], with several other translations being prepared.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{Portal|Cornwall}} {{Commons category}} * [http://www.evertype.com/ Evertype.com], Michael Everson's website * {{twitter}} * [http://archives.wbur.org/theconnection/2003/11/20/alphabetician-to-the-world.html An interview with Michael Everson] by Dick Gordon on ''[[The Connection (radio program)|The Connection]]'', a [[National Public Radio]] public affairs call-in program * [http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/tdf/id/2068104 Dork Forest interview] by [[Jackie Kashian]], 2012-09-18 * {{LCAuth|n97113362|Michael Everson|6|ue}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Everson, Michael}} [[Category:1963 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American emigrants to Ireland]] [[Category:Children's book publishers]] [[Category:Cornish language revival]] [[Category:Irish typographers and type designers]] [[Category:Lewis Carroll]] [[Category:Linguists from the Republic of Ireland]] [[Category:People from Norristown, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:People involved with Unicode]] [[Category:Irish publishers (people)]] [[Category:University of Arizona alumni]] [[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]] [[Category:Volapükologists]]
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