Dave Moskovitz

From next week, .nz domain names will have the ability to contain macrons.

I’m really pleased to have lent a hand to the process which has enabled the complete Māori alphabet to be used in .nz domain names; I was on the “IDN” (Internationalised Domain Name) committee at InternetNZ which set up the policy and process for making this happen.

Here’s the InternetNZ media release:

Media Release – 22 July 2010 – The beginning of next week marks an exciting new phase for the .nz domain name space. From 10am on Monday 26 July 2010, people will be able to register .nz domain names using the macronised vowels ā, ē, ī, ō and ū.

Registering a .nz domain name with macrons will take place in exactly the same way as registering any other .nz domain name – through a ‘registrar’ – and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

New Zealand Domain Name Commissioner Debbie Monahan says the launch date for general registrations has been timed to coincide with the start of Māori Language Week, which is significant because, for the first time, New Zealand’s indigenous language, Te Reo Māori, can be correctly represented online.

“Thanks to the successful completion of the global Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) initiative the New Zealand Internet is now more culturally representative.

“The addition of macrons to the .nz domain name space is a step forward for online identity and the Internet in New Zealand and I encourage those interested in securing a macronised name to take note of the opening of general registrations on 26 July.

“This is the culmination of years of hard work at both local and international levels, and I would like to thank New Zealand’s IDN working group and .nz Registry Services for their valuable contributions.”

More information about .nz domain names with macrons is available at www.dnc.org.nz/story/nz-domain-names-macrons

For further information contact:
Debbie Monahan
Domain Name Commissioner
+64 4 495 2114

I’ve just finished helping my Mom (Dr Sarah Traister Moskovitz) publish a web site containing what might be considered to be her Magnum Opus.

Poetry In Hell is the culmination of ten years of research into the poets of the Warsaw Ghetto, and their poetry rescued in buried milk cans from the Ringelblum Archives.  My dad spent years restoring and cleaning up hundreds of microfiche images of the original Yiddish poetry, which my Mom translated into English.  A Professor Emeritus in Educational Psychology, she received assistance for the project from the The California State University at Northridge Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

I built the framework for the web site, and it’s hosted on the same Wordpress engine as this site.

Poetry in Hell is an amazing project that provides insight into the daily lives of people living in the ghetto.  The Internet is the perfect medium for this kind of archive project; it would be a real shame if it were restricted to books on shelves in niche libraries that were accessible only to researchers.

To the people with family who died in the Ghetto; to people who can’t imagine how humanity can express itself under such conditions; to people craving a window into the final days of Yiddish culture as it existed in its heyday; to historians, and especially to the holocaust deniers – Poetry In Hell is an ongoing testament to the depth of artistic expression, the complexity of human interaction, and the intricate perception of Yiddish culture that Hitler could not extinguish.

Do have a look at it, and if you like it, let your friends know about Poetry in Hell.

Left to right: Thomas Schickedanz, Hannah Schickedanz, Mike Penhall, Dave Moskovitz, Nick Rowney, Stefan Korn, Jeff Mitchell, Annabel Youens

Stephen Fisher posted a fabulous review of The Klezmer Rebs playing the Palmerston North City Library in today’s Manawatu Standard:

While we may have become used to the sounds of live music drifting through our city library, it is a long time since we have been treated to such a lively and spirited performance as that which the Klezmer Rebs provided yesterday afternoon.

Undergoing a revival, Klezmer is traditionally celebratory Jewish music, and, although frequently instrumental, vocal lines and song titles are usually in Yiddish. Flexible in its lineup, yesterday’s concert was by seven members of the Klezmer Rebs, who are largely Wellington based.

It was an evocative mix of clarinet, violin, trumpet, trombone and helicon accompanied by piano and guitar or mandolin, giving us a characteristically authentic sound that set one’s primal musical spirit a dancing.

All of the group joined in with vocals as appropriate as they selected much of their programme from the established Klezmer repertoire, their arrangements reflecting traditional style, while allowing the creativity of these talented instrumentalists to add their own distinctive interpretation to the music.

The music celebrates the many facets of life itself and the Klezmer Rebs brought joy and vibrancy to the performance, giving the music a captivating urgency that could not fail to set the heart and soul soaring.

While there was musical excellence on display from all members of the group, the clarinettist was Urs Signeur, who made a significant contribution to local music during his year as an exchange student in Palmerston North nearly 10 years ago. Apart from giving us some stunning clarinet solos, this talented young man also composed several numbers for the group, his work characterised by much inventiveness while still capturing an authentic style.

While it must be expensive for such a large group to travel around the country, I hope it is not too long before the group makes another appearance in our city as it was obvious that the infectious joy of this music captured the hearts of the large audience gathered in the library.

Can it get much better than that?

Our Just Add Shmaltz CD was reviewed recently in The Listener (26 September 2009, page 43) and The Dominion Post (2 October 2009, page B6).

Who ever thought that we’d be mainstream enough to get critical acclaim?

Te Reo Pūtaiao: A Māori Language Dictionary of Science came out earlier this month.  It was compiled using the Freelex / Mātāpuna open source dictionary writing system that I wrote.

Te Reo Pūtaiao is an encyclopedic dictionary; nearly all of the info is in Te Reo Māori, and each entry contains an equivalent English gloss and a definition.  Most entries also have information on the derivation of the term, an detailed explanation often including diagrams, and related terms.  The dictionary covers the lexicon used in teaching the New Zealand Science Curriculum through year 11.

It’s simply brilliant.  It’s funny that I never realised how brilliant it was until actually seeing the finished product.  Working through the database and user interface design, I never really saw the big picture.  But opening up the book caused an “aha moment” for me.  This dictionary has huge potential to make science accessible to Māori kids through Te Reo and tikanga Māori.  If this book is responsible for helping Aotearoa produce even one great scientist, it would have been totally worth the effort.

Kia ora to Ian Christiansen and Shirley Mullaney for having the vision to produce this, and the Ministry of Education for funding it.

I’m listed in the credits as the “Tohunga Rorohiko”, or “Computer Shaman”; this is the second dictionary for which I’ve had this honour. I feel humbled to have the opportunity to work with such experienced  and learned teams on these lexicography projects which will have lasting impact on Te Reo Māori.