So once upon a time I was a sports fan. Then I joined a fantasy league (you know the original Web 2.0/Social Internet experience). Many years later I discovered this site, newsvine.com, that let me write about all of my sports opinions and such.
SI.com and ESPN failed to come and offer me a job as their new columnist so I eventually diversified my writings to all various areas including but not limited to movies, music, politics, meta-commentary, technology and the Internets, some video games and general pop-culture. I eventually realized that the experience of newsvine would be greatly improved with some integration into a browser, in particular Firefox. I wrote an extension for just that, which is still in development this day.
Eventually I found my way onto Netscape.com as well, though no where near as active.
At some point I also finished my own personal blog, linked to somewhere on this page, though of course it is never really complete. Coming full circle back into sports, I am currently in the process of starting my own sports blog community.
And now I am here.
This article was originally published at newsvine and is intended as a call to that community. However, if you are not currently a member of newsvine (you are always welcome to join!) I'm still more than happy to accept your help and research.
Recently newsvine has teamed up with Assignment Zero, a collaboration between Wired Magazine and NewAssignment.Net, to offer newsvine users a chance to come together as a community and work collectively on group projects. The first round of projects center around the meta idea of crowdsourcing, or using the collective power of group collaboration to produce material at or better than a professional level.
If you are not sure what the hell I am talking about, then visit the above two links and peruse the Assignment Zero Newsvine Group for even further information.
I'm here now to inform you that I am ready to play your fearless leader on one of the three projects that Assignment Zero has sent our way. Mykola has already taken the reigns on crowdsourcing nonfiction books while I believe that Celestina is running the game over at the crowdsourcing novels project.
I've taken the lead to write the feature article on crowdfunding, or in simple terms, using the community to collectively fund a project. In a few more words,
If crowdsourcing relies on bits of knowledge from the crowd to shape an idea or product, crowdfunding applies that same principle to raising money. While this business model isn't new (raise those NPR totebags high!), it has been innovated anew online.
Musicians, inventors and everyday people crowdfund to raise capital for everything from studio time to vacations. A good place to get a primer on what's happening in the crowdfunding world, visit the blog the same name Crowdfunding.
There are plenty of existing crowdfunding endeavors to cover. Tell us what they are, and together we'll pull together a piece on the subject.
Many of you may already be quite familiar with the spirit if not the terminology through Team Newsvine's efforts at the Columbus Relay for Life. Oh and Corey, TopJedi and Brian, if you read this, you better write something up about that project, or better yet, someone here can interview one or all of you!
If any of this interests you, then go register an account at Assignment Zero, join the above-mentioned newsvine group and look below for a sub-project that appeals to you. You can work on one or more than one. Do as little or as much research and work that you want. More than one person is welcome to work on any of these sub-projects as well. Don't worry, you'll get credit for any and all research and work that you contribute.
- Tell us about what crowdfunding projects are out there.
- Look into Fundable.
- Tell us about the Robin Hood Fund.
- Look into Act Blue.
- Tell us about First Giving.
- Report on crowdfunding in a crisis.
- Find out all about Chipin.com.
- Tell us about SellaBand.
- Look into Swarm of Angels. (An open source movie project.)
If nothing here peaks your interest but you have another entirely amazing idea, then suggest it and we'll see what we can do.
Let me know below if you plan to contribute and we'll start cranking out a kick-ass project!
