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Dankon al Lernu | Thanks to Lernu

od Ironchef, 24. december 2008

Sporočila: 22

Jezik: English

erinja (Prikaži profil) 26. december 2008 14:26:52

You can pay into a UEA account by credit card using https://db.uea.org/alighoj/spagilo.php

Indicate "alia celo" under "pago-celo", and write in the notes box that the payment is for account lern-a

Or, you can use the UEA's system of intermediaries. That means that you pay money to a UEA representative in your country, and they pass the money along to the UEA (notated for the correct UEA account). You can find your country's UEA payment representative adn contact information here: http://www.uea.org/alighoj/perantoj.html

Miland (Prikaži profil) 26. december 2008 15:50:57

Thanks, that is quite straightforward. Further on the theme of generating income, here are a few ideas that may be of use in the longer term:

(a) Have on the website a link for making donations by a secure link just like major charities do, and for example at the end of a course that someone has successfully completed.

(b) Have such a link with a message congratulating someone for a successful result in a lernu! examination (soliciting funds from unsuccessful candidates might not be such a good idea).

(c) Expand the range of the online butiko - but of course this would depend on physical and logistical constraints. Possibilities could include
(i) Self-contained CDs containing the course materials
(ii) Verda Stelo or melono paraphernalia including clothing items, stationery and crockery
(iii) Esperanto CDs, DVDs and books

andogigi (Prikaži profil) 26. december 2008 18:04:09

Miland:

(c) Expand the range of the online butiko
I think one would have to be careful on this point. For example, the ELNA has a really good online bookstore. (www.esperanto-usa.org) When I became a member, they gave me discounts on any merchandise I purchased through them. I'm sure many local organizations in various countries do something similar. I don't think it is anyone's intention to be in competition with those groups.

Miland (Prikaži profil) 26. december 2008 18:20:42

It wouldn't necessarily be competition with national organisations, because non-members would not receive discounts that the latter might offer their own members, and users of a lernu! online shop might well not have an UEA account. Thus the butiko might provide an international service not obtainable in other ways.

But thinking about it I just had another idea. Perhaps organisations who own the copyright to expensive Esperanto books (like the PIV) could be persuaded by the teamo to allow cheap pdf editions to be made available at a very small cost from the butiko for download. Some of the proceeds could go to the publishers, but it would essentially be a service to people who couldn't afford the full published editions.

andogigi (Prikaži profil) 26. december 2008 22:52:59

Miland:
But thinking about it I just had another idea. Perhaps organisations who own the copyright to expensive Esperanto books (like the PIV) could be persuaded by the teamo to allow cheap pdf editions to be made available at a very small cost from the butiko for download. Some of the proceeds could go to the publishers, but it would essentially be a service to people who couldn't afford the full published editions.
That's a really good, workable idea. Considering how popular the Amazon Kindle and others are becoming, maybe they could be sold in e-book format with DRM's attached in order to keep it from being copied and passed around?

Personally, I have a Sony reader and have downloaded numerous books in Esperanto from Project Gutenberg. I would gladly pay for the convenience of adding worthwhile tomes to my reader.

danielcg (Prikaži profil) 27. december 2008 02:53:26

Sorry for my ignorance. What are DRM's?

Thanks in advance.

Daniel

andogigi:
That's a really good, workable idea. Considering how popular the Amazon Kindle and others are becoming, maybe they could be sold in e-book format with DRM's attached in order to keep it from being copied and passed around?

RiotNrrd (Prikaži profil) 27. december 2008 04:17:51

danielcg:Sorry for my ignorance. What are DRM's?
Digital Rights Management. Basically copy protection.

ceigered (Prikaži profil) 27. december 2008 08:52:13

RiotNrrd:
danielcg:Sorry for my ignorance. What are DRM's?
Digital Rights Management. Basically copy protection.
Mmmm so THAT's what it means. Maybe a developer for lernu might be able to create a 'lernu! library' kind of application, or use iTunes as a medium, because in my experience DRM files are hard to handle without a specific or qualified program malgajo.gif

How do free sites like YouTube make so much money (well, before they got bought out by google), could lernu use the same techniques?

erinja (Prikaži profil) 27. december 2008 16:21:04

Lots of people have previously suggested that lernu sell more different things or run a book service. Our main problems in this regard are the work necessary to run a book service (a lot), the expense of international shipping, and the difficulty of accepting international payment. Unfortunately, this is the same thing that makes it complicated to pay money to the UEA. Even Paypal doesn't make international payments very easy, and they take a percentage of the payment (as do credit card companies). Our online store at Cafe Press was built almost as a test to see how much interest there would be. It is not run at a profit; we actually make no money for it, we charge exactly the usual Cafe Press price for the items. Even if we did charge prices to make a profit, I'm not sure how much we would profit; sales are not very high.

I like Miland's idea of presenting a "How to donate" link at the end of a successful exam, or a course. I'll mention that to the team. We have definitely been trying to come up with more ways to bring money in to the site, without making it too full of ads etc. So any ideas that anyone has, please feel free to post them!

andogigi (Prikaži profil) 27. december 2008 19:03:43

RiotNrrd:
danielcg:Sorry for my ignorance. What are DRM's?
Digital Rights Management. Basically copy protection.
Exactly. In short, no publisher is going to allow their hard work to be put into an electronic format which makes it easy to copy and pass around to others. DRM's are an attempt to make the copying part a little more difficult, thereby helping to protect the copywrite. For example, when you download an .mp3 song online, the DRM controls how many times it can be copied, how many times you can burn it to a compact disc, etc. E-books have similar protections built into them.

The Amazon kindle is becoming VERY popular lately. If you haven't seen it, check out their site. It allows you to store and read books in a small electronic device. (My Sony reader has 130 books in it. It is FANTASTIC when I'm in an airplane on a long trip.) I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't more people like me using something similar to read/study Esperanto. I've seen people discussing it on the forum.

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