On Kickstarter

This inquiry was opened on July 19, 2011 out of immense interest and excitement about the continued promise of peer-funded campaigns to bring small / medium (and occasional large) projects to the point of realization. In a way, Kickstarter can be seen of as a "open source" funding model in which piecemeal contributions from socially networked individuals empower a project. Even more interestingly, Kickstarter can be seen of as a site for direct conversion of social and cultural capital (in Bourdieu's terms) to the economic capital needed to realize a project at which point the product is returned to pre-eminent value as a social and cultural object. This study will ideally take in two parts. The first is my own participant observation as a long time funder of Kickstarter projects, and potentially as a Kickstarter myself. The second will be interviews with people who have used and funded projects on Kickstarter.

Articles

 * Kickstarter celebrates its 10,000th project. Charts, reviews its success
 * 15 Things Not to Mention on Your Kickstarter Page (Satire from Thought Catalog)