Ming the Mechanic:
Rational Street Performer Protocol

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 Rational Street Performer Protocol2005-06-21 19:30
2 comments
by Flemming Funch

Dewf mentions The Rational Street Performer Protocol and an improvement, The Rational Street Performer Protocol.

Groups of people place place donations in escrow, to be released to an author who's promised a certain work, if he puts it into the public domain. In other words, it is a system of private financing for public works. The intent is in part that such a scheme might fund alternative or marginal works that might not otherwise find financing.

The "Rational" protocol adjusts the approach so that the negotiations are done over several rounds and each person pledges a certain ratio out of the total that they're willing to pay, up to a certain maximum amount. The result is a fairly complex formula, but the idea is to show that one's contribution influences the total. So, one can see that one influences the total by more than simply the amount of one's contribution, and thus there should be a higher motivation to contribute, because one can see that one gets something for it.

I don't know if that's necessary. I think what makes the biggest difference is simple stuff, like having one's name listed as one of the contributors.



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2 comments

25 Aug 2013 @ 06:48 by dewf @24.160.151.86 : it finally exists!!
Howdy Ming -- long time no comment :)

Well, it only took 8 years, but somebody finally created a very easily-deployed version of escrow'ed donations / crowdfunding (ha, remember when that wasn't yet a word?). It's a widget you place on your blog which hides a secret link to the goodies.

It doesn't yet implement the RSPP -- and like you said, that's probably unnecessarily complicated -- especially in these early stages when people are not accustomed to the mechanism.

The cool thing? It's implemented with Bitcoin, so no banks or credit card fees are involved.

Here's the reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1kua8v/bitcoin_embeddablecrowdfundingwidget_now_in_beta/  



25 Aug 2013 @ 07:02 by dewf @24.160.151.86 : (more)
And here is an excerpt from the original thing I posted on reddit which inspired a programmer to actually make it:
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The idea is, if you're a content creator -- writing blog posts, making music, drawing comics, etc -- you put out a little preview of what you're offering, and say "if you want to see the whole thing, pay up". Just show the first few paragraphs of a magazine article, snippets of your song/album, whatever.

This is for people who want their stuff to be freely available, spread far and wide, AND want to get paid for making it in the first place. Think of it as an alternative to web page ads, especially for people who don't have the requisite amount of traffic -- niche markets, etc.

Thoughts? I can personally think of so many ways I'd actually use this. I'd make electronic music (ransoming my tracks for $3-5 each to a couple dozen people). I'd use it to make tutorial videos for using 3D software, or programming lessons, or short-form fiction, or ...

And all it would take is one indie act to sell an mp3 this way -- not "per download" (as is customary) but in one fell swoop. "We think our song is worth $5,000 and after that we want the entire world to have it for free."  



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2007-11-07 00:51: Diversity counterproductive to social capital?
2007-07-13 23:42: Plan vs Reality



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