So I decided I wouldn’t.
I figured I’d set out to make everyone’s day just a bit more interesting with some fact or tidbit they didn’t know before. Or maybe they did, and I’m expanding on it. Or maybe I’m boring them. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that I have a blog, and the title right now is “A Little Bit Of Randomness?” I’d like to change it, so if you have any ideas just comment, or, you know, talk to me in person. We probably go the same school.
Anyway, I thought for a first topic it’d be good to introduce something I’ll reference later akin to introducing the idea of gravity before talking about rain. It’s called Kickstarter, and it’s changing the way businesses get funding.
Short history lesson (I PROMISE): Since the turn of the 20th century, most businesses have raised funding for enormously expensive development — cool fighter jets, cool TVs, cool computers — by making promises about IPOs and P/E of those two ratios to this magical group of people called Investors, who somehow never actually care about the product but just want a sweet dividend. Companies have to please investors, because investors own the company in little tiny chunks and might chuck them off the Empire State Building if the company does something crazy.
Unfortunately, ‘crazy’ is often what the public wants — or at least the type of public that becomes ‘fans’ of companies. Really, it’s only been in the last two decades that investors and the public have been at odds, and it’s been over technology. Investors want companies to cater to what the market wants — iPods, Call of Duty, Windows — while the tech public wants companies to cater to what they want — Zunes, Baldur’s Gate 3, Linux.
It was quite a deadlock, but since it’s the age of the Internet, people found a workaround. Specifically, ‘people’ means Perry Chen, Yancey Stricker, and Charles Alder, and they did to funding what Wikipedia did to information. They crowdsourced it.
On Kickstarter it doesn’t matter if you’re John Gillis (our beloved webmaster) or Bill Gates: you present your idea to the people, and if they like it, they’ll give you money. Simple as that.
Now granted, it won’t be a ton of money, but something like $5 from 10000 people does add up. Groups set up funding goals, to raise x amount by y date, and if the goal is met, well then, let freedom ring! Games, experimental consoles, books, even some TV shows — it can all be found on Kickstarter.
The relevance of this, of course, is that many, many things I put on here will be projects funded via Kickstarter, and I think it’s a really cool tool that’s a great example of what the internet can be: a place where people, regardless of race, gender, or creed, can gain traction on their dreams because of the merit of those dreams. It’s pretty neato. Here’s a link.
To conclude, Kickstarter is awesome and more importantly, the stuff on Kickstarter is awesome, so take a look. I’ll leave you with a semi-relevant poem by Stephen Crane, who, for those of you who took or are taking AP US, also wrote Maggie: Girl Of The Streets, whatever prejudices that may impart. Chalk it up to the indomitable and foolish nature of Kickstarter:
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
“It is futile,” I said,
“You can never — “
“You lie,” he cried,
And ran on.
By Adam Schoelz
So, which kickstarter are you most inclined to donate to?
