Wiktenauer:Fundraiser/2014

Update (22 January)

Greetings, scholars.

I initially set a modest goal of $500 for this fundraiser, enough to cover our server costs and remove that burden from the Alliance. However, in one short week you've taken that goal and shattered it over your collective knee with contemptuous ease. We've thus far raised the truly staggering sum of $1688.71 (€1246.10), and will not only be able to fund our operations legitimately for the next year (and not resort to the tactics of our patron, Paulus Hector Mair), but will actually be able to double our server resources and make the site that much more responsive. We'll also have a good bit of money left over for manual acquisition projects and, indeed, have already made the first such transaction, receiving permission from the Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg to host color scans of Codex Speyer (Ms. M.I.29). I've added this set of scans to my work queue and will have them processed and posted in the next several weeks.

It's been correctly pointed out that this fundraiser has been a bit unstructured so far, and we'll have to do better about that next year. This is my first effort at crowdfunding, so any suggestions people have for improvement are most welcome. For 2014, there is only one additional elaboration that we'll be making. It was my intention to create a new section on the contributor list for people who donated to this fundraiser (excepting those who requested to remain anonymous), but people that contribute $100 or more (eight of you so far, according to the report I received on Monday) will have the opportunity to list your group or organization as an official Wiktenauer sponsor, with some sort of representation on the front page in addition to the contributor list (details to be determined, I need to know how many there are to determine the best format and layout).

So even though you've already wildly exceeded my expectations, let's keep the momentum going. Any additional funding received over the next week will be added to the manual acquisition pool, and if we can top a thousand dollars for that cause then some really interesting possibilities will start opening up.

Cheers!

Michael Chidester ^(Contact)
Wiktenauer Director
HEMA Alliance, WMAC

Announcement (15 January)

Greetings, scholars.

As you may have suspected, operating Wiktenauer isn't free. While neither I nor sysadmin Christian receive any compensation for our efforts, the costs associated with hosting Wiktenauer come to about $500 a year. For the past year and a half, the HEMA Alliance has kindly absorbed that cost (before that it was out of pocket), but this year the Alliance general council has asked us to run a quick fundraiser to see if our community of users would be willing to cover some of it.

So from now until the end of January, you can click the link below to contribute via paypal (or click the paypal button that resides at the bottom of the sidebar, as usual).

Our initial goal is $500 to cover hosting costs for the next twelve months. If we exceed that sum, we'll set aside the additional funds for future manual acquisitions. Our current push to pair transcriptions with manuscript scans has brought us in contact with various libraries and institutions who only ask for a small consideration of €50-100 in exchange for permanent hosting rights for a full manuscript, which we're more than happy to pay when funds are available. In other cases, scans don't yet exist but the cost of commissioning those scans is low enough that it might also become feasible for us to bankroll. Funds beyond $500 will be earmarked for these projects, and we'll make announcements as they proceed. (If we vastly exceed that sum--triple or quadruple it--we'll also look into investing in additional server resources to improve the speed and responsiveness of the site.)

So if Wiktenauer is useful to you, please consider sending a couple bucks our way. If you can't afford a direct donation at this time, you can also help by passing word to other members of your schools and clubs.

Cheers, and here's to another year of manual research!

Michael Chidester ^(Contact)
Wiktenauer Director
HEMA Alliance, WMAC

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