| Tuesday, June 21, 2005 |  |
| Fundable |
 Seb mentions Fundable. Seems like a great way to raise funds for a particular purpose. Essentially it works like this:
 Recently completed transactions are stuff along the lines of buying a computer for some open source or charitable project, manufacturing t-shirts for some sports club, buying storage for some guy who's moving out, sending a kid to camp, etc. Quite remarkable that this kind of thing works. It is of course in part because many people like to do good things. And it is also because the site makes the proposition clear and easy and safe. And because many people like completing numbers. So, if there's a site showing that we have 8 our of 10 needed contributors, one kind of gets more motivated to complete the target. [ Organization | 2005-06-21 18:18 | 4 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Rational Street Performer Protocol |
| 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. [ Organization | 2005-06-21 19:30 | 2 comments | PermaLink ] More > |