it's interesting how Kickstarter has transformed donations for innovation into a shopping cart experience I've been going back and forth about this, and I thin

it's interesting how Kickstarter has transformed donations for innovation into a shopping cart experience I've been going back and forth about this, and I think the phrasing of the particular Kickstarter project controls whether it's more a donation or shopping cart experience. Think about the conversation like this: - "Hey, can you chip in some money so I can spend a bunch of time making a really cool piece of software?" - "Sure, I'd love to! I can spare $25. When do I get to play with your build?" - "Oh, $25 isn't enough for you to access the software. That's just a donation. But you can buy a copy when it comes out." - "..." If the pitch is "chip in what you can, and we'll make a cool thing for everyone," then you set the stage for donations for innovation. If the pitch is "pay enough, and we'll give you a license to our cool thing," then you're offering a shopping cart experience. Which is fine, I use shopping carts all the time, but it's a different and less exciting thing. This is maybe different with physical products -- if there's a cost per product, there obviously needs to be a minimum donation to get one. But with a virtual product, the reason you set a high donation threshold to get a copy is that you're selling a product rather than asking for a donation. Again, that's totally reasonable, but it's not as exciting to be part of. As I keep thinking about it, I think there might be an uncanny valley effect here. If a software company I really like, like the Omni Group or Macromates, said they were doing presales of a revolutionary new product and needed me to buy in so it could get made, I would be psyched to do it. But this is halfway in between -- it's neither "donate to my cool project" nor "pre-order my cool product," but "donate to my cool product." I think that's where our gears start grinding a little. I'm still up in the air about whether to donate to/purchase this one or not. Interesting stuff.