Dear Umesha, Compare apples to apples please...
Mujtaba Merchant Bangalore, India -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Umesha Economics Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 8:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AI] [nvda-translations] Open Letter to NVDA users! the starting salary mentioned in the mail amounts to about 1 lakh and 30 thousand Rupees per month. even the salary of a senior professor or vice chancellor of a university in India is less than that. Umesha ----- Original Message ----- From: "saravanan" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, 29 April, 2012 10:14 AM Subject: [AI] [nvda-translations] Open Letter to NVDA users! > Subject: [nvda-translations] Open Letter To NVDA Users > Dear friends, > if this message is cross-posting and violating > the rules of the list, Please excuse me, its very urgent. > ------- > Hi, > In my humble opinion, this needs to go on the donations page of > nvda-project.org. Either way, I am going to publish it in a prominent > place. > This is the final version of what I wrote last week, and I tried to mark > it > up with t2t formatting. I hope it's correctly marked up. > > > > =Open Letter To NVDA Users = > > > > Dear Fellow NVDA User, > > > > I'm writing to you to explain why our consistent contributions to > NVAccess, > and NVDA are important. > > > > The mission of NV Access, the company that makes NVDA states: > > > > We are dedicated to the ideal that access to technology should not incur > an > extra cost for blind and vision impaired users. We believe that blind and > vision impaired people should be able to use any type of technology for > the > same cost as their sighted peers. To that end, our primary aim is to > support > projects which provide free and open source computer software solutions > that > enable this accessibility. > > > > == My Story == > > > > I want to say what NVDA means to me. I live in the United States. I've had > the good fortune to be able to be in a position to have a government > agency, > combined with corporate funds available to me. If I had been unable to > purchase my screen reader and keep up with the costs of the maintenance of > that screen reader at the time when I first became employed, I would never > have been able to afford to buy what I needed to get my first job, and I'd > probably be living alone, with little to no money to follow my dreams. > > > > Now, because I have a screen reader, and the funding from the company I > work > for, I can maintain my way of life, take care of my family, and have some > extra money left over. > > > > And with NVDA, I now have a free alternative, which in many ways is better > than the screen reader my company maintains for me. > > > > Besides that, I have direct access to the developers of NVDA, NV Access. > And > if I have the means and the time, I can contribute to NVDA by donating, > testing, writing documentation, translating NVDA into a language, > answering > questions on the support list, and telling the NVDA story to those who > will > listen. > > > > Because I'm a musician, who would rather be playing music full time than > doing what I do now, I understand what it means to have given up what I > love > to do in order to do what I have to do to feed my family. It's the > difference between night and day. Few of us have the joy of being able to > have fun at work. Mick and Jamie are now able to do what they love to do > for > a living, fulfilling the mission of NV Access, the company that makes and > maintains NVDA. > > > > If my steady contribution can help keep them working on NVDA, then, > vicariously, I can have the joy of knowing that they are doing what they > really want to do. > > And selfishly, I get to benefit from that small donation. > > > > == Where Does The Money Go? == > > > > Like many others, I want to know where my money is going when I donate. > For > anyone who donates, this is a fare question to ask. Let me put this into > perspective. > > > > I work for a recruiting company in the United States. The starting salary > of > an entry-level, full time employee in a professional position is about > 30,000 USD. If the individual also needs to have the health insurance to > take care of the average family, that raises the cost to the company who > employs that individual to about 45,000 USD. > > > > Part of the money we donate keeps Mick and Jamie working on NVDA for us. > Jamie and Mick would love to be able to say that they are pulling in > 90,000 > USD to work full time on something they love. That would be a great > foundation on which they could count to keep NVDA alive and growing. > > > > == A Myth About Big Donations == > > > > When I considered donating to NVDA, I said to myself "Why should I > contribute? Mick and Jamie are doing fine with the funding they have been > getting from foundations and corporations." When I started to check to see > if this was true, though, I found out how wrong I was. According to The > Foundation Center, at http://foundationcenter.org/, less than 17% of all > giving to worthy organizations comes from foundations and corporations. > And > much of the time, there are great peaks and valley s in that giving. That > means that NV Access must constantly attempt to raise funds to keep itself > alive, and that Mick and Jamie are under constant stress both because they > have to spend time to raise funds on which to live, and because of the > peaks > and valleys in funding. And assuming that they have the most supportive > families and friends in the world, their ability to spend as much time as > possible on making NVDA what it needs to be suffers from the time spent > away > from working on it, and from the stress of the conflict between doing what > they love and doing what they have to do to take care of their loved ones. > > > > == We Are Very Important == > > > > To totally spell that out, NV Access, given the above figures, would rely > on > 83% of its donations from individuals like you and I. > > > > You and I can make a huge difference, if we will. > > > > Let me use myself as an example. The software maintenance agreement for my > screen reader would cost me approximately 130 USD per year. Now I'm not > that > good at math, so bear with me. That's something like 12 USD per month. > That > breaks down to about 3 USD per week. In some places I might go to eat, > that's half the price of a desert. So if I go out to eat once a week, and > I > go out to eat more times than that, and I skip desert, I can afford to > donate 12 USD a month for the use of NVDA with no problem, and I get a > little better health in the bargain. > > > > Here's another example that fits my situation. I like to buy coffee in the > lobby where I work. I'm even a card-carrying, cup wielding member of the > coffee club they have going down there. That makes the price of coffee > 1.25 > USD for me. I drink at least a cup a day, sometimes more. If all I do is > give up one, single cup of coffee per week, which is probably bad for me, > that works out to about 5 USD per month. I can definitely afford that, and > I > also get better health in the bargain. > > > > Now, let's see. Can I put a price on access to my computer? What do I get > out of being able to use my computer? I get a job that allows me to feed > myself, my family, my two dogs, my cat, and pay for my house, my car, all > those meals out, and lots more. And all I have to do is give up one desert > a > week or a cup of coffee a week, depending on how much I want to donate. If > I > lose the full time use of the screen reader I talked about above, I still > have NVDA. If I lose my job, I still have NVDA to help me get another one. > If I lose my computer, and can't use NVDA on it, I can still go to the > library and carry NVDA on a flash drive with me, and still have a way to > help myself get back on my feet. How can I put a price on that? > > > > == What About You? == > > > > Now, let's take the community of NVDA users as a whole. Let's say that the > entire community of NVDA users gets to benefit from two releases of NVDA > per > year, which is the norm. For this example, we are totally eliminating > corporate and foundational giving, and we are eliminating the higher > numbers > in my example. > > > > For this example, let's assume that the whole NVDA community consists of > 25,000 individuals who donate not 5 USD per month, but who donate 5 USD > per > release. If that happens, NV Access would get 125,000 per year, which is > 35,000 more than the salary figures I quoted above as that of two entry > level professional employees in the United States. If the NVDA community > consists of 25,000 individuals and everyone downloads twice a year and > gives > 5 USD per download, NV Access would get 250,000 per year. > > > > Now, as I freely admit, I am bad at math, but that makes my head swim. > > > > Let me go a little further. Let me assume that we use the money I talked > about above to employ Mick and Jamie full time. NV Access could take the > money and not only employ Mick and Jamie, but also employ two other people > and pay each person 62,500 USD. What would those other employees do for > us? > One might be a third programmer, and that would exponentially increase the > speed and efficiency of NVDA development. Another could be an > administrator, > possibly answering tickets, handling customer inquiries , maintaining the > web site, and who knows what else, to take the pressure off of the > developers. The result, still more efficiency and a much better NVDA. > > > > > > == Recap == > > > > Let me emphasize. > > > > - We all give not 12, but 5 USD per month. > > - We do it every month. > > - No corporate or foundational giving whatsoever. > > > > My math can't handle the amount of money that would generate. I just blew > out my brain cells. > > > > Can you see how powerful you and I can be if we just will decide to give 5 > USD per month? I'm definitely having trouble seeing what we can do > together. > Can you? > > > > But the point is also this. How much are we getting back for that little > investment? There's no possible way I can put a price on that. And the > feeling we get from knowing that for 5 USD a month we can use our computer > and do what we have or want to do for fun, and to have the joy of being > able > to freely contribute to a great screen reader, and a great cause, is much > better, and more lasting than a little bit of caffeine, which is probably > bad for us, and only lasts for a few hours. > > > > What do you think about this? Will you help me? Will you help Mick and > Jamie? Will you help yourself? It's so easy to set up a donation of 5 USD > per month, and you will hardly feel it. You may not feel it at all. > > > > If you are reading this right after you get paid, or right after your > money > comes in, go and set up a donation now. If you're reading this, and your > funds are low, set up a reminder for yourself to set up that donation for > the time you know you will be getting more funds. > > > > Either way, do it now. > > > > Isn't it easy to be so powerful? > > > > You have the power. Do it now. > > > > Thanks for reading. > > > > Jim > > > > [email protected] > > > > Jim Homme, > > Usability Services, > > Phone: 412-544-1810. > > A picture can say a thousand words, but whether they're the right words is > another matter > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > This e-mail and any attachments to it are confidential and are intended > solely for use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If > you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender > immediately > and then delete it. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not > keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this e-mail without the author's > prior permission. 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Only through experience > of > trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and > success achieved. > Helen Keller > ###### > Adieu. > Saravanan.R > $$$$$$$$$ > > > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, > please visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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