Today marks the launch of the Internet Defense League, an effort led by Fight for the Future to build permanent infrastructure for defending the internet. The idea is simple: build a loose, permanent coalition of individuas, companies and websites that stand at the ready to react to threats to the internet. How exactly this works is up to you -- there are a number of ways to participate in the league, including (as I've done) inserting some JS into your site that will light up at certain times when the net is under threat. I've also got a snazzy new badge in my sidebar that fills me with pride every time I look at it. The past six months has been all about: "how does the internet advocacy movement evolve post-SOPA?". I see the creation of the defense league as a big, exciting and awesome part of that.
I remember back in the fall, during the building of anti-SOPA/PIPA campaign, FFTF made one of the most creative and effective advocacy moves I've ever seen: they offered ways for any website owner to "black out" their logo in protest of the bills. Tons of websites took this up, which helped the meme of the campaign spread laterally, quickly. I distinctly remember setting up my "stop censorship" logo and then feeling an immediate sense of kinship with others on the web who did the same. This is like a bigger and better version of that. I can say clearly and with pride that I'm part of the global force that will work to defend the internet, in whatever ways I can. That feels good to say. Tonight, as part of the launch, "cat signals" will light up the sky around the world. I'll be co-hosting the NYC party on the roof at OpenPlans, along w/ Alexis Ohanian of Reddit. There are still free tickets available, so RSVP here if you want to come. I can't wait to help flip the switch.
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of being part of an event called Hacking Society -- I helped organize the event w/ the folks at Union Square Ventures, and it was a real honor to spend a day surrounded by many of my internet heroes. It's taken us a little while, but we've been working through the transcripts and recordings from the event, and have been piecing together some video clips. Today we posted the first set, and a bunch more will be ready soon. Fred has a post up today about one of them: a conversation about the problem of money in politics, kicked off by Larry Lessig, leading to some brainstorming about how we might hack at the problem. As always, the commenters on Fred's blog are having at it, so I'll go jump in the conversation there. I've spent a decent portion of the last few weeks listening through the audio from Hacking Society, to the point where I feel like everyone from that day is actually residing inside my head. Which is weird, but also nice. I encourage you to head over there and check out the video, audio, and transcripts and invite those folks into your own brain for a few hours. More videos will be ready soon and I'll link them up as they come.
It's no secret that Kickstarter is radically changing the way people think about launching new products. They are on a such tear helping projects get funded by the crowd (the latest being OUYA, an open gaming platform, which has raised $5mm so far, 5x its goal), that it's no surprise that the model is spreading. Kickstarter didn't invent the "tipping point" model of organizing group action (my first recollection of it was from a site called ThePoint, which ultimately became Groupon -- here's an archived shot from 2008), but they've definitely taken it mainstream. Now you see the basic model being replicated everywhere (for example, Rally for causes and Thunderclap for massive group tweets), and I'm sure VCs can't stop the phrase "it's Kickstarter for ____" from ringing in their ears. What's interesting to me is that in addition to these new Kickstarter-like platform, we're also seeing the Kickstarter model being attempted in the wild -- independently by projects looking for launch funding. I'm calling this approach the "Kickstarter Protocol" model. For instance, here is App.net's Kickstarter-like page:
Today marks the launch of the Internet Defense League, an effort led by Fight for the Future to build permanent infrastructure for defending the internet. The idea is simple: build a loose, permanent coalition of individuas, companies and websites that stand at the ready to react to threats to the internet. How exactly this works is up to you -- there are a number of ways to participate in the league, including (as I've done) inserting some JS into your site that will light up at certain times when the net is under threat. I've also got a snazzy new badge in my sidebar that fills me with pride every time I look at it. The past six months has been all about: "how does the internet advocacy movement evolve post-SOPA?". I see the creation of the defense league as a big, exciting and awesome part of that.
I remember back in the fall, during the building of anti-SOPA/PIPA campaign, FFTF made one of the most creative and effective advocacy moves I've ever seen: they offered ways for any website owner to "black out" their logo in protest of the bills. Tons of websites took this up, which helped the meme of the campaign spread laterally, quickly. I distinctly remember setting up my "stop censorship" logo and then feeling an immediate sense of kinship with others on the web who did the same. This is like a bigger and better version of that. I can say clearly and with pride that I'm part of the global force that will work to defend the internet, in whatever ways I can. That feels good to say. Tonight, as part of the launch, "cat signals" will light up the sky around the world. I'll be co-hosting the NYC party on the roof at OpenPlans, along w/ Alexis Ohanian of Reddit. There are still free tickets available, so RSVP here if you want to come. I can't wait to help flip the switch.
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of being part of an event called Hacking Society -- I helped organize the event w/ the folks at Union Square Ventures, and it was a real honor to spend a day surrounded by many of my internet heroes. It's taken us a little while, but we've been working through the transcripts and recordings from the event, and have been piecing together some video clips. Today we posted the first set, and a bunch more will be ready soon. Fred has a post up today about one of them: a conversation about the problem of money in politics, kicked off by Larry Lessig, leading to some brainstorming about how we might hack at the problem. As always, the commenters on Fred's blog are having at it, so I'll go jump in the conversation there. I've spent a decent portion of the last few weeks listening through the audio from Hacking Society, to the point where I feel like everyone from that day is actually residing inside my head. Which is weird, but also nice. I encourage you to head over there and check out the video, audio, and transcripts and invite those folks into your own brain for a few hours. More videos will be ready soon and I'll link them up as they come.
It's no secret that Kickstarter is radically changing the way people think about launching new products. They are on a such tear helping projects get funded by the crowd (the latest being OUYA, an open gaming platform, which has raised $5mm so far, 5x its goal), that it's no surprise that the model is spreading. Kickstarter didn't invent the "tipping point" model of organizing group action (my first recollection of it was from a site called ThePoint, which ultimately became Groupon -- here's an archived shot from 2008), but they've definitely taken it mainstream. Now you see the basic model being replicated everywhere (for example, Rally for causes and Thunderclap for massive group tweets), and I'm sure VCs can't stop the phrase "it's Kickstarter for ____" from ringing in their ears. What's interesting to me is that in addition to these new Kickstarter-like platform, we're also seeing the Kickstarter model being attempted in the wild -- independently by projects looking for launch funding. I'm calling this approach the "Kickstarter Protocol" model. For instance, here is App.net's Kickstarter-like page:
And here is the launch page for the Internet Defense League, which launches this week (we're hosting the NYC launch party on Thursday, complete with Cat Signal)
Both of these read closely from the Kickstarter playbook, including tiered support levels tied to creative rewards. It will be interesting to see how this plays out -- I suspect that both projects have a good chance of reaching their goals (particularly IDL w/ it's more modest number), in part because the organizations behind them have big networks already. If this approach starts to work, I suspect we'll see more of these, for a few reasons: 1) control of identity -- the IDL launch site is in situ, which helps bind it more tightly to the campaign; 2) for cost savings -- as expensive & time consuming as it is to build a website like this yourself, if you're hunting big game, saving the 5% that Kickstarter takes is meaningful; and 3) for routing around restrictions that some funding sites impose on which projects are allowed to use the platform. I don't see this kind of thing having a meaningful negative impact on Kicksktarter's business, but it does raise some interesting questions about the value that the Kickstarter platform and audience network bring to the table. For smaller projects, where project leaders don't have the skill or resources to go independent, it's clear. But for larger projects, where success is more about internet-wide buzz building off of existing networks, you could make the argument that Kickstarter the platform & network provides less value. Relatedly, here's a nice infographic diving into Kickstarter's data on fundraising and product delivery (as opposed to fundraising).
And here is the launch page for the Internet Defense League, which launches this week (we're hosting the NYC launch party on Thursday, complete with Cat Signal)
Both of these read closely from the Kickstarter playbook, including tiered support levels tied to creative rewards. It will be interesting to see how this plays out -- I suspect that both projects have a good chance of reaching their goals (particularly IDL w/ it's more modest number), in part because the organizations behind them have big networks already. If this approach starts to work, I suspect we'll see more of these, for a few reasons: 1) control of identity -- the IDL launch site is in situ, which helps bind it more tightly to the campaign; 2) for cost savings -- as expensive & time consuming as it is to build a website like this yourself, if you're hunting big game, saving the 5% that Kickstarter takes is meaningful; and 3) for routing around restrictions that some funding sites impose on which projects are allowed to use the platform. I don't see this kind of thing having a meaningful negative impact on Kicksktarter's business, but it does raise some interesting questions about the value that the Kickstarter platform and audience network bring to the table. For smaller projects, where project leaders don't have the skill or resources to go independent, it's clear. But for larger projects, where success is more about internet-wide buzz building off of existing networks, you could make the argument that Kickstarter the platform & network provides less value. Relatedly, here's a nice infographic diving into Kickstarter's data on fundraising and product delivery (as opposed to fundraising).
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
