by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2010/11/22, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2010/11/22/10094513.aspx
Disclaimer: The company I work for is a full member of Unicode and the provider of space for Unicode's home office, and I have been a full and associate member in the past.
I have never claimed to be a big fan of the emoji, in any of the times they have come up here, e.g.
and so on. I could go on, but the topic tends to drain me of a lot of energy. You can probably find more if yo0u are interested, though as goals go it isn't very exciting.
In the end, searching for blogs on some topics is a bit like the flaw in trying to pick people up at the nude beach (that flaw is that most people -- myself included -- look more attractive with clothes on than clothes off, the flaw in the task of finding good emoji blogs is not that there aren't any - though there aren't -- it is that once you have the blogs in hand you feel less clean, less good, less fulfilled.
Or maybe that's just me....
Anyway, the one thing the emoji, that thing which in my mind can make Unicode feel less about interesting language issues and more about how to build a clip art factory, is that it can appeal to others
If you need proof, see Adam Kuban's Unicode 6.0 Includes New Pizza Slice Character on "America's Favorite Pizza Weblog" Slice, which points to Typographer and pizza lover Nick Sherman's U+1F355: “SLICE OF PIZZA” character in Unicode 6.0 on his own Pizza Rules! Blog.
And suddenly see who the heirs of Bernard R. Miler might be.
Eventually some of these people who see so much more in the text than, well, the text, will be people affluent enough to join Unicode as members.
And perhaps one day they will even vote Unicode beyond the constraints it has created for itself in this regard.
I am reminded of a bit from an episode of The West Wing:
You know, I never understand why you gun control people
don't all join the N.R.A. They've got two million members.
You bring three million to the next meeting... call a vote...
All those in favor of tossing guns - [Snaps fingers] - Bam! Move on.
I'm not saying it's necessarily a sensible strategy.
But it may cost less for the fans of Pizza to get some of their topping into Unicode than the NRA thing would cost people.... :-)