Using crowd-sourced funding for language work.

[mccreery at uvic.ca]

Taanshi kiyawaaw ILAT,

For the past year I've been thinking about my dependency on various forms
of funding for doing documentation on Michif.  In cooperating with the
Metis Nation of BC I've applied for a few grants, but they haven't come
through.  The problem is, when they don't come through so far it's always
been at the last moment, meaning I've had to cancel the work I was
planning.

This year I've done enough work that I can fund myself, and likely will,
but at the same time, the work I'm doing is for my whole community.  I
don't really like relying on government grants to do this work, because,
well, because government and strings, and obstacles.  I think that we need
a different model, or at least in part we need to switch things up.

That's why I've decided to give another technology a try this summer,
crowd-sourced funding.  It makes sense on a lot of levels.  The first, and
most important, is that it directly gets a lot of people involved in the
work, personally invested not just for a few dollars, but also
emotionally, as a community around the language. It makes me directly
accountable to my community, and them directly invested in what is being
done, something that bodes well for the future.

What am I getting at? Well, I've decided to do it.  The following is my
gofundme proposal to fund a couple months of travelling, recording, prep
work and transcribing.

http://www.gofundme.com/63d2qk

I'd ask you to donate if you're interested in Michif, and take note of my
successes or failures for your own hopeful future use of this same tool
for your own programs or recording.  I think for aspects of language work
that produce concrete results (like recording), this is a valid approach
to cover costs.

Eekoshe eekwa,

Dale