Kickstarter

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who know and love Kickstarter, and those who have never heard of it before.

If you're one of the latter, after you read this post you'll discover a Kickstarter story around every corner. It's been covered on NPR, pilloried by The Onion on YouTube, and featured in the Wall Street Journal. Ask the next three people you meet if they've heard of Kickstarter. I'll bet at least two of them have.

What is Kickstarter

In the company's own words:

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. At this very second, thousands of people are checking out projects on Kickstarter. 

They're rallying around their friends' ideas, backing projects from people they've long admired, and discovering things that make them laugh and smile. 

Every project is independently crafted, put to all-or-nothing funding, and supported by friends, fans, and the public in return for rewards.

Creative Projects

This is what I love most about Kickstarter. It's all about creativity. At a time when the powers that be want to focus on standardization (that's JMHO, of course), this creative group of people mapped out a creative way to fund creative projects. (That sentence needs a few more creative adjectives.)

There have been some phenomenal successes on Kickstarter, like Ouya, a new video game console that raised $2,589,687.77 on the first day and a total of $8,596,475 in the course of its 30-day campaign. Millions of dollars, with a capital M. OK, but that's video gaming, and those people are crazy, right?

But then there's Jordon Stratford, who raised $91,751 dollars for an idea (albeit a great idea) he has for a steampunk middle-grade novel called Wollstonecraft. His original goal was $4,000. He wrote about his Kickstarter experiences and shared many tips on his gorgeous blog. Harry Potter aside, most children's book readers aren't nearly as crazy as gamers when it comes to spending hard-earned cash, but this guy caught the wave.

It used to be that creative projects needed the backing of foundations or philanthropists to raise that kind of money. Today, it can be done a few dollars at a time with donations from anyone with a credit card who can get online.

There have been some colossal failures at Kickstarter, too (although they're not easy to find). The platform offers up their stats to anyone who wants to take the time to read them. Here are their figures to date:

Category	Launched Projects	Total Dollars	Successful Dollars	Unsuccessful Dollars	Live Dollars	Live Projects	Success Rate
All	68,878	$336M	$283M	$35M	$18M	3,686	43.98%

I have found the Kickstarter site pretty easy to navigate. Payment is done through Amazon, so Kickstarter and its participants never see your credit card. It's an all or nothing proposition, too. If the project meets its goal, then backers are charged. If the project fails to meet its goal, no money changes hands.

Crowd Funding and Social Media

One of the most interesting aspects of Kickstarter is how successful it has been at harnessing the tools of social media. Successful campaigns all use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social networking tools to garner support. It reminds me of that old Faberge commercial with Heather Locklear: you tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Companies large and small are scrambling to find a way to harness the power of social networking, and it seems to me they could learn a thing or two from Kickstarter (or at least its successful participants).

I have personally funded three Kickstarter campaigns and am following several others. It's been fascinating to watch what works and what doesn't. Buzz seems to beget buzz, and Kickstarter fosters that, featuring projects that are doing well as staff picks and projects of the day. As my brother says, it's all about the launch.

Who knows how long the Kickstarter phenomenon will last?

Stay tuned …

Have you funded or launched a Kickstarter project? Tell us about it in a comment by clicking here.

Bring on the Boredom — CMB Post

This was originally posted on the now defunct Chicago Moms Blog.

The other day, I heard someone discussing the benefits that being bored can bring to children: time to think, room to imagine, space to exercise creativity, and reasons to practice patience and interpersonal skills with peers. In other words, some time in a child's day that isn't dictated, structured and supervised by grownups can be a good thing. The line that has really stuck with me was "Give your child the gift of boredom." Turns out there's quite a bit of support for this in the fields of psychology and education.

When I was a kid (about 3 million years ago, according to my own children), not every single second of my day was booked with lessons, play dates, activities, school, and screens. And there were times when I was plenty bored, believe me. I learned not to express those feelings to my mother, however, because she would always solve my boredom by giving me chores to do. Have I mentioned that my mom is one smart chick? To avoid doing those chores, I quickly learned to entertain myself by doing crafts or making a puzzle or sometimes even playing with my brother. Usually, I would crack open a book and get lost in another, less boring world.

Kids today don't have that luxury. I've tried hard to avoid overbooking my children, but it's hard to turn down interesting opportunities. On the few occasions when my kids have told me that they were bored, I've tried my mother's line on them, but it doesn't seem to have the same impact that it had on me all those years ago. Maybe I'll call and ask her for a refresher course.

Spring break provided some much needed down time for our family, and the kids and I took yet another road trip to visit my parents in Florida. It's too expensive to fly, so we drive down, and 1,200 miles each way provides plenty of time for boredom to set in. But, we have that part down to a science: audio books, car-friendly activities in individual backpacks, and just enough junk food to keep everyone happy, but not enough to make anyone sick. Plus, we always listen to the deluxe anniversary edition of the original broadway cast of Fiddler on the Roof, complete with additional tunes and commentary by Sheldon Harnick. What can I say? It's a tradition.

The real boredom set in once we got down to Florida and my parent's 55+ community. Horror of horrors, there was only one computer available for the seven people in the house that week and March madness basketball occupied my father's TV. I could feel the tension rising as my usually bickering boys were forced to spend too much time together with not enough scheduled activities or screens to keep them occupied.

But guess what? They didn't bicker. They played games. They did crossword puzzles. They went down to the shuffle board courts. They become deep sea divers discovering new worlds in the pool every day. They learned how to play poker and Euchre. They played with girl cousins. They played with each other. They SHARED computer time. I think they may even have cracked open a book or two. They had fun.

And can I say it again — they didn't bicker.

I guess a little boredom never hurt anybody. Maybe we'll try it again soon. And if that doesn't work, there are always chores to do.

This is an original Chicago Moms Blog post. When Susan Bearman isn't busy figuring out how to make her children's lives miserable and telling them boring stories about the good old days, she can be found writing at Two Kinds of People and on her freelance Website, www.bearman.us.

Time for New Traditions — CMB Post

Originally posted on the now defunct Chicago Moms Blog.

I admit it — I'm a sucker for tradition, and when it comes to holiday traditions, the more the merrier. It all started when I was a little girl. Until I was 13, I was blessed to have four living great-grand parents. Our holidays in the Detroit area were a mad relay of staccato car trips that hiccoughed us from the east side to the west side and back again, visiting relatives who pulled quarters from our ears and fed us horrible cookies.

I loved it and could never understand why my mother was always a nervous wreck. Now I know too well the stress of trying to keep sugar-doped children clean in dress-up clothes, cook and schlep food all over kingdom come, and find gifts for people I barely know. No wonder her favorite holiday memory was the year we went to Jamaica.

As my generation grew up and spread out across the country, our traditions changed. The 60-mile radius of my childhood seems like a luxury in the face of two-day car journeys, long train trips and expensive plane fares. We don't all always make it. When we do, we are holed up together for days on end, which brings its own delights and stresses. Our family has become more complicated, as well, blending and extending in many directions — but we've adapted pretty well, adding new people, new celebrations and new traditions to the mix.

Adding on has been adding up, however, and the travel alone costs a fortune. More people mean more gifts, more food — just more. The entire family is guilty of overly generous gift giving, but these days everyone is feeling the pinch. Over the past couple of years, we have tried to create a few new traditions to make the holiday experience a little less taxing (both financially and physically) without losing any of the joy.

Last year, for example, my parents came up with the idea of putting each couple in charge of one meal: planning it, buying it, preparing it and cleaning up after it. Even my three boys took on a dinner (spaghetti, jarred sauce, frozen garlic bread and a simple salad). It was great and a new tradition was born. Here are a few more ideas — some we've tried successfully, some that will be new this year:

• I've cut way back on the number of holiday cards I'm sending this year (good for the planet as well as the wallet), opting instead to create a little e-video card. I'll have to get back to you on the results of this experiment.
• It's not the cost that counts. My boys have a blast at the dollar store. Last year, my dad got a lifetime supply of toothpicks and couldn't be happier. He's even taken to giving dollar store hints: "Gee, I could really use a new fly swatter this year."
• I'm encouraging creativity. Last year, my daughter made some great calendars using family photos that were a big hit. Our oldest son's girlfriend knits up a storm every year, creating beautiful, warm, personal gifts that we all treasure.

I think our favorite family tradition is the story behind the gift: who got the best buy, where one of us found that little shop with the crazy owner, and how someone snagged the most amazing freebie. Even lost luggage stories are fun when we're all together. Last year, lost luggage resulted in stringing out the gift giving for days.

Given our passion for storytelling, I've decided to inflict introduce something new this year. I fully expect the family to hate me for this, but we're going to try creating a progressive story (sometimes called an add-on or round robin story). The idea is that some poor sucker lucky raconteur (i.e., my brother) will be chosen to start a thrilling holiday tale, writing a paragraph or so before sending it on (don't you just love email?). Each family member will add a new paragraph, and we'll have a big story fest when we all gather later in the month. Wish me luck.

It takes time to develop and absorb new traditions. Change is hard. I thought the toughest part of a scaled-down holiday would be explaining it to the children, but it's not. The hardest part is accepting it myself. This year — and probably for a number of years to come — we can't have it all, buy it all, give it all or do it all. But we can still have fun, as long as we're together.

This is an original Chicago Moms Blog post. When not tinkering with tradition, Susan can be found tinkering at Two Kinds of People and The Animal Store Blog.

Graphic credit: Blessed by Billy Alexander.