Subject: Re: [lojban] how can i help lojban? what can $ do?

From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 21:02:10 -0400

At 08:45 AM 07/20/2001 -0600, Jay Kominek wrote:
>On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 [email-masked] wrote:
> > i try to start discussions in jbosnu, so we can start using the
> > language. so far that's gone pretty well. i don't want to try to
> > change the language myself, or i'll end up wanting to write my own!
>
>I for one appreciate your attempts on jbosnu even if I don't get involved
>in them.
>
> > i tried giving money to lojbab, but apparently he didn't even cash
> > the checks in time. i think the lojban cause is supremely important,
> > so where should i send money to help it along to?
>
>I think he is taking money via paypal now, which maybe is more convinent
>for him?

We have a paypal account, but I have no idea how the money is supposed to 
come from it - they never sent me a check. I can't remember who suggested 
that I set the thing up to ask. So far as I know only that one person ever 
has used it to send money, which is presumably still sitting in the 
account. This on-line commerce is still a complete mystery to me, probably 
compounded by the fact that I personally have avoided doing e-commerce.

Sending me checks the normal way is fine, but I tend to deposit checks 
after I fill a bunch of orders, which sometimes has been a few 
months. I've never had checks with meaningful time limits before, and I 
don't look at the checks when they come in, so if you sent me a check that 
expires, I may not even know it. Best to tell me that I have to deposit it 
immediately if it is an issue.

> > i'm wondering if a lot of money thrown on the problem would make
> > things worse or better?

If we want to publish books, we need lots of money (thousands of 
dollars). We still haven't paid off the loan from the refgrammar yet.

> >i suppose we could get people on things full
> > time to develop and evangelize.
>
>You could pay people to learn the language, and then pay them to write
>stuff in it.
>
>Thats sort of excessive, though.

The bottom line is that few people have enough time to do what needs 
doing. Every once is a while we get lucky and have an energetic Nick or 
someone else willing to undertake a major problem, putting in the big hours 
for a few months until it is done. Parenting has been a big limitation on 
my Lojban time (and I think Cowan's as well), but the kids are teens now so 
in a few years I'll have more ability to focus on Lojban long enough to get 
something done.

> > what could, for example, a ten million dollar boost do to the project?
>
>I realize you're being hypothetical, but maybe it would be more productive
>to be hypothetical in a feasible way. Asking more like, "What would the
>project do with $1k?"
>
>Hopefully publication of the lessons will be occuring soon, and that will
>take quite a bit of an investment to get done. Lojbab still hasn't
>finished recouping the costs of publishing the reference grammar, and
>publishing the lessons would surely be not too cheap, either.

Our publishing costs are probably in the $5-10K range per book for most 
books; the refgrammar cost a bit more ($17,500) but we learned some lessons 
that might keep costs down doing it again. A full dictionary will cost 
more than the refgrammar, but the pocket dictionary that is just a printed 
version of what we have on line already in better format would not be 
nearly as much.

We did prepare an AI research proposal aimed at bigger bucks to support a 
few technical people full time, and indeed we have ideas on how we would 
spend larger amounts, but no one has even thought about $1 million, much 
less $10 million. I'm sure that if someone says that such money is 
possible, we would be able to come up with some sound plans that would not 
depend on my paperwork skills.

Money to pay people could support AI research, or more cheaply either 
getting someone to handle orders and paperwork so it gets done 
promptly. In the middle would be paying someone to do the necessary 
grinding away needed to get a dictionary done.

Except for myself, and Jeff Prothero when we jointly financed the legal 
case, the largest donation we've ever gotten has been around $400. But 
lojbab is not able to donate much these days, and that means that we can 
only do projects that cost money one at a time.

lojbab
--
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org