Ten days, 2,879 visits, 767 referrals, and about three press publications later, 35 contributors have got our project up to 29% of its goal. That is incredible and humbling. At this rate, were on the way to meeting the target early and even surpassing it. Heres a post to say a BIG thank you to everyone who donated (be it $5 or $100), and all those who have promised to do so soon. A fundraising drive beginning just five days into a month that follows a big spending holiday that still manages to get this kind of support must have had something going for it. I suspect that this is the goodness of heart of our donors, friends, colleagues, and family, to be part of something beautiful and relevant. Or maybe its just an idea whose time has come. Youre appreciated. Very much. Just a couple more news: work has begun on the construction of a landing page for the website. One of the software programmers (a Nigerian based in Holland) has volunteered his services free of charge while the other is going to be paid. While the backbone of the project is being built, we are imagining a landing page where volunteers can sign up, users can sign up for updates, and folks can put in their names for the initial database. We are also in talks with a couple of local and international cultural organisations whose own goals collide in some way with the overall purpose of this project. If breakthrough is achieved, our donors will be the first to know. If you would like to be a part of this work in any way (We dont have money, as you can see), please send me a private message. Those who work on this together with us (in different capacities) will hopefully form an elite corp of relevant personalities for a number of other (sometimes paying) language-related projects in the future. This information technology century is ours to build, along with others, in a way that reflects our cultural outlook. But that wont happen unless we do all we can to make technology friendly to our own languages, and culture. There is a long (but rewarding) way to go. As long as computer programs give a pass to Schwarzenegger and Krauthammer, yet draw red squiggly lines under Agbábíàká or Akínsolúgbà; as long as folks named Chiwetalu have to change their names to Chiwetel so as to make it easier to pronounce (because there is nowhere online to learn said pronunciation), then we havent yet done enough. We still have 50 days to the end of the fundraising campaign. Its not too late to chip in. I think were going to find a page on the project page to list the name of all our donors. It is because of them that this will become reality. Thanks again. And, good night.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:11:40 +0000
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