[UPDATE: We have one more Kickstarter invite left! If you've got a project you're thinking about submitting, now is the time!]
We’ve just passed 50% on our Kickstarter page, which means we’re halfway to being able to bring you a new open source standard! Thanks so much to everyone who has pledged and helped get the word out. We’re so pleased to see the interest this project is generating, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll build with it.
Kickstarter has been a great platform for us. Manufacturing has certain up-front costs which must be covered before parts start to roll off the production line. Many of us picture a world of cheap, open-source machine tools that will lower this barrier to entry, but in the meantime, crowdsourcing the funding for tooling and a decent-volume run makes perfect sense.
Kickstarter is currently by invitation only. Anyone can pledge to a project (and please do! there are hundreds of worthy and exciting things happening over there), but to start a project you have to have an invitation.
Well, MakerBeam has three at the moment. We want to see more open-source projects on Kickstarter; we think there are probably dozens of worthwhile projects that would get built if the people who dreamed them up could pay rent and eat for awhile, or pay for circuit boards or tooling.
Hence the MakerBeam Open Source Kickstart Contest. We’re giving three invites to the best open source project proposals we get between now and next Friday, the 25th of September 2009. We will favor open source hardware but we’re happy to consider software also. Here are the guidelines.
1) the project must be open source. If it’s hardware, we’re happy; if it’s code, we’re still pretty happy. If it’s a book, video, album etc, we’ll still consider it, but ONLY if the content generated is under a Creative Commons or other open license.
2) Tell us about the project, but only with half your proposal. The other half (at least) should tell us how you intend to use Kickstarter to get your proposal funded. Tell us about the exciting rewards you’ll offer. Explain why people will think it’s awesome and Twitter about it. Show us how you’ll reach out to people. This matters MORE than what your project is and how much money you need, though we’ll want to know that too.
3) Short and simple is valued here. But not so short that we don’t understand what you’re getting at.
4) Kickstarter projects can only be launched from the United States. Sorry, but that’s how it is right now. If you’re from somewhere else in the wide wide world, you’ll need a US member for your project who has a bank account here.
5) Entries should be mailed to sam@makerbeam.com. We’ll take entries until the end of Friday, 25th September, at midnight Pacific Time (UTC-7). Winners will be announced the following Monday, unless we’re swamped, and will get their invites in the mail when we announce their projects.
6) You own your ideas; we get the right to publish the winners here while all other rights are yours. Simple enough.
We want to give these invitations away while they’re still useful and valuable, and we’d like to establish an open source culture on Kickstarter and get funding to worthy projects. If you have something for us, contact us or just send your ideas to the above email.
Thanks again for all your support so far! To help us reach our goal, head to our pledge page on Kickstarter. Open practices and community participation are making a difference all over the world. We’re pleased as punch to be a part of it.
