I switch to English to let others know what we are discussing. Thanks a lot for volunteering your time for translations. For that purpose, I invite you to send a direct message to @carmi who can set you up on Bilara (the translation interface we use here to produce and publish translations). Once set up, I can explain what is my organisation and workflow, and see how we can coordinate effectively.
Yes, I expected that would be difficult, if not impossible, to reach Wijayaratna. I think attempts had already been made in the past.
We also tried to get a contact years ago, without success. Even the publisher who first published his translations of whole Nikayas (I think he did DN and MN, I don’t have them any more, and my memory is sometimes week) stopped responding soon after they were released, and the books were nearly impossible to get. I haven’t followed up on that since then.
Thank you for sharing details about your father and the generous sentiment towards SuttaCentral. Sending best wishes to your dad for happy travels and to find peace from his aspired Bodhi.
Hello @Deepika, I was wondering if you had already considered a crowdfunding page for this project? This could give visibility and encourage donations by letting us know how far we have gone and how much is still needed.
If I might answer on Deepika’s behalf, we have not considered that as yet. In the past, we have been lucky to have the support we need and haven’t needed additional fundraising, beyond simply spreading the word as we’ve done here.
One thing to bear in mind is that such methods were developed to cater for a world where dana is not normal. But in Buddhism, it is: we have our own traditions of giving and supporting Buddhist projects. So it’s not clear that such an approach would be as effective for us as it might be for others.
Having said which, I appreciate your point about getting clarity and feedback. From my point of view, it’s always proved hard, practically impossible, to meaningfully estimate the cost of tech projects, as there are so many uncertainties. Rather than put too much stock in projections, my approach is to work closely with the tech team to ensure that everyone understands the requirements and stays on track.
At the moment, we have completed the bulk of the technical back end side of the project, and we will begin implementing the web client soon. I think that should be relatively simple, because Bilara has a simple concept and only two main views. But we shall see!
Thanks, Bhante for helping me out with answering, in the early days we did consider external crowdfunding options, and we also gave away a copy of Therigatha to encourage donations.
We have grown up a bit now, with Stripe as our payment engine and Suttacentral being used by many users we are on a reasonable wicket to approach a larger crowd/community for our funding needs internally. I have been promoting starting Wikipedia-style donation appeals during Vesak to those who use our services. If the majority who access our site donate a small amount regularly we will be accessing a large crowd. thanks.
Thank you Bhante @sujato, @Deepika, for your detailed and thoughtful answers. It makes a lot of sense, and I am thrilled to learn about the progress of the project. Wonderful! Sadhu!
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