3 ms·

I kind of shocked at how much money he's getting upfront to develop something people haven't even tried yet. I guess a killer demo is a killer demo.

melling 14y ago
"Geeks of the world unite" :-). What's wrong with betting $50 that someone with a little talent can accomplish something big. I'm hoping John Carmack will do a Kickstarter rocket project. SpaceX needs a little more competition.
- Arelius 14y ago
  My guess is that John Carmack could kickstart rocket projects with his own checkbook better than we've seen financing from kickstarter. Rocket projects are very expensive!!
  - melling 14y ago
    Here's one Kickstarter rocket engine project that got funded. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-spacecraft http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-space... Why not crowd fund a team that builds a Lunar X-Prize entry? http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ And open source the design, of course. More down to earth, crowd funding is doing some interesting stuff like helping to get this 3D printer built. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-a-high-resolution-3d-printer?ref=home_spotlight http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-a-...
- radarsat1 14y ago
  Nothing wrong with it at all, I just find it kind of amazing is all :) Personally I haven't purchased software in a very long time, because I use exclusively open source products. Here is a way for open source developers to actually get paid up-front before the work is done, which is kind of crazy but seems to be working better than asking for donations after delivering something workable. Just something I didn't see coming.
DanielRibeiro 14y ago
Dropbox also started pretty much like this. Contrast this approach to Coda 2's[1], or with the "build and they will come" mentality. [1] http://andyet.net/blog/2012/may/25/maximum-viable-products/ http://andyet.net/blog/2012/may/25/maximum-viable-products/
mark_l_watson 14y ago
It is amazing, but consider the amount of fine open source Clojure code that Chris Granger has written: https://github.com/ibdknox https://github.com/ibdknox Noir is my favorite of his projects so far - a light weight web app framework that I have used for work and for my own projects.
richardw 14y ago
Doesn't that apply to all projects on Kickstarter? Or Diaspora's call for cash when it was mostly just an idea? I think many of these projects aren't selling the product as much as the magic of being part of something and helping it come to fruition. Putting a bit of money down is so much easier than e.g. donating two hours a week to coding on the project. Donate money, drink beer, feel good.

melling 14y ago

"Geeks of the world unite" :-). What's wrong with betting $50 that someone with a little talent can accomplish something big. I'm hoping John Carmack will do a Kickstarter rocket project. SpaceX needs a little more competition.

Arelius 14y ago
My guess is that John Carmack could kickstart rocket projects with his own checkbook better than we've seen financing from kickstarter. Rocket projects are very expensive!!
- melling 14y ago
  Here's one Kickstarter rocket engine project that got funded. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-spacecraft http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-space... Why not crowd fund a team that builds a Lunar X-Prize entry? http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ And open source the design, of course. More down to earth, crowd funding is doing some interesting stuff like helping to get this 3D printer built. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-a-high-resolution-3d-printer?ref=home_spotlight http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-a-...
radarsat1 14y ago
Nothing wrong with it at all, I just find it kind of amazing is all :) Personally I haven't purchased software in a very long time, because I use exclusively open source products. Here is a way for open source developers to actually get paid up-front before the work is done, which is kind of crazy but seems to be working better than asking for donations after delivering something workable. Just something I didn't see coming.

DanielRibeiro 14y ago

Dropbox also started pretty much like this. Contrast this approach to Coda 2's[1], or with the "build and they will come" mentality. [1] http://andyet.net/blog/2012/may/25/maximum-viable-products/ http://andyet.net/blog/2012/may/25/maximum-viable-products/

mark_l_watson 14y ago

It is amazing, but consider the amount of fine open source Clojure code that Chris Granger has written: https://github.com/ibdknox https://github.com/ibdknox Noir is my favorite of his projects so far - a light weight web app framework that I have used for work and for my own projects.

richardw 14y ago

Doesn't that apply to all projects on Kickstarter? Or Diaspora's call for cash when it was mostly just an idea? I think many of these projects aren't selling the product as much as the magic of being part of something and helping it come to fruition. Putting a bit of money down is so much easier than e.g. donating two hours a week to coding on the project. Donate money, drink beer, feel good.