Read more from this Tulsa World article.

‘got a fresh new email newsletter setup and ready to rock, thanks to mailchimp (hey, subscribe please!), and we’ve got a project set up on indegogo (i won’t mention that we haven’t been accepted yet by kickstarter, or that they’re a great service and you should check them out…maybe even nudge them to say yes to the native language project… nope, i won’t talk about that).  …and we’ve got our links section up and running (more soon!) so that’s awesome.

what are we doing in march?
well, we’re going to be taking our show on the road!  …that is, we’ve got our presentation ironed out pretty well.  and we’re planning to get on the road and talk to organizations, tribes, and hopefully other nonprofits and sponsor companies about funding to launch the pilot program.

we start this thursday (march 4th) with our 5-minutes of awesomeness at ignite Tulsa, and we’re looking to basically hit the ground running from there.  this will be the first of may talks we want to give about the importance of language preservation, what others like rosetta stone are doing, and gearing up to film our pilot.

Date: march 4th
Time: 6pm
Loaction: Blue Dome Diner, downtown Tulsa
Price: Free. $15 VIP tixx available at http://ignitetulsa.org/

Awesome!
Spread the word, and if you’re around Tulsa, I hope you come out to support us. If not, be sure to visit the website for updates and a link to the video; all presentations will be taped and put on youTube within a couple weeks or so.

And speaking of the website, I’m working on a lot of updates today / tomorrow.  I’ve got an email newsletter set up now (put your email address in the sidebar to subscribe!), i’ve got some new blog posts going up, I’ve got the links section working now, so things are coming together.  I’ve got some logo / branding / design ideas to pull together and apply to all of this as well, so it will start looking a bit more professional.

After Ignite, I’ll be working pretty heavily on taking this presentation on the road and seeking funding.  I’ll keep everyone updated of course.

obviously, you say? …well not so obvious to me i guess.  in any case, i now see a little more clearly how to approach and develop this project a little better, thanks IN GREAT PART to feed back from andrew, rebecca, ken, frank, and others.  …without their feedback i don’t think i would even be THIS far; i’m glad they’re around to cheer me on and keep pushing me forward.  i really need it.

rather than biting the whole thing off at once, we’re going to start the project in phases.  phase 1 will be the pilot program and getting that off the ground.  …so for now i really just want to focus on raising the money that will be needed to produce that one event, and basically reach that milestone.  if i can get to that and call it a success, it will be awesome and i can move on to everything else i want to do. …but i can’t wrap my arms around EVERYTHING at once; i just have to take one thing at a time.

phase 2 will be building the tools so that others can submit material and primarily our role will be one of spreading the word about the importance of language preservation and passing it on to younger generations, and then giving folks the tools to do something about it (that’s the, “greater cause” that i was talking about earlier).

there’s not enough time to write down / record all of our thoughts, not enough time to sit and listen to our elders for months or years, as much as we would want to completely just stop everything and listen to what the have to say and teach.  there’s not enough time to connect with our family and friends and communicate with / understand eachother as COMPLETELY as we want to.  so every day is a struggle to put food on the table, pay the bills, get all our chores done, work, eat, and hopefully have some time to enjoy life a little.

this month i’ve lost my mentor, one of my best friends, and have dealt with a LOT of pain and loss.
i’d be lynig if i said i didn’t think about just throwing in the towel on all my creative / entrepreneurial / community projects & ideas and just going to work at quiktrip.  but i’ve decided to move ahead.  it will take some time; i have no doubts that it will probably be months until i am back to the same level of activity that i am used to being at, but after reflecting, i realize that i’ll in fact be serving a greater cause w/ this project than i thought.

yes preserving knowledge/wisdom (in the case of this project via language) is important.  but even more important is what future generations will gain from being able to access it.

i was inspired by hugh mcleod, though. he wrote that, “life is too short not to do something that matters.” …and that’s stuck with me. in fact if anything drives this little experiment of mine, if it becomes anything significant, it will be because myself and others see that life is too short.  that (yes, amongst literally a million other things…) this matters and is an important cause to do something about.

(obviously you need powerpoint to view this…)
website powerpoint

So here’s a summary of a few things that have been happening since June/July that I thought I would share. Thanks to friends and family for ALL your support and I am very excited that things are moving along very well!

Logo/Branding
With the help of Saif Khan, we’ve been working on a new logo for the project.  He’s really help capture the soul of the project, and essentially WHY we’re doing this, and I can’t want to start integrating it in to our website and proposal materials.  Look for it soon!

Osage Nation Language Program
As I reported on twitter, this past week I spent about a 1/2-day with the staff of the Osage Language department, talking to them about their long-term goals for creating an online languge center / resource, as well as conceptualizing a community-based website for Osage Language students that would really serve as a way to communicate, interact, and immerse oneself in the Osage language.  One thing that I had not considered is that with endangered / rare languages, you can’t have an immersion environment as easily as you can with, let’s say Spanish or French.  So students have to really create their own immersion environments if they really want to continue to learn and practice.  Keep your eyes on the http://www.osagelanguage.org/ website!  We’ll be helping to build / brainstorm /collaborate, and look forward to this being a great relationship between us and the Osage Tribe.  You can read more about what’s going on w/ the language and cultural activities of the Osage, here.

Proposal & Budget for the Pilot Program
The biggest thing we’ve been working on of course, since June/July (that I’ve been frankly procrastinating on) is to create a budget for everything we want to accomplish.  Mentally & emotionally this has been a daunting task.  I hate asking for anything, much less money.  Also, I seem to be able to consult businesses and individuals on creating financial / income goals so that their overall strategic plan(s) are met sustainably, but of course just like the cobbler’s children always going barefoot, I can’t seem to be able to follow my own advice.  For me this has been a very long and difficult process of almost taking myself out of my own shoes and looking at this as not a project of or for myself, but coming at it from the perspective of: if this was someone else putting this together, what would they need.  Sounds odd, I know…trust me it’s been most odd to me.
but I’m getting there.
the meeting last week w/ the Osage put a lot of things in to perspective, and certainly the more people I meet, talk to, connect with, and the more I see where and how this is needed, the more encouragement it gives me.  I plan to have all my ducks in a row VERY SOON, and of course will share them here.

The film follows an intertribal coalition as they fight to transform their local economies by replacing coal mines and smog-belching power plants with renewable energy technologies. This transition would honor their heritage and support future generations by protecting their sacred land, providing electricity to their homes and creating jobs for their communities.

Their story is a parable for our time, when the planet as a whole hungers for alternatives to fossil fuels. For environmental trailblazers, it’s proof that going green is not only possible—it’s the only choice we have.

Last Voice from Travis Heying on Vimeo.

http://twitter.com/nativelanguage

and a website:v
http://www.nativelanguageproject.com/

…not much up there now obviously but it’s a start and it will grow with time!