Slashdot Mirror
$53 Million Pledged To Kickstarter Over Two Years
fangmcgee writes "Kickstarter, a website which collects donations for creative projects, said Thursday that it has received pledges of more than $53 million since its launch two years ago. 'Of the $53 million that has been pledged, $40 million has been collected by successfully funded projects and $6 million is still live (meaning pledged to projects that are still funding). The remaining $7 million is the amount of money not collected — pledged to projects that did not meet their funding goals. Of the $47 million pledged to projects whose funding has ended ($40M collected + $7M uncollected), approximately 85% of the funds ($40M) were collected. This 85% collection rate has stayed quite steady over the past two years.'"
Mod parent incorrect, percent signs follow the number. You can argue whether SI or Chicago is correct and there should be/not be a space between the number and the percent sign.
It isn't just businesses that get funded, but groups of interested parties that wish to accomplish a goal. An open source USB analyzer and JS Bach Goldberg Variations score and recording are two that caught my eye. Neither one proposed to found a business on the project.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1803756771/trebuchette-the-snap-together-desktop-trebuchet
I recently bought into this one after seeing the story on hacker news. So they can be about anything, this one just happens to be fun for both contributors and those who receive the contributions. Besides being totally geek oriented, after all who would not want a toy to fling stuff at co workers?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
"How many businesses were successfully funded?"
Musopen for one was funded and is now able to hire professional orchestras to public domain music. Believe the original goal was 10k and they received 53k through kickstarter.
If funds were collected then that means that the project's funding goals were met (aka :successfully funded). The interesting number would be how many were successful in their endeavors.
A place for self-absorbed starving artists to beg for money.
I was so disappointed to learn that the majority of Kickstarter projects are stupid and have no actual value. I was expecting a community of charity workers with great ideas to help developing nations, or something along those lines, of people with really awesome ideas that just need some money to get "kickstarted".
What I found was a bunch of art majors talking about how awesome their stupid art project is, and if they only had a couple more thousand dollars, they could totally express their creative impulses for the world to trip over themselves to experience. Ugh.
Not all the projects are terrible, but the vast majority are. A huge disappointment.
If you RTFS you'd see it's not a site that specializes in angel investments to businesses, it's for funding of creative projects. The money goes to films, music, and art projects. I don't know of any that have been funded and then abandoned, but a number are still in production. Crowdsourced business investment would be borderline impossible due to the legal implications to the investors.
Found their Kickstarter page (long since closed). Was way off, they got $68,000.
It's not just businesses and it has many Slashdot community projects.
This Kickstarter project -- http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/492851406/big-beautiful-public-art-by-parsons-class-in-union -- is by a techy art project by a guy first profiled in Slashdot for a related business -- http://slashdot.org/story/02/08/16/1833215/Animated-Ads-in-a-Subway-Near-You -- about ten years ago.
There's also Diaspora, inspired by Eben Moglen, which was hugely successful, generating press in the NY Times and more -- http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr
I think his point is that these three claims are inconsistent
1. percent signs follow the number
2. dollar signs precede the number
3. symbols have consistent placement
You can't have all three, you have to pick two, and abandon one. You claim (1), so which of (2) or (3) are you abandoning? Why is it less important than (1)?
None of those are inconsistent.
1. percents signs follow the number
2. dollar signs precede
3. Symbols (each) have consistent placement
Consistent placement of symbols does not mean they all go in the same place only that each symbol has a consistent and recognized placement.
All told, this summary leaves us with a massive case of slashdot blueballs.
Solution: RTFA
Ok, so this is a slashvertisement for a service that specializes in angel investments,
No it is article about a crowdfunding website. No investment, just buying stuff ahead of time.
but what was the impact? How many businesses were successfully funded?
Has nothing to do with what they do
How many of those continued to provide a living and way out of poverty or novel, useful product to society?
Most businesses don't do that, you have some oddly high standards.
The rest of your comment is just as useless so I won't bother responding to it in that way.
these same artist convincing your local municipality into funding their lack of taste and having it rubbed into your face each time you drive past a public building or go to the airport. Far too many "artists" are self important snits who goad society into funding them by making it to be "if you don't fund the arts your just cavemen/bigots/etc" so that we end up paying stupid sums of money to people who can't sell their product to anyone with a sense of sight or taste.
Like I posted elsewhere in this thread, I didn't go there to save the world or community. I contributed to something that sparked my fancy and at the same time let me have some fun. (speaking of the trebuchets). However this type of site will also go along way in teaching these artists just what society values, not just what they think society should value. It does this by giving them immediate exposure to their peer's successes and failures.
If your looking for something to change the world or benefit other nations there are hundreds of charities that can use your money, some can use your time if your willing. give.org lists thousands of them so can check to see if the one you chose is worthwhile.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
And why is the summery so roundabout?
Of the $53 million that has been pledged, $40 million has been collected by successfully funded projects.. The remaining $7 million is the amount of money not collected — pledged to projects that did not meet their funding goals. Of the $47 million pledged to projects whose funding has ended ($40M collected + $7M uncollected), approximately 85% of the funds ($40M) were collected.
So we have $40 million + $ 7 million. And of the $47million, $40 million were collected. Very informative!
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
A huge problem with Kickstarter is that it requires an Amazon account before it will take your money. If they used PayPal or some other service, they could just take credit cards, with no membership required.
Some people will simply not contribute if they have to sign up for an account first. I know that I usually won't. So by adding unnecessary requirements before they will even accept your money, they reduce contributions.
And to those who say it is a place to "buy things beforehand": no, it is not. You are contributing to a cause. In exchange, you might be offered something of value. But it is not a matter of "buying things". It is a matter of supporting good causes.
So it's a place where people can pay... money for... bespoke services. That's novel.
Except that they take 5%, plus another 3-5% for Amazon payments, and there's a big list of rules.
No thanks.
How, exactly, is this money going to be used? As long at it gets spent on projects that are innovative, I have no problem.
However, if they wind up financing some art junkie's skidmarks, or a large percentage of each dollar gets spent on "administrative costs" (like the Red Cross), and not something that will actually contribute anything of practical value, they will lose credibility rapidly. Knowing the kinds of incredibly stupid mistakes that wealthy organizations can make is why I am undecided on how this will turn out.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
I had an idea for the perfect Kickstarter project, one that would be sure to reach its funding. Sadly, I cannot do it myself.
Think -- what, above all else, does the internet desire? The answer is porn. And what has been the unreachable goal, as far as porn is concerned? Zero-gee porn. People want to have sex in zero-gee, they want to know what it's like to have sex in space, and they will pay to watch the first ever porn made in outer space.
The new commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic is selling tickets to the edge of space for $200,000 a pop.
I'd need three tickets -- one for myself, one for my partner, and one for a cameraman. We'd have 5-10 minutes of zero-gee to make our film. Virgin Galactic's permission might be a problem, but I get the feeling they'd do almost anything for money.
I'm certain that a Kickstarter project for amateur porn filmed in space could bring in $600,000 worth of pledges. For incentives we could give still shots at low contributions, a copy of the film at higher levels...maybe give away articles of clothing that were discarded during the flight to the big sponsors.
I think it's a terrific idea. I think the concept could go viral. I think the pledges might actually appear.
I also think my girlfriend would kill me for even suggesting it, so I can't do it myself. But someone should. Preferably someone with a hot, porn-star girlfriend.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
This site has been used to make a lot art at burning man possible as of late.
some of the stuff sucks but there is some fancy high tech art out there that is quite involved... lotsa technical/engineering smarts to make some of the things happen... and survive for the whole event.
3 obviously. And it is less important because it is wrong.
A large percentage of each dollar does NOT get gets spent on administrative expenses for the Red Cross. Only 4.4%. Seems reasonable to me. http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277
"Ok, so this is a slashvertisement for a service that specializes in angel investments, but what was the impact? How many businesses were successfully funded? "
Well, let's look at the kickstarter project that has been on slashdot many many many times, Dispora. (8 times in 11 months! Is that a slashvertisement record?)
It received $200,000 in June 2010 and was suppose to be a summer project: "We promise to you that Diaspora will be aGPL software which will released at the end of the summer."
Here it is, 11 months later, and where is it? Diaspora is still not available, you still have to "sign up for an invite".
So forgive me if I'm not impressed by Kickstarter when their biggest project is a EPIC FAIL.
Slashdot, I don't know what Kickstarter is paying you for these ads but please stop
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Hey, it's a /. summary; you should be grateful the redundant numbers don't contradict!
I'd never heard of it until a couple of days ago, but today (before seeing this article on /.) I pledged some money to an Amiga documentary ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vivaamiga/viva-amiga-the-documentary-film ). With today being 17 years since Commodore went bust it seemed a good day to pre-order it.
Diaspora is a DISTRIBUTED social network. The project sets up micro Facebook sites and federates with other Diaspora sites. So in theory, You have a Diaspora server, and your friend has one as well. Yours will connect ot his, and his to yours, only giving out the info each of you set up. You can have it set up to get all your post from Facebook and whatever.
The source code and install instructions are on the Diaspora site, and gitHub for you to use. However, it is no trivial to install. I have not been able to get it ot work in the virtual machines I have created for that purpose. So in reality, what you will end up with may be small sites that focus on a small number of people, then federate to other Diaspora sites, versus everyone and their mother having their own.
Still, it is available, and has been available to those that donated since the summer, as the Diaspora team is using them as guinna pigs.
NDxTreme Content on the Edge.
Kickstarter should boldly state that it only supports US citizens---although it receives donations from around the world. This would save a lot of us spending our time, effort and hope...only do be told we are illegible.