Kickstarter goes live in the UK
Kickstarter launched its UK site Wednesday with about 200 projects, part of a larger planned international expansion. Now U.K. creators can begin using Kickstarter to fund their creative projects. Read more »
Airbnb, Coursera and Uber: The rise of the disruption economy
photo: Flickr user Images of Money
We’re used to how the social web has disrupted media, but that same wave is moving through other industries, driven by startups like Airbnb, Coursera and Uber — and while regulators and entrenched industries are trying to fight it, the trend behind that wave is unstoppable. Read more »
Digital lighting: Here come the wireless, smart bulbs
Smart wireless bulbs are the latest addition to the Internet of Things. And companies like GreenWave Reality — and even Google — are developing these technologies. Read more »
Our RoadMap connected design conference is two weeks away!
GigaOM’s RoadMap conference is exactly two weeks from today and will feature speakers like Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen, Tumblr CEO David Karp, fuseproject CEO Yves Behar, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, The Obvious Corporation CEO Evan Williams, MINIMAL Founder Scott Wilson and many more. Read more »
Kickstarter starts welcoming UK creators with projects launching Oct. 31
photo: kickstarter
Kickstarter is opening up to UK projects, marking the first time it will accept projects outside the US. The new projects will launch on Oct. 31 and will be accompanied by an updated international shipping system. Read more »
What hardware companies should know about Kickstarter
photo: Xi3
Some hardware companies are turning to Kickstarter, but it may not be the answer. Adapteva and Xi3, for example, are falling short of their funding goals about halfway through- — but one says it’s still happy with the results. Read more »
CruxSKUNK: A thin iPad keyboard case with a twist
Looking for a wireless iPad keyboard? There are plenty of choices on Kickstarter and this one has a slick feature: The hinge rotates 360-degrees allowing the device to double as a stand for touch input. If you want in, there’s not much time left! Read more »
Spurned by VCs, a chip startup turns to Kickstarter
photo: Adapteva
It’s hard for chip startups to raise funding, but the demands of mobile and cloud computing are providing a window of opportunity for all kinds of innovative silicon-based designs. Thus, when Adapteva couldn’t find a VC backer, its CEO turned instead to Kickstarter. Read more »
Introducing the solar pocket factory
Two solar geeks set out to make a device that can make microsolar panels — the kind used in cell phone chargers — in a backyard. The duo raised $77,500 on Kickstarter to fund the machine. Read more »
Whoa! Amanda Palmer reverses course, pays crowdsourced musicians
photo: Flickr/Zawesome
Knock me down with a feather! After a week of sometimes not-so-civil discourse, alt-rock icon Amanda Palmer says she’s started paying the artists who volunteered to back up her band on its “Theatre is Evil” tour. Read more »
Vimeo creates new tools to support and pay video makers
Vimeo which recently broke into the top ten web video web destinations list, is giving video makers new ways of monetization. It is offering two new tools and has plans for others at it helps its indie creators grow. Read more »
xWallDock turns outlets into iPhone, iPad charging docks
What happens when an industrial designer gets fed up with the many mobile device charging cords and cables in his house? He designs a solution, of course! Thanks to the xWallDock Kickstarter project, you can get in on this simple, but elegant, docking face plate. Read more »
LIFX bulb shines light on connected home vs gadgets
photo: Lifx
Who needs a light switch when you have smart bulbs paired with smartphones? LIFX is just that: a Wi-Fi connected LED bulb that you remotely control or even change the color. But will consumers want one-off connected gadgets or centrally-managed smart homes in the future? Read more »
Amanda Palmer brouhaha exposes the dark side of crowdsourcing
photo: Flickr/Zawesome
Amanda Palmer, an alt rock fan favorite who’s worked Kickstarter and social media masterfully in her career, may have mis-stepped when she posted a plea for free musicians to back up her band in its current tour. Or else it was a publicity stunt. Read more »
“They squashed our launch.” GoDaddy’s troubles hit Kickstarter data service
photo: ThingsWeStart.com
GoDaddy, the hosting and domain registrar has been down for more than four hours, possibly as a result of the group Anonymous. But the founder of ThingsWeStart, a Kickstarter data collection project just wishes it hadn’t happened in the middle of his site’s launch. hacktavist Read more »
SmartThings’ Kickstarter project lets developers hack the real world
photo: smartthings
The Internet of Things should be its own category on Kickstarter, since there’s yet another project on the site that hopes to connect your physical and digital worlds. But its real promise may be in providing context to computers that will evolve into new user interfaces. Read more »
Indiegogo considers letting international projects crowdfund for equity
Indiegogo, which is considering letting users of its platform give equity for funding, reckons the change will mostly benefit small businesses who want to raise cash from potential local customers Read more »
Ebook site Unglue.it hits bump after Amazon ends crowdfunding payment support
A company that aims to release ebooks into the Creative Commons through crowdfunding has had to halt operations after Amazon Payments withdrew support for crowdfunding payments. Kickstarter, which also uses Amazon Payments, remains unaffected for now. Read more at paidContent »
Subscriber Content
Crowdfunding’s rapid growth and future opportunity
Crowdfunding has grown from a $33 million market to a $128 million market in the past two years and is expected to reach $500 million in 2012. While it won’t completely replace more traditional fund-raising methods, it’s nonetheless an important space to watch, with plenty of opportunities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
AudioGlove makes iPhones 20 percent louder, no tech involved
Is your iPhone speaker not loud enough for music or calls? A Kickstarter project for AudioGloves uses accoustics, not digital technology to solve the problem by boosting sound up to 20 percent. According to a Dolby Labratory test, it works as advertised for richer, louder sounds. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Analyzing the wearable computing market
With the growth of sensors and microelectronics, the potential uses of wearable-computing technologies now reach to health and fitness, gaming, fashion, disabilities and augmented reality. Most importantly, the widespread adoption of wearables will drive the form function and market for mobiles in vital ways. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After Kickstarter success, Ouya CEO just getting started
Ouya, a $99 Android-based video game console, has picked up more than $5 million in the biggest Kickstarter campaign to date. It’s also received plenty of doubts from skeptics as well. In an interview, Julie Uhrman, the CEO and founder, said Ouya is the real deal. Read more »
Thanks to iOS 6, MetaWatch outs Strata smartwatch
As the Pebble smartwatch proved, to help sell a wearable device, you need support for iOS. Thanks to the new iOS 6 software, which now supports text message sharing over Bluetooth, the MetaWatch team is banking on Apple fans to fund its new Strata smartwatch. Read more »
Could Kickstarter be used to crowdfund journalism?
A journalist from Michigan has raised funding through Kickstarter for a project that will see him travel across the U.S. interviewing people about the election. Could that be an alternative model for financing investigative or in-depth reporting by journalists as newspapers continue to cut back? Read more »
I backed another Kickstarter: POP big mobile battery
Kickstarter continues to drain my monthy mobile gadget budget, this time for POP, which is short for “portable power.” The nicely designed device looks like a small trash can in shape, holding a 25,000 mAh battery and four retractable cords for iOS and micro-USB devices. Read more »
Can a publisher use crowdfunding to replace ads?
photo: Flickr user Christian Scholz
Penny Arcade, a webcomic publisher and event producer, is trying to use Kickstarter to finance its web operations for a year so it can replace traditional banner advertising with a reader-centric model. Could traditional publishers learn something from this crowdfunding experiment? Read more »
Kickstarter is going global. First stop: UK
The next breakout Kickstarter project may emerge outside the U.S. for the first time now that the popular crowd-funding site is preparing to expand overseas. The start-up announced on Twitter that people in the UK will be able to launch projects starting this fall. Read more »
Soviets, swords, comics and booze: Some crowdfunded projects to check out
Crowdfunding isn’t just a way for big names to raise cash directly from their fans. Here are some samples of the lower profile projects currently seeking funds on the Kickstarter scene, including a video game/fiction hybrid, a documentary about Calvin & Hobbes and a Soviet satire. Read more »
Seedrs opens: Dragons’ Den crowdfunding for startups
After a long gestation period, crowd investment platform Seedrs has finally opened its doors — allowing British startups to use its platform to pitch for early stage funding. And so far things appear to be going well. Read more »
Why Louis CK and Amanda Palmer are the future of content
photo: Flickr user Christian Scholz
Comedian Louis CK, who made $1 million selling downloads of a show through his website, has sold $4.5-million in tickets to a new tour in 48 hours. He and musician Amanda Palmer show that for content creators, building a community is more important than ever. Read more »
Kickstarter by the numbers: New stats page gives daily updates
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is pulling back the curtain on the data behind the site. The New York-based startup announced today that it has launched Kickstarter Stats, a page tracking the progress of all of the projects on the site, updated daily and sorted by category. Read more »
Pinterest adds support for Slideshare, Etsy, Kickstarter, Soundcloud
photo: Pinterest
Image-sharing site Pinterest will now automatically attribute content pinned from 500px, Kickstarter, SlideShare and SoundCloud. Read more »
Using open source & grassroots to map the world’s radiation data
Mapping the world’s radiation and air pollution data, using one volunteer with one gadget at a time — that’s the goal of the Safecast project, which this week closed over $100,000 on Kickstarter to deliver a limited run of its open source geiger counters to interested buyers. Read more »
Open-source geiger counter about to score over $100K on Kickstarter
A limited edition run of the open-source geiger counter designed by Xbox hacker and Chumby co-founder, Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, is about to score over $100,000 on Kickstarter in less than an hour. If you want one, pledge fast. Read more »
Seth Godin’s Kickstarter campaign for new book beats $40k goal in 3.5 hours
This morning at 5:05 AM ET, Seth Godin launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $40,000 for his upcoming book “The Icarus Deception.” The goal was to raise the money in a month, but the campaign beat it in three and a half hours. Read more at paidContent »
Kickstarter explains why failed projects are harder to find
After a recent story highlighted how Kickstarter made it harder to find failed projects, Kickstarter’s co-founder Yancey Strickler explains. It’s about showcasing current projects that can be funded. Also, creators were asking for their projects to get de-indexed from web searches because they ranked high. Read more »
Crowdfunding via customers is the new startup capital
photo: Corbis / Guy Ferrandis / Tristar Pictures
But hidden in the headlines about the JOBS Act is the creation of an entirely new class of capital that could be far more valuable to startups: customer capital. Instead of raising capital from VCs, entrepreneurs can reach out to customers directly. Read more »
Behind the scenes of a failed Kickstarter project
A little more than half of the projects on Kickstarter fail. But understanding those failures can help others avoid the same fate. So, I spoke to one of the founders of a failed project to understand what lessons others might be able to learn. Read more »
Fundable debuts as a Kickstarter for corporate set
The cult of Kickstarter and the looming promise of the JOBS Act, have presented an opportunity that Fundable wants to fill. The service, which is part of Virtucon Ventures debuted today with five projects and a goal of helping entrepreneurs raise capital for their businesses. Read more »
Kickstarted: my conversation with Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen
Kickstarter is not just a startup– it’s part of an important shift away from the industrial manufacturing era & toward the maker economy. In this wide-ranging interview, founder Perry Chen talks about how society is reaching a new ‘bursting point of creativity,’ & where Kickstarter goes from here. Read more »
