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It's sort of a sad statement about our society that the Veronica Mars kickstarter project has raised $4.1 million with time to spare, while all of the worthy pr

It's sort of a sad statement about our society that the Veronica Mars kickstarter project has raised $4.1 million with time to spare, while all of the worthy projects on Microryza combined couldn't do it. Someone needs to make a for-profit movie/violent video game company with the goal of using the profits to fund this stuff.

aheilbut 14y ago
People donate a lot of money to medical research through organizations like the American Cancer Society and many more specific foundations. Just because crowdfunding is cool, it doesn't follow that it makes sense as a funding mechanism for science.
- eksith 14y ago
  Of course, there are other funding sources, but I don't think it doesn't make sense for funding science. The problem is the never ending list of charlatans that can siphon badly needed funds from legitimate reserach, so a lot of these need some sort of strict vetting (especially for biological research) from qualified professionals. Unless they too are volunteering their services, that's an added cost right there.
irollboozers 14y ago
It will take some time before it gets more and more into the public consciousness. Meanwhile, we have a giant backlog of things we can be doing to improve transparency and trust, so that when someone lands on a project they know exactly what they're getting. Considering that we're funding projects without this is pretty awesome, so we think from here on out it's only up on all metrics. Couple this improved transparency with raw communities who haven't been able to directly affect scientific progress, and you have a self-service ecosystem. It's not a matter of if we get a Veronica Mars level event on Microryza, it's when. From now until that moment though, we have a lot to build, which is why we're hiring engineers and scientists.
duaneb 14y ago
I love Veronica Mars and I can honestly say I'm more excited about that than anything I've ever seen on kickstarter. You wanna know why? Because it's a known entity, I know what I'm paying for, I know I'll enjoy it. I have no idea how I would even start to evaluate the worth of products (or science grants, in this case) when they don't exist yet, their applications and benefits are not entirely clear, etc. I have no expertise in most fields, so I would much rather let someone who knows what they're doing hand out (my!) grant money. EDIT: For example, I'm all for research for breast cancer, but there's already a LOT of money out there for that. How on earth do I figure out whether my money will do any good? I can't exactly read the literature and have an understanding of the subject without many months of research and getting up to speed in, uhh, biology as related to the spread of breast cancer. My sister's getting her PhD in biology and I know enough to know I know nothing.

aheilbut 14y ago

People donate a lot of money to medical research through organizations like the American Cancer Society and many more specific foundations. Just because crowdfunding is cool, it doesn't follow that it makes sense as a funding mechanism for science.

eksith 14y ago
Of course, there are other funding sources, but I don't think it doesn't make sense for funding science. The problem is the never ending list of charlatans that can siphon badly needed funds from legitimate reserach, so a lot of these need some sort of strict vetting (especially for biological research) from qualified professionals. Unless they too are volunteering their services, that's an added cost right there.

irollboozers 14y ago

It will take some time before it gets more and more into the public consciousness. Meanwhile, we have a giant backlog of things we can be doing to improve transparency and trust, so that when someone lands on a project they know exactly what they're getting. Considering that we're funding projects without this is pretty awesome, so we think from here on out it's only up on all metrics. Couple this improved transparency with raw communities who haven't been able to directly affect scientific progress, and you have a self-service ecosystem. It's not a matter of if we get a Veronica Mars level event on Microryza, it's when. From now until that moment though, we have a lot to build, which is why we're hiring engineers and scientists.

duaneb 14y ago

I love Veronica Mars and I can honestly say I'm more excited about that than anything I've ever seen on kickstarter. You wanna know why? Because it's a known entity, I know what I'm paying for, I know I'll enjoy it. I have no idea how I would even start to evaluate the worth of products (or science grants, in this case) when they don't exist yet, their applications and benefits are not entirely clear, etc. I have no expertise in most fields, so I would much rather let someone who knows what they're doing hand out (my!) grant money. EDIT: For example, I'm all for research for breast cancer, but there's already a LOT of money out there for that. How on earth do I figure out whether my money will do any good? I can't exactly read the literature and have an understanding of the subject without many months of research and getting up to speed in, uhh, biology as related to the spread of breast cancer. My sister's getting her PhD in biology and I know enough to know I know nothing.