crowdfunding

The 3D printing movement just kicked into a higher gear last week with the launch of a wildly successful Kickstarter project – the 3Doodler - that promises to create the world's first 3D printing pen.

Image: The 3Doodler

If there’s one trend in 2013 that’s capable of changing the way we think about clean energy, it’s the professionalization of the crowdfunding movement. California-based Mosaic, which officially launched to the investing public this week, has a bold vision for bringing clean energy to the nation: tap into the power of the crowd to raise as much as $1 trillion for solar power projects across the country.

Have I got a deal for you: Invest as little as $25, or as much as you want, in clean-energy projects. Earn a princely 6.38 percent interest annually for the next five years. Make the world a better place.

The crowdfunding phenomenon, which has already helped thousands of artistic and cultural projects go public, is now crossing over into the world of venture capital and the financing of startup companies. The only problem is that, until now, it has been illegal to invest as little as $100 at a time into a new startup without first being an accredited investor.

Have you noticed that something in the digital zeitgeist has changed the way we think about creativity and commerce? Artists are no longer just “artists” - they are now entrepreneurs, marketing gurus and branding experts, all rolled up into one. You can thank creative “crowdfunding” sites like Kickstarter and RocketHub for that.

Ever since the introduction of the iTunes music store, I was under the impression that $0.99 would become the default price for all digital content. One way or another, content would be continually sliced and diced into ever-smaller pieces of micro-content, such that the market-clearing price for that content would become $0.99. Then I ran into Kickstarter, the innovative crowdfunding site for artistic and creative projects.

Carlos Jordan de Urries (left) and Chrystele Bazin (below), senior consultants at Sofrecom (a France Telecom Company) have updated us on the status of Social Media in emerging markets last Monday in Cairo. In this presentation, we’ll focus less on international Social media platforms and more on what the motivations are for people to follow – or not follow – brands like Coca Cola for instance.

The other day I received a downright inspirational email from my friends at IndieGoGo, a site dedicated to the collaborative funding of ideas. (Here’s a short video of my friend Slava Rubin, co-founder of the company.) The missive pointed to a video featuring 9 year old Jackie Evancho a rising America’s Got Talent star who belts out To Where You Are.