Ask Slashdot: Crowdfunding For Science — Can It Succeed?

jearbear writes "Can crowdfunding work for science? Having raised nearly $40,000 for scientific research in 10 days for projects as diverse as biofuel catalyst design to the study of cellular cilia to deploying seismic sensor networks (that attach to your computer!) to robotic squirrels, the #SciFund Challenge is taking off like a rocket. Might this be a future model for science funding in the U.S. and abroad? What would that mean?"

Comments

Re:Maybe.

[ColdWetDog]

And how do you fund ongoing projects? Many (if not most) worthwhile scientific endeavors take decades. Having funding depending on a crowd's momentary whim doesn't seem like a good long term strategy. This problem already exits in the current funding scheme - long term projects often get dinged when money is scarce but at least there are (imperfect) mechanisms to deal with the problems.

Prioritizing science and technology funding is difficult. Letting the 'crowd' do it makes no sense at all.

Re:Shoving the current buzzword down our throats

[PopeRatzo]

No giving is viewable as legitimate unless it's directed through government.

Government funding is the ultimate crowdsourcing.