Crowdfunding Woes 1

This will be an open series as I "think while blogging" about trust, communication, intent, and everlasting fulfillment in our brave internet world.

I have 2 remaining Indiegogo campaigns I backed. Do I frame them as failed or fraud? Which way I land, for myself and many other backers, means a lot. For example, one project has a backer-launched Facebook page claiming the project is a 'fraud' and pooling our wisdom as to our best next steps.

I think what I'm finding in the legal and business reviews is interesting both personally and for all of us engaged over the internet with people we haven't met asking for our money. Thus, I start this series.

I tallied the crowdfunded projects we've backed: maybe 8. Five 5 came through. Of the 3 outstanding, 2 teeter on the failure/fraud highwire. The other has a high chance of delivering.

One of the best projects was a high-tech scanner built by a team in Hong Kong. Really well done and thought out.

Before I joined Ebay I read several articles. They impressed me with the care they took to understand "trust" between people exchanging money for goods who have never met and didn't share social networks. Mostly, they've gotten it right.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo have run in the opposite direction.

From my experience, crowdfunding is a legal jumble. It will feel like these blogposts are, too, as I track my own developing clarity in public.

Here I find a story from The Guardian: How eBay built a new world on little more than trust
by John Naughton.

Right off, I take issues with "little more than trust." Trust is HUGE. It is the first hurdle we all cross before we reach for our wallets.