Michael Everson

Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is an expert in the writing systems of the world. He is a linguist, typesetter, and font designer, and is one of the co-authors of the Unicode Standard.

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 co-authors of the Unicode Standard, he is a contributing editor to ISO/IEC 10646, ISO 15924, and RFC 3066. He has contributed to the encoding of many scripts and characters in those standards, receiving the Unicode "Bulldog" Award in 2000 for his technical contributions to the development and promotion of the Unicode Standard.

Related Topics:
Character encoding - Standardization - Internationalization - ISO/IEC 10646 - ISO 15924 - Characters - 2000

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Everson has been actively involved in the encoding of many scripts in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards, including Balinese, Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Cherokee, Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot, Deseret, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, Gothic, Hanunóo, Khmer, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear B, Mongolian, Myanmar, New Tai Lue, N'Ko, Ogham, Ol Chiki, Old Italic, Old Persian, Osmanya, Phoenician, Runic, Saurashtra, Shavian, Sinhala, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai Le, Thaana, Tibetan, Ugaritic, Vai, and Yi, as well as many characters belonging to the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic scripts.

Related Topics:
Balinese - Braille - Buginese - Buhid - Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics - Cherokee - Coptic - Cuneiform - Cypriot - Deseret - Ethiopic - Georgian - Glagolitic - Gothic - Hanunóo - Khmer - Lepcha - Limbu - Linear B - Mongolian - Myanmar - New Tai Lue - N'Ko - Ogham - Ol Chiki - Old Italic - Old Persian - Osmanya - Phoenician - Runic - Saurashtra - Shavian - Sinhala - Tagalog - Tagbanwa - Tai Le - Thaana - Tibetan - Ugaritic - Vai - Yi - Latin - Greek - Cyrillic - Arabic

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Together with John Cowan, he is also responsible for the ConScript Unicode Registry, a project to coordinate the mapping of artificial scripts into the Unicode Private Use Area. Among the scripts "encoded" in the CSUR, Shavian and Deseret were eventually formally adopted into Unicode; two other conscripts under consideration are Tengwar and Cirth.

Related Topics:
John Cowan - ConScript Unicode Registry - Artificial script - Private Use Area - Shavian - Deseret - Tengwar - Cirth

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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 of Finland. In 2003 he was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme to prepare a report on the computer locale requirements for the major languages of Afghanistan (Pashto, Dari, and Uzbek), co-authored by Roozbeh Pournader, which was endorsed by the Ministry of Communications of the Afghan Transitional Islamic Administration. More recently, UNESCO's Initiative B@bel funded Everson's work to encode the N'Ko and Balinese scripts.

Related Topics:
Irish language - Celtic languages - Minority languages - Finland - 2003 - United Nations Development Programme - Afghanistan - Pashto - Dari - Uzbek - Roozbeh Pournader - Afghan Transitional Islamic Administration - UNESCO - N'Ko - Balinese

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He also has an interest in typeface design, and in Gaelic typography in particular, and does a considerable amount of work typesetting books in Irish.

Related Topics:
Typeface - Typography - Typesetting

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