Steampunk = Varmvaporpunko?
As opposed to Mistpunk (Malvarmvaporpunko?), a new music genre coming soon.

Bemused:Steampunk = Varmvaporpunko?
As opposed to Mistpunk (Malvarmvaporpunko?), a new music genre coming soon.

Great that nearly everything was already discussed once.

"Mola potenco" eble havas...alian signifon por Esperantistoj (iom, eble).

Ĉu vi jam aŭdis la kanto Mola?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upo-qzJvWlU

"Soft power" might have...another meaning for Esperantists (some, perhaps).

Have you heard the song Mola?

patrik:We should not aim to be a threatening minority who spout anti-imperialistic gobbledegooky propaganda. I think we should throw away that dualistic worldview, and realize that it's NOT all "us against them"; that we are NOT fighters aiming to end the dominance of English; that we should NOT cling to that venomous ideology of ressentiment..., (that) essentially tell(s) the world that Esperanto is the "Final Solution" to the "English Problem". Soft power is about the ability to attract people, of establishing friendly ties, and bitter ressentiment won't help us to reach those goals. All those excess baggage should remain as relics of the past...

I now look back at this thread and read the later posts. And so I say these things:

1) Esperantism is inherently political, given its internationalist goals, as spelt out in the first paragraph of the Boulogne Declaration. Therefore, in my opinion, any cause that is in consonance with our goals should be supported by the movement at large. We can be as politically moral and activist as we wish, as long as it doesn't violate the spirit of the Declaration. For instance, I don't think it's wrong for us Esperantists to officially make a stand to condemn racism, anti-Semitism, and the like and to do something about such issues. On the contrary, it would only back our words with deeds. I also realize, though, that this could open a can of worms, given the diversity of worldviews among us Esperantists. Should we take up causes, we should take something we all agree upon.

2) I recognize that a soft power iniciative would be too costly for us. Given that we don't participate in the world of markets and profits, it would be impossible. Only through a concerted effort by Esperanto organizations, we the users, and investors (SOROS, please! Us first, not Hillary! ) could this iniciative go through. In this vein, the experience of Flavio Ribello is a cautionary tale. The problem is that we still don't fully know what should we learn out of it.

3) I have little faith in grass-root efforts, they have been tried with little success (that is, it didn't endow us with enough respectability and we're still the butt of jokes throughout the world.) But still, we should try such efforts. Youtube videos, for instance.

4) Esperantists can make anything from any genre they wish, may it be manga, steampunk rock or video games. We should try different things. As I said,

patrik:Esperanto to me is a "niche market". Rather, we're supposed to be a parallel alternative to the current dominant (super)culture. That is, Esperanto is for those who are disenchanted and bored of the same old popular crap. We're a sui generis community, therefore we should proud of our uniqueness, not driven by ressentiment*, but by the thirst for quality and excellence that got lost in the usual process.

Patrick, why not discuss it in esperanto forum?

For "soft power", I prefer mildpotenco, dolĉpotenco or even perdolĉa potenco to avoid ambiguity.

I voted yes, but reluctantly. Esperanto doesn't need power, and definitely shouldn't court it (because power corrupts!), but a stronger modern Esperantist culture could of course only be a good thing.

Esperanto shouldn't need a marketing board or a stultifying celebrity culture (which is presumably the kind of thing we'd need to achieve soft power). Do we have to be like everything else?

I've been thinking about this and here are my thoughts.

The two biggest problems I see with trying to spread enthusiasm for Esperanto is 1) we can't force anybody to learn Esperanto and trying to push someone to do it will make them not want to do it (and probably make them hate it and never think about it again) and 2) conflating any type of divisive -ism will only turn people off.

What we need to do is try to let people know the positives and benefits about Esperanto. To me, they are: easy and quick to learn, to be able to communicate easily with people across many cultures and languages while only learning one language, and learning Esperanto first makes learning other languages easier.

Some ideas:

Big ideas (no idea how to go about them):
- Esperanto as the first language course in schools
- Esperanto as the lingua franca for EU and UN and other transnational organizations that I can't think of
- Esperanto as lingua franca for aviation
- Well, I guess, Esperanto as lingua franca for every organization

Achievable ideas:
- Once Duolingo incubator allows to/from Esperanto, create Esperanto courses and use the immersion feature to start making things available in Esperanto (things like Wikipedia and such)
- Side translate things. Ekzemple, on the off occasion I actually post on Facebook, I'll post in both Esperanto and English (with Esperanto first)
- Make Esperanto the default. When you make webpages, write books, create media, make the default Esperanto. Ekzemple, when making a web page, make the default Esperanto and have buttons to switch to English or whatever your native language is.

Best idea:
- For me, the coolest thing about Esperanto is being able to communicate with everyone across the world regardless of native language. So, to see (good) crowdsourced media and things would be great to see. Things like music or books or videos with a note somewhere how it was all brought together from people across the world through Esperanto.

Which makes me think of how to say crowdsourced - amaskreado?

makis:Some ideas:

Big ideas (no idea how to go about them):
- Esperanto as the first language course in schools
- Esperanto as the lingua franca for EU and UN and other transnational organizations that I can't think of
- Esperanto as lingua franca for aviation
- Well, I guess, Esperanto as lingua franca for every organization

Truth be told, I am against moves to woo governments and international organizations (desuprismo), because it has been used as tactic since the early years of the movement and yet the results remain dismal. Also, it would involve lobbying, coercion, corruption, bootlicking, and ultimately, government control over Esperanto. Imagine this: Esperanto courses paid by taxpayer's money! I can't stomach the idea of it! There is a separation of Esperanto and state, and it works well for us. It should remain that way.

makis:Achievable ideas:
- Once Duolingo incubator allows to/from Esperanto, create Esperanto courses and use the immersion feature to start making things available in Esperanto (things like Wikipedia and such)
- Side translate things. Ekzemple, on the off occasion I actually post on Facebook, I'll post in both Esperanto and English (with Esperanto first)
- Make Esperanto the default. When you make webpages, write books, create media, make the default Esperanto. Ekzemple, when making a web page, make the default Esperanto and have buttons to switch to English or whatever your native language is.

Instead of making Esperanto versions of this or that, I find it best to create something original in Esperanto, out of which they'll have to create versions of it in multiple languages. That would be a better demonstration of the soft power we want to achieve, don't you think?

makis:Which makes me think of how to say crowdsourced - amaskreado?

Hmm, Komputeko doesn't have that term yet. "Crowdsourcing" is a portmanteau of "crowd" (amaso/-a) and "outsourcing" (subkontraktado), so maybe it could be "amasa subkontraktado"?

@jismith1989: Well, "soft power" is more on persuasion than on coercion. I don't think it would be that corruptive.

For the benefit of everyone reading this thread, please read this article by the originator of the concept of "soft power": The Benefits of Soft Power (La Avantaĝoj de Molpotenco)

My personal opinion is all sectors should go for Esperanto, whether is soft or hard. What is the purpose to be an international language if all sectors are not using Esperanto ?

The Global Voices(GV) has hit the road but alas, not more than 10 persons from the Esperantujo participated in the group. Global Voices is the soft power to it. Each article which has translated is shown at the language part. All readers can see it.

Global Voices will change the policy that not necessary to translate from English only but can from other languages to English as well. In short, the original article which appears in the Esperanto GV will be translated to other languages if that particular group has Esperanto speakers. This is a small step of venko. Isn't it. However, it is not much talk about it but the criticism is harsh in the Libera Folio. Many only talk but not act needless to say to do it. GV is the world 4th largest social media.

A small online portal Loyar Burok has recognised Esperanto, the editorial department staff has to know Esperanto if not, at least the knowledge of Esperanto. Another venko.

The ease of internet can help to transmit lots of information, the air crash has been identified as 20-30 % of the accidents were due to the misunderstanding of pilots and the traffic tower. But did anyone thus far, using the change.org or other online tools to petition the International Aviation Association to make Esperanto the sole language ? The dead pilots could not raise up from the grave to protest the case but the black box record is the only evident and the speech recorded is always true.

Don't the international aviation association know the problem ? Yes, certainly, they do but there is not petition from the society. The UEA produced a book on the aviation and left to be collecting the dust.

2014 is Esperanto in UNESCO for 60 years, is anyone from the Esperantujo wants to send cards and signature to all the UNESCO office to congratulate and celebrate it ? Nope, even the 50 years was not highlighted. Many people did not know UNESCO recommended Esperanto as the international language, how it would be accepted.

Many game players want the Esperanto to be but do think that, how much can they learn and use it besides the comment of go, out etc. We have to look forward to better avenue like fluent bilingual can reduce the old age dementia.

Cont:

Even senior and experienced esperantist also did not know well of KER certificate and reduced the value of KER to zero. How on earth is the UEA doing to get a worldwide KER exam yearly, 2014 is the 3rd year. If it is so meaningless, it is better to stop wasting the time and money from the participates in the world. In South East Asia, only Malaysia has a testing center.

The other part of activity is supporting the World Parliament. How many Esperantists have posted the support pictures in Esperanto and the common signal of green star or the flag ? If the World Parliament is formed, it would be possible to get Esperanto into as the official language. At least the Esperantujo has supported since the begining. See the pictures around the world on facebook.

If you do not know what World Parliament is, listen to his talk at the UN press conference.

Esperantists are so obsessed with the kongreso. The event has to be officiated opening by the Prime Minister or the duputy. The organisation can get the PM to officiated the event but cannot convience the ministry of education to list esperanto as the subject of study at least if not compulsory.

Esperantujo has more language lovers instead of action takers. They prefer to translate the pages into the Esperanto from other languages but not taking the iniciative to do something more like the TED x Esperanto. Did TED refuse the organising of Esperanto TED ? Read the rules and regulations. Please don't show me the Esperanto speaker in the Spain TED. TED is a commercial sector now.

Recently, the TEDx in Chinese language just concluded. See the pictures in the facebook.

The worries are can the Esperantujo get that many people, specialists etc to participate in the TED x Esperanto en XXXX in a country ? If not, do it as a region.

Think hard but not just as what it is. Work for the celebration of 60 years of UNESCO to let more people know about it. My twitts have been favourited by the @UNESCO.