Sam Fraser
07-25-2010, 11:10 PM
Politicians do it. Charities too. And now for-profit entrepreneurs are tapping the Internet to get small amounts of money from lots and lots of supporters. One part social networking and one part capital accumulation, crowdfunding websites seek to harness the enthusiasm--and pocket money--of virtual strangers, promising them a cut of the returns.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838768,00.html
One early and successful example is "The Million Dollar Homepage":
...conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a student from Wiltshire, England, to raise money for his university education. The home page consists of a million pixels arranged in a 1000 × 1000 pixel grid; the image-based links on it were sold for $1 per pixel in 10 × 10 blocks... Launched on 26 August 2005, the website became an Internet phenomenon...On 1 January 2006, the final 1,000 pixels were put up for auction on eBay. The auction closed on 11 January with a winning bid of $38,100 that brought the final tally to $1,037,100 in gross income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage
Many indy filmmakers are now using crowdfunding to raise e.g. the dystopian sci-fi "36 Stairs":
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/933813873/36-stairs-film
Quite amazing for only $7,000.
Could anything space-related be crowdfunded, realistically?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838768,00.html
One early and successful example is "The Million Dollar Homepage":
...conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a student from Wiltshire, England, to raise money for his university education. The home page consists of a million pixels arranged in a 1000 × 1000 pixel grid; the image-based links on it were sold for $1 per pixel in 10 × 10 blocks... Launched on 26 August 2005, the website became an Internet phenomenon...On 1 January 2006, the final 1,000 pixels were put up for auction on eBay. The auction closed on 11 January with a winning bid of $38,100 that brought the final tally to $1,037,100 in gross income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage
Many indy filmmakers are now using crowdfunding to raise e.g. the dystopian sci-fi "36 Stairs":
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/933813873/36-stairs-film
Quite amazing for only $7,000.
Could anything space-related be crowdfunded, realistically?