One day, dead languages were actually alive
Communicating is evolving.
The ability of human beings to use broadband communication was a determining factor in their progress towards intelligence. The versatile vocal tool has allowed a changing brain to co-opt it in order to evolve it, which is as true as the evolution of the brain being stimulated by the very own range of communication itself.
Institutions, particularly scientific ones, have to communicate and for different reasons.
They need to report to the society for their use of the government funds that are given to them.
They need to build an image of seriousness, progress, and of social positioning.
They need to show strengths and capabilities.
They need to excite, galvanise, mobilise and motivate young people to dedicate themselves to science.
They need to promote individual and social self-esteem from the reported successes.
They need to be and to have a critical voice in the construction of scientific culture.
Since 2000, INESC TEC's Bulletin, affectionately referred to as BIP, intended to be a little of all this - in Portuguese and English. Statistical analyses and access tracking have been demonstrating this ability of national and international penetration. Thousands of monthly accesses from all over the world are the basic evidence of this progressively constructed reality: BIP, which is characterised as a mix of reference and irreverence, has become the respected communication tool of a progressively respected institution.
Being independently published by choice and by opening unusual territories of expression in institutional bulletins, BIP's model conquered its space and marked two decades.
Gone are the days when someone would restrainedly exclaim through the corridors of INESC TEC: BIP is read in Lisbon!... Interestingly, to contrast this original provincial surprise with the statement, a couple of years later, in a trivial tone: BIP is read in Mongolia...
BIP's assertion, taking INESC TEC along with it, has become planetary, but Earth runs around the Sun and the Sun runs around the galaxy, and yet life takes many turns. New technological forms of communication emerge and the will to try them should not be suppressed. BIP as we know it will end, with almost 20 years of existence – in the good company, in terms of life expectancy, of a beaver, a sparrow or a gila monster.
This newsletter, which the reader still embraces with his eyes, is about to undergo through a metamorphosis. It will no longer be what it is, making way to a successor voice, who will speak the same speech even if the language is different.
Latin is a dead language – but who will deny its important role in shaping the global communication through its heir languages? Let it be the case after the end of BIP.
Something new will arise, a new model, a descendant, a son, after the BIP that we were proudly used to throughout the years. There is the sense of mission accomplished, a sense of loss and a certain nostalgia.
