Is it possible to Kickstarter to fund science or engineering projects?
Kickstarter seems geared towards the music, arts or engineering with clear visual impact. Most science does not have elevator pitches -- they are hard to explain or visualize, and they deal with unsexy issues.
Einstein said if you can't explain a theory to a 5 year old you don't understand it. Is that even really true?
I doubt you can explain the technical details of web apps to the typical 5-year old. Perhaps that is just a defect of our current explanations?
As part of my physics degree we were greatly encouraged to hone our layman explanation skills. We had at least 4 presentations aimed at scientists not specialised in our area, and a couple for the "general public", including an elevator pitch.
Thus far, there have been some campaigns on IndieGogo, with modest success. Usually, funding is in the realm of "Initial data collection for a grad student" or "Enough to fund some field work" not "Keep the a lab running" because of the costs involved.
generally not possible. I very briefly considered Kickstarter for my project (http://indysci.org/projectmarilyn), found it violated about half of kickstarter's rules and ultimately went with crowdtilt. We didn't successfully fund, will try again on crowdhoster after getting 501(c)(3) status, hopefully later this year.
Kickstarter seems geared towards the music, arts or engineering with clear visual impact. Most science does not have elevator pitches -- they are hard to explain or visualize, and they deal with unsexy issues.
Einstein said if you can't explain a theory to a 5 year old you don't understand it. Is that even really true?
I doubt you can explain the technical details of web apps to the typical 5-year old. Perhaps that is just a defect of our current explanations?