{"id":562,"date":"2013-02-20T14:02:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T14:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/?p=562"},"modified":"2019-12-30T06:12:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T06:12:48","slug":"kickstarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/02\/20\/kickstarter\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Kickstarter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crowdsourcing is the model by which a party can outsource activity to a larger unspecified group of people. Activity may range from processing, assessing through to, in the case of Kickstarter<\/a>, financial funding ad benefits are gained from the size and variety of a crowd. As discussed in the interview from The Strand (2010), Kickstarter allows \u201cmicro financing\u201d small projects in a non-traditional investment model where projects tend to be \u201cdriven more by creative expression than some sort of commercial interest\u201d. A project\u2019s success mutually benefits stakeholders and relationships tend to be relatively more involved between investors and organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickstarter operates through a website that enables\nindividuals or groups to list a creative project that requires financial\nfunding. Projects need to have clear goals with something produced on\ncompletion and are only successful if funding goals are met or exceeded.\nPotential funders are encouraged to donate by the project\u2019s goals and (strictly\nnon-financial and non-equity) rewards such as crediting funders or receiving an\nitem from the project\u2019s limited initial production. Different tiers of\ndonations are rewarded differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickstarter handles payments securely through third-party\npayment processing providers to ensure money if protected. Card details may be\ngiven but no money is withdrawn until the project has reached its funding goal.\nIf a project doesn\u2019t reach this funding requirement, it is unsuccessful and\neffectively closed. The creator can re-list another similar project if desired\nwith, for example, different goals. No projects are deleted for reference and\nclarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickstarter does not protect funders if projects are not\ndelivered and have no official involvement beyond introducing creators and\nfunders and facilitating the transactions. However, all creators must abide to\nterms and conditions and therefore are legally bound to complete their outlined\nprojects. Therefore litigation is a route available to funders if required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Project Eternity\u2019 by the creator Obsidian Entertainment listed\non the 14 September 2012 and by the 16 October 2012, the initial funding goal\nof $1.1M was met. As of the 21st<\/sup> February 2012, the project has\nnearly raised $4M i.e. is overfunded. The project\u2019s ambition is to develop a\nrole-playing computer game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding success can be attributed to a number of factors.\nMany computer game category projects are successful on the website, possibly\ndue to the demographic of site users. The project listing is very detailed\nabout the ambitions for the game and engages funders. Credibility of the team\nis strong where individuals are mentioned and past experience is highlighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project has \u2018stretch goals\u2019, which (originally a\ncommunity derived term) means the project has ambitions that go beyond the scope\nof the listing on Kickstarter. At the time of writing, the project is still\ntrying to achieve a $4M goal and has outlined what is involved if this goal is\nreached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pledge-reward system was also very structured with over\n20 donation tiers ranging from $5 to $10,000. Every tier has received backers\nand this broad appeal must have covered a range of budgets and reward desires\nfrom potential funders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crowdsourcing and in this case, a specific form,\ncrowdfunding are increasingly utilised by individuals and non-for-profits\norganisations. There are strong implications for catalysing the genesis of\ncreative projects and affects on more traditional established routes of\ninvestment and entrepreneurship. Scanning through the various Kickstarter\nprojects suggests there is an underlying ethos to the community developing and\nmany projects have noble ethical goals. Perhaps this appeal to funders may\ndelay the adoption of this funding route by larger commercial organisations to\nfund new projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickstarter is an exciting and innovative site occupying a\nniche that empowers the project creators whilst offering engagement and rewards\nto funders in radical appealing way. Kickstarter draws on modern technological\ndevelopments such as the social web, secure payment processing and web 2.0\ntechnologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Strand (19 July 2010) BBC World Service radio clip\n[Online], Available at http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/radio\/player\/p008lmss\n(from minutes 14:00 to\n19:20) (Accessed 29 October 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impact of Kickstarter,\nCreative Commons & Creators Project (21 Mar\n2012) YouTube video, added by PBSoffbook [Online], Available at http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=024vLBBJf4I\n(from minutes 0:00 to 2:20)\n(Accessed 29 October 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Eternity (16 Oct\n2012) Kickstarter Project Listing, added by Obsidian Entertainment [Online], Available\nat http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/obsidian\/project-eternity\n(Accessed 21 February 2012) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crowdsourcing is the model by which a party can outsource activity to a larger unspecified group of people. Activity may range from processing, assessing through to, in the case of Kickstarter, financial funding ad benefits are gained from the size and variety of a crowd. As discussed in the interview from The Strand (2010), Kickstarter allows \u201cmicro financing\u201d small projects in a non-traditional investment model where projects tend to be \u201cdriven more by creative expression than some sort of commercial interest\u201d. A project\u2019s success mutually benefits stakeholders and relationships tend to be relatively more involved between investors and organisers. Kickstarter operates through a website that enables individuals or groups to list a creative project that requires financial funding. Projects need to have clear goals with something produced on completion and are only successful if funding goals are met or exceeded. Potential funders are encouraged to donate by the project\u2019s goals and (strictly non-financial and non-equity) rewards such as crediting funders or receiving an item from the project\u2019s limited initial production. Different tiers of donations are rewarded differently. Kickstarter handles payments securely through third-party payment processing providers to ensure money if protected. Card details may be given but no money is[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human","category-stem"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"james","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/author\/james\/"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89zH1-94","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jameshatton.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}