According to Connectify, Dispatch — which went live in December — has some inherent limitations. While it was able to aggregate multiple wireline and wireless connections into a single fat pipe, allowing your Windows-based PC to take advantage of every available internet link, Dispatch could only ship certain types of content over one of those connections at any given time, Connectify President Bhana Grover said in an email.

“This worked fantastically with multi-threaded applications like web browsing and Bittorrent,” Grover said. “But the feedback we got from our backers and customers was that they wanted a more robust connection aggregation technology: one that could speed up video streaming, uploads, and VPNs… and was Mac-compatible, too.”

Switchboard basically works like a virtual private network (VPN). All of your internet connections — whether Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G — link to Connectify’s servers in the cloud. Those servers then go about dismantling content or files into their component packets and routing them over those different connections. Over Dispatch, a Netflix movie would stream over the highest-bandwidth connection available to the PC. If you were on public hotspot or cellular network that connection might be fairly slow. With Switchboard that single Netflix stream is split between multiple connections, resulting in faster buffering and better resolution.

Connectify has developed a prototype for Switchboard on both the PC and Mac, but it wants to raise $100,000 in funds on Kickstarter over the next month to complete its user interface, develop customer management software and deploy its first cloud-based servers. As with Dispatch, Connectify plans to sell Switchboard on a subscription basis, but due to its software-as-a-service element Switchboard is setting capacity limits as well. That means the more data you consume via Switchboard, the more you pay. Backers of the project, however, will get early discounted access to the service this fall.

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FundersClub, which promises “insider access to pre-vetted startups,” faced legal uncertainty because it lets investors make investments as low as $1,000 in exchange for equity, even though it’s not a registered broker. Instead, the company, which is itself a start-up that grew out of the Y-Combinator incubator, holds itself out as a venture-capital adviser that does not take transaction-based commissions but instead takes management fees from accredited investors.

To verify its legal status, FundersClub wrote the SEC to request formal validation of its business model. In a letter, reported by TechCrunch, the SEC stated that it would not pursue enforcement action against the company.

In a significant footnote in the SEC letter, the Commission notes that FundersClub’s model is consistent with the Jobs Act, a recent law intended to make it easier for start-ups to raise money without regulatory headaches:

The Staff notes that FundersClub’s and FC Management’s current activities appear to comply with Section 201 of the Jumpstart Our Businesses Act of2012 (“JOBS Act”) in part because they and each person associated with them receive no compensation (or the promise of future compensation) in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

The Jobs Act, passed a year ago, is only partially in effect as the SEC is still devising rules to facilite “crowd funding” from hundreds of small investors. FundersClub participants must still meet the definition of an “accredited investor,” which means they have an annual income of over $200,000 or a net worth of $1 million.

Clarification: the last paragraph of this story was changed on Friday to say “accredited investor” instead of “institutional investor.”

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Solar Mosaic still has one solar project available at this point that’s only for accredited investors. In total Solar Mosaic says it saw 400 investors put in over $313,000 — in increments of between $25 and $30,000 — with an average investment of nearly $700 over the past day. The projects will provide investors with a 4.5 percent annual return, with a 9-year term.

The two-year-old company has built a Kickstarter-style crowd-funding platform, but in contrast to Kickstarter, Solar Mosaic provides returns to backers of its projects. That’s because solar panel roof systems create revenue, as the building owner pays for the solar electricity commonly provided through a lease, with a 20-year contract. The crowd-funded money goes to installing the solar panels, and then the investors get a return via the monthly electricity bill.

So far, including the beta period where Solar Mosaic was enabling a small group to invest in solar roofs, Solar Mosaic says it has raised $1.1 million from more than 700 investors. The company has raised $2.5 million in venture funding (to run the company) so far and according to Dow Jones VentureWire is planning to raise a $10 million Series B.

(Disclosure: I invested a bit to test it out and see what the process was like).

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“Students from all majors are interested in being entrepreneurial but they crave real-world experience,” said co-founder and CEO Brian Sowards. “We realized this fundraising platform could be a way of empowering experiential learning.”

Launched in January and piloted at the University of Delaware this past semester, USEED is like a Kickstarter for education that allows students to raise money for research projects, philanthropic programs, foreign study travels and other experience-based initiatives. But in addition to just providing a crowdfunding platform, it aims to give students online guidance for pitching ideas, social media marketing, collaborating with peers and using other digital tools.  The company has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding and is preparing for a wider private beta launch in January. This week, it won first place in a business competition at the annual Educause higher education conference in Denver.

USEED isn’t the only crowdfunding option available for education-related campaigns. Students of all ages already use general crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Peerbackers, as well as emerging education-specific sites like Smartn.me and KnowledgeStrong. Wishbone and Takeaeshine use crowdfunding to help low-income kids pay for educational opportunities. And Upstart helps college entrepreneurs find money and mentors for their ideas.

But Sowards, a Philadelphia area entrepreneur and former tech consultant whose co-founders include two recent University of Delaware graduates, said their platform differs from competitors in a few key ways. In addition to the focus on teaching students startup skills and including more tools for promoting campaigns, he said the site doesn’t target students directly, but works through universities.

By getting buy-in from school administrators and faculty, he believes they can have a bigger impact on the institution  (with offline clubs that complement the website, for example) — and they can help universities attract new donors.

Instead of taking a cut of the amount raised (as other crowdfunding sites do), USEED charges the university $500 per project page (for student or faculty projects). The university hosts the transaction and gets the opportunity to upsell funders on other institutional gifts (as well as the funder’s data unless they want to keep it private).

That kind of model – which targets the notoriously slower-to-move institutions instead of the students and teachers – is often discouraged among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. People like Union Square Ventures investor Fred Wilson and Princeton Review and Noodle Education founder John Katzman have explicitly cautioned against selling to educational institutions. In K12 education, platforms like social network for education Edmodo, for example, are showing that they can penetrate schools by skipping over administrators and taking a bottom-up approach that starts with teachers and students.

But though Sowards acknowledged that USEED’s approach will take longer, he said he believes it’s important to help students and schools work with their community, including alumni.

“We’re taking a slower-scale model,” he said. “[But we get] deeper buy-in and comprehensive participation. This is a hearts and minds campaign.”

Image by Tischenko Irina via Shutterstock.

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Up until now, all projects had to originate in the U.S. though it was possible for projects to be funded by anyone around the world. The main limitation was Kickstarter’s use of Amazon Payments , which was until last year limited to the U.S. Kickstarter relies on Amazon Payments because it allows for instant charging when a project meets its goal and cancels pledges immediately if it fails.

With the geographic expansion beyond U.S. shores, we should start to see similar quirky success stories on the other side of the Atlantic. I asked Kickstarter for more information about its international plans but a representative declined to comment.

Kickstarter has proven to be a game-changer for a lot of creators and gadget makers. Last year, users pledged $100 million to projects and by May of this year, the platform had received $250 million in pledges overall. Though it started out as a funding mechanism for artistic projects, the platform now supports a number of projects in the design and technology categories. Success stories like the Pebble smart watch, which raised more than $10 million, have helped demonstrate Kickstarter’s potential in getting hardware projects off the ground and even helping developers build software platforms.

People in the UK will be able to launch projects on Kickstarter starting this autumn! More info soon! <3 <3 <3—
Kickstarter (@kickstarter) July 09, 2012

The crowd-funding service unveiled a new stats page last month, breaking down categories by successful and unsuccessful projects. To be sure, there are still a lot of projects that don’t make it on Kickstarter and my colleague Michael Wolf has a good analysis of what works and doesn’t. It’ll be exciting to see what other creators around the world can do with Kickstarter in their corner. There are other crowd-funding mechanisms but Kickstarter has such a big audience and a track record for success that it offers a huge boost to people who can figure out how to use it to its fullest.

As co-founder Perry Chen explained to GigaOM in May, he wants to see Kickstarter go from being cool to just being an important tool that anyone can use. Going global will certainly help with those plans.

You start from being something that works really well and is cool. That’s what makes people want to use it. Then you ride that for a little bit, knock on wood. Then at some point this magical thing happens where you become a utility. You’re like Wikipedia. You’re like CraigsList. That’s really where we want to take this. We want people to understand very simply how Kickstarter works and how they can use it. It’s just a utility out there on the web.

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While it might be the future of content for those who already have the community to back it up, lower-profile projects seeking cash for their work are also managing to make an impact. Here are some samples of the sort of projects currently seeking funds on the Kickstarter scene, including a video game/fiction hybrid, a documentary about Calvin & Hobbes and a Soviet satire.

Sierra Zulu
The pitch: Austrian “art tech philosophy group” Monochrom seeks funds for a black sci-fi action comedy with political overtones — it’s a bit hard to explain, but here’s the plot summary:

A ragtag UN peacekeeping force operates a small camp guarding the no-man’s-land between Austria and the tiny agrarian microstate Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, the last existing bastion of the defunct Soviet Union. When an explosion occurs deep inside Soviet territory, the team is dragged into a bizarre conspiracy of industrial espionage, media madness and political intrigue. The knowledge economy? It’s about to get blown sky high…

The talent: Attached to appear in the film are Star Trek alumni Robert Picardo and Max Grodénchick, Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Amber Benson, Steve Wozniak and The Yes Men.

Perk of note: For a pledge of $23, you can adopt one frame of the film — only 2,980,770 are still available as of writing, though.

Current funding status: Over $5,400 of the $50,000 goal has been pledged. Deadline is July 30th.

A Drink With Dave: Season 2
The pitch: The production team behind the second season of Dave Holmes‘s low-key talk show seeks $30,000 to produce 80 more episodes. (Which breaks down as $375 an episode — good value for your dollar.)

The talent: In the first season of A Drink With Dave, Holmes interviewed comedians and web personalities including Rob Delaney, Michael Ian Black and Molly McAleer. For the second season of Dave Holmes’s informal talk show, folks like Paul F. Tompkins have been approached, but it “all depends on scheduling, so we can’t book anyone until the project is funded,” according to the project FAQ.

Perk of note: For a $100 pledge, “You introduce an episode AND tease the next episode. We’ll help you record a fun video or audio intro & tease, so that you’re a part of the show!”

Current funding status: About $7,800 of the $30,000 goal has been pledged. Deadline is July 11th.

Dear Mr. Watterson: A Calvin & Hobbes Documentary
The pitch: What began in 2007 as director Joel Schroeder’s documentary exploration of the iconic comic strip Calvin & Hobbes became a much bigger film after a 2010 Kickstarter campaign, which enabled the team to conduct interviews with some of the biggest names in the comics industry. Now, This campaign, according to the project listing, is “our KickFINISH Campaign, as that’s what we hope this’ll help us do: finish the film so that we can share it with all of you.” The funds raised will go towards scoring, music licensing, sound mixing and legal fees, hopefully leading to the film’s completion.

The talent: Those interviewed for the final film include Seth Green, FoxTrot creator Bill Amend, Bloom Country creator Berkeley Breathed, Rhymes With Orange creator Hilary Price and Knight Life creator Keith Knight.

Perk of note: For a $500 pledge, Schroeder writes, “I, Joel, the director of Dear Mr. Watterson, will write you a personal thank you note using a Calvin & Hobbes pad of paper I made in junior high school. And I’ll send it in an awesome homemade Calvin & Hobbes envelope.”

Current funding status: Over $72,000 has been raised, exceeding the $50,000 goal. Pledges are still being accepted, though; deadline is July 14th.

The Inn
The pitch: Steve Silverman, the creator of the award-winning web series Pretty, has teamed up with Buffy alum and Bandwagon creator Emma Caulfield for a new original thriller series.

The talent: Caulfield’s co-stars will include The Bannen Way‘s Mark Gantt, soap opera icon Denise Alexander, and others.

Perk of note: The person who makes the largest pledge will receive a personal phone call from Caulfield.

Current funding status: $880 of the $10,000 goal has been raised. Deadline is August 7th, though as the campaign is being run through Indiegogo, the project will receive all pledged funds, whether or not it meets that goal.

Neal Stephenson’s Clang
The pitch: Author Neal Stephenson has turned his attention from prose to video game development, and is spearheading a campaign to raise funds for a new sword-fighting simulator — one that accurately reflects the reality of swinging around steel. Clang will not only evolve into an open-source toolkit for others to develop their own sword-oriented games, but will also be the basis for a new fiction series, published through Amazon’s 47North imprint.

The talent: Stephenson’s the big name, but game companies Bungie and Valve are included in the project’s thanks. According to the project FAQ, Clang will be released on Valve’s Steam platform.

Perk of note: For a $10,000 pledge, not only do you get perks like multiple copies of Clang and your face on your own exclusive in-game character, but a “Gotlandic war knife based on a design by bladesmith Jeff Pringle (a wootz and pattern welding specialist). These are replicas of 8th century weapons… In those days, ‘war knife’ meant something akin to ‘short sword’ rather than ‘pocket knife.’”

Current funding status: Nearly $466,000 of the $500,000 goal has been pledged. Deadline is July 9th.

Any interesting projects you’re following? Tell us in the comments!

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When crowdfunding service Kickstarter launched in 2009, it seemed like the perfect way for technology entrepreneurs to raise money for apps and widgets, and in fact much of the focus on the company has been on how it allows inventors to find backers for things like iPod Nano watches and iPad stands. But Kickstarter is also increasingly becoming a platform for launching movies, books and other artistic endeavours — which led its co-founder to say recently that the cash dispersed by the company will soon exceed the amount of funding provided by the National Endownment for the Arts. That claim has drawn some criticism, but based on new statistics provided by Kickstarter, it also appears to be true.

Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler made the comparison to the NEA in an interview with Talking Points Memo late last week, saying that based on its current growth rate, the service is on track to distribute more than $150 million to projects financed through the platform this year — a figure larger than the 2012 budget for the National Endowment of the Arts, which is $146 million (down from $167 million in 2010).

Clay Johnson, author of the new book The Information Diet and former director of Sunlight Labs and co-founder of Blue State Digital, took issue with this comparison in a blog post, saying there is really no comparison between the two. To prove it, he looked at the top most-funded projects at Kickstarter and said that the bulk of them don’t have anything to do with the arts — since most are design-related or technology-based projects, including various accessories for the iPhone. Said Johnson:

Comparing what Kickstarter does to the NEA is like saying Facebook has organized more working-class Americans than the AFL-CIO: it only makes sense if you’re completely ignorant of the function of either.

Kickstarter says $100 million has gone to film, music and other arts

Strickler, however, has pointed out in a response to Johnson’s post that the figures the author used were incorrect. In fact, the Kickstarter co-founder says that close to 70 percent of the money that has been disbursed to successful projects since 2009 (funding is only released from the service if a project hits its fundraising goal) has gone to the categories that Johnson mentions in his post — art, dance, film, music, photography, publishing and theater. That’s 70 percent of the $150 million in total that Kickstarter has raised since it was founded, and Strickler said that close to $100 million of that came in the past year.

According to the Kickstarter co-founder, film-related projects alone have raised more than $40 million through the platform — a group that includes 17 movies that were shown at at the Sundance Film Festival and about 30 that are being shown at the South by Southwest conference in March. Music-related projects are the second largest category with close to $30 million raised, while art, theater, publishing and photography account for another $20 million. One of the recent projects that has raised over $1 million (there have been three so far) was a series of comic book collections from artist Rich Burlew.

Although Strickler made a point of expressing support for the NEA in both his Talking Points Memo interview and in his response to Johnson, he also says that he sees Kickstarter as providing a kind of alternative to the government grant program:

Not everyone has the time or means to fill out a grant application or has an idea that will appeal to a record label or film studio. Kickstarter provides access for anyone in the United States to find funding for their creative project.

In the end, comparing Kickstarter to the NEA — or seeing the two as somehow being in competition with each other — seems to miss the larger point, which is that Kickstarter has already expanded the arts-funding ecosystem by a substantial degree (as arts blogger Tim Mikulski notes in a blog post on the topic), and it is still growing quickly. The fact that Kickstarter is an easy-to-use web platform makes it a lot more accessible than the NEA, but Clay Johnson is right when he says they are both very different. We should be applauding them both, not trying to pick which one is better than the other.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr users Pedro Ribeiro Simoes and Quazie.

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