#3159: Friends of Mason Integrated Technologies Update (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:MariLinc@aol.com

To the friends and colleagues of Marilyn Mason and MIT2:

This is to alert you to the fact that I've updated my President's Update 
Report which can be found at:

http://hometown.aol.com/mit2usa/Update3-2000.htm

There have been a number of major developments in the life of this small 
language technologies start-up -- including the striking of a strategic 
alliance with CreoleTrans, a professional Creole language translation 
service, in order to maximize effectiveness of both companies.

I'm gearing up now for a number of activities, which will demand all of my 
time and energies in the coming months:

- Preparation of a National Science Foundation Small Business Intensive 
Research Grant proposal (June 9th deadline);

- the ANLP and CLAW meetings in Seattle (April 29 - May 4) where I will be 
giving computer demos of our prototype software to corporate R&D and language 
technologies specialists and decision-makers;

- the LREC meetings in Athens, Greece (May 31 - June 2), where I will be 
giving papers and computer demos to a similar, but even more diverse, 
audience;

- and a Caribbean Linguistics Conference in Mona, Jamaica.

Never did I need support staff more than now!  There are not enough hours in 
the day for one person to do all the work of running MIT2:  administration, 
public relations, R&D, Web Site development, graphic arts, writing, editing, 
publishing, secretarial work, fundraising, preparation for and participation 
in international conferences, etc.

Yet -- to date -- MIT2 does not even have enough money to pay me a salary, 
let alone hire additional workers.

Without Jeff Allen's donation of his personal time and extra-ordinary skills, 
I would not still be in one piece!  Thanks, Jeff.

But even that is not now enough.  The MIT2 baby has grown to adolescence and 
is making incredible demands upon financial resources which don't yet exist 
and for talented people we cannot yet afford.

Please seriously consider investing $500-$1,000 into this fast-growing, much 
needed enabling environment for the development of language technology 
resources for minority and vernacular languages -- especially Pidgins and 
Creoles.  Nothing like it exists anywhere, where the goal is to bring 
together native speakers, potential end users, traditional linguists, applied 
linguists, computational linguists, language technologies specialists, 
software developers and localizers in the very conceptualization, design and 
quality control of our products!

This is a very strategic moment.  We must survive this transitional stage on 
the way to the obtaining of grant and corporate strategic partnering 
investment capital.

You can learn more about investing in MIT2 at:

http://hometown.aol.com/mit2usa/Investing.html

Sincerely,

Marilyn

*******
Marilyn Mason, President
Mason Integrated Technologies Ltd
P.O. Box 181015
Boston, MA  02118  USA
(617) 247-8885 (office & answering machine)
(617) 262-8923 (FAX)
MariLinc@aol.com (e-mail)
Mason Integrated Technologies Ltd Home Page:
   http://hometown.aol.com/mit2usa/Index2.html
MIT2 President's Update:
   http://hometown.aol.com/mit2usa/Update3-2000.htm
Orthographically Converted HC Texts Download Site:
   http://hometown.aol.com/mit2haiti/Index4.html
Meet Marilyn Mason:
   http://hometown.aol.com/marilinc/Index3.html
MIT2 Job Opportunities:
   http://hometown.aol.com/mit2usa/JobOpps.html