Posts Tagged ‘bucket brigade’

last night this happened

23 Jul, 2010 • posts i've written • 4 comments

In one month, 212 backers contributed $18,591 for the development of a book.

(about $16,200 after kickstarter & amazon service fees, if you’re curious)

It’s not lost on me that for most Americans that’s a majority of their yearly income and for most humans across the globe, that’s more than they’ll make in 3-5 years.

Your collective faith in the project and this money together amount to a considerable obligation to make this awesome.

After the funds clear in 14 days, they’re going into a new bank account that will only be used for direct expenses related to the research and development of the book. That’s a promise.

When I set up the Kickstarter page 30 days ago, crossed my fingers, and hit submit I had a healthy sense this might work, that there is far more value in our networks of friends and colleagues than we can possibly fathom right now, but I had no idea we’d raise this much together.

And frankly, I had no idea that this many people were this willing to put their faith in us (it’s not just me, people were clearly inspired by the type of people supporting the project).

So it’s a shared obligation – between you and I – to make this thing awesome.

Research is ramping up fast. Next week I visit Boston and Microsoft’s New England R&D office. I’ll be inviting the Editorial Board members into their private basecamp group soon, too (but it might take a little longer than I planned, I had no idea there would be over 110 of you).

Personally, I just want to take a second to be candid and tell you all how much this means to me. This is emotional for me. This outpouring of support has been more than enough to I think cure me of any remaining cynicism about people or life I might have been carrying around with me. I’ve been taking stock lately of my nomadic existence over the last 4-5 years, of the cities I’ve moved from, of the people whose names I have trouble remembering now, of the random tragedies I’ve seen befall people I love … and in contrast, this thing the internet that I’ve poured so much of myself into with a deep feeling that somehow I was building something with all of those sleepless nights hunched over my laptop, obsessed with something new, obsessed with building relationships with the brilliant people the web brought me access to. After every move, I tend to pair down what I own. I’m down to just a few suitcases now, I even left my guitars behind in Brooklyn. But as I was pairing down physical things, I was amassing more and more connections to people, connections that flutter between transient awareness and then gushing support like this. It’s a remarkable feeling to know that I carry all of you around with me in addition to my few articles of clothing, and I hope you start to feel just a little bit of what I feel after this experiment.

final day, final notice, final chance to join the bucket brigade

22 Jul, 2010 • posts i've written • 1 comment

Today is the absolute last day to join The Bucket Brigade. Funding closes at 12:35am Friday EDT.

JOIN NOW AT KICKSTARTER

A few notable new members of the Editorial Board you could be rubbing shoulders with if you join now:

Lots of early backers have been increasing their original donation so that they can join the Editorial Board.

So far the average contribution exceeds $82 per supporter.

Incredible.

But it’s not half as incredible as the people that have chosen to support the project … and me. If you’re unable to support the project, still be sure to find these people and connect with them. They’re incredibly kind, passionate, engaged, helpful, and curious.

They’re the best network of friends and associates to be had. And I’m not just saying that. Now, I’ve got real proof.

As funding wraps up, the real work begins. It’s going to be awesome. And it’s going to be a helluva lot of work. Good thing I have friends.

You can fund the project for as little as $2, and any amount guarantees you a digital copy of the book when it’s done.

Head over to Kickstarter to back the project, and then give your own network one last warning that today’s their last chance to join up.

4 days left to back the bucket

19 Jul, 2010 • posts i've written • No comments

Thursday is your final day to back The Bucket Brigade – and your final day to join the incredible group of people (a Twitter list of backers) that are supporting the project.

Visit the Kickstarter project page now.

And if you’ve already supported the project, please consider taking a few moments this week to urge anyone else you know to join our cause.

More reasons to back the bucket, from actual supporters:

  • “Whilst Bud’s doing the research and writing and thinking, he’ll be working with the folk who back him at the ‘editorial’ level to sense check/input/read/think/suggest. By being part of that part of the project, and given the sorts of folk on the editorial team, it’s a brilliant opportunity to look at the world again, and reorientate my head. So I guess, in a sense, the $100 for the editorial level is the cheapest course I’ll ever pay for…” – John Willshire
  • “Bud has an idea, and it might be right and it might be wrong and no one’s going to know for sure until we get him in the room with enough of the right people. Plane tickets cost money, but they beat the hell out of simply insisting that your idea is right. … More significant, though, is this: ideas like these demand rigor. They demand smart people who have ideas of their own, with designs on challenging the ideas we started with until something far more refined and interesting takes form. In this case, that process will serve as both the opening chapter of the final product and a measure of the integrity of the text itself, with the success of the Editorial Board structure in many ways determining the strength of the final product.” – Ian Fitzpatrick
  • “Lots of people think (and talk) about writing a book (including me) so my last (and possibly overriding) reason is because he’s got off his butt and done something about it” – Neil Perkin

Updates on the project:

  • Last Friday I completed my first interview for the book with Tobias Peggs, VP & GM of OneRiot – a realtime search engine. Tobias actually earned his PhD working with some of the underlying concepts I’m following for the book, mainly classifier systems. He not only had some great insights to offer, but he was so excited about the idea for the book that he decided to back the book and become a member of the Editorial Board. How cool is that? By the way, all Editorial Board Members will have access to interview transcripts and I’ve already posted the transcript from my interview with Tobias in the private community that all E.B. members will be invited to by the end of the week.
  • Next week I’m headed to The Microsoft New England Research & Development Center in Boston to finally meet my academic heroes Nancy Baym and danah boyd and to continue my research for the book with their colleagues. And in case you’re wondering how the funds for the book will be used – this single trip is going to cost me more than $700. Hopefully I can plan future trips out a bit more and save some money, but needless to say, this process will be expensive.

9 reasons to join the editorial board

13 Jul, 2010 • posts i've written • 2 comments

With 9 days left to back The Bucket Brigade, I thought I’d give you 9 reasons to support the project by highlighting 9 random members of the Editorial Board so far. Over 30 people make up the brain trust to-date, and a donation of $100 or more guarantees you a place among fine folks such as these:

Johnny Vulkan – along with one rad name, Johnny is Partner at Anomaly, where he makes innovative things happen on his dual iPads while criss-crossing the Atlantic Ocean. And like everyone on the Board, Johnny is one seriously nice dude.

Gareth Kay – Gareth is the Director of Brand Strategy at Goodby, incredibly smart, universally loved, and even though I was little more than a random internet person, Gareth took the time to give me some earnest career advice. Oh, and he blogs. And it’s good.

Mel Exon – Mel is the Managing Partner & co-founder @BBHLabs and runs things in London. I finally met Mel in person at SXSW when she brought the whole Made By Many crew to one of Austin’s best cowboy bars, The Broken Spoke. I think Mel should have been born in Texas.

Jamie Wilkinson – Jamie is my go-to professor of all things internet domination; co-founder of Know Your Meme, F.A.T. Lab, and Parson’s Internet Famous Class, Jamie knows how small groups use the web to their advantage. He’s an awesome dude.

Laura Chavoen – Laura is one of the few people that can claim more than a decade of experience focused on strategy and back it up (Razorfish, Scholastic, Yamaha, and now Imagination Publishing). I had the good fortune to work for Laura in Chicago and she brings some serious chops and wisdom to anything she works on. I’m also psyched to also pick the brain of her husband, Bill Shunn who is a much acclaimed science fiction author – perhaps he’ll help me keep this thing interesting (and by that I mean ray gun fights and faster than light space travel).

Len Kendall – Len’s right there with me (or even past me) trying out new publishing experiments, maybe you’ve heard of his massively successful the3six5 project.

Gavin Heaton – aka @servantofchaos, and the publisher of the collaborative publishing book series, The Age of Conversation, Gavin brings some awesome experience having actually sold copies of A.O.C., super glad to have his expertise.

Neil Perkin – founder/blogger/thinker at Only Dead Fish, which is a fantastic blog but will never be truly amazing until I actually win one of his damn post of the month polls (Faris rightly wallops most everyone, most every time).

So what’s the Editorial Board you ask? Well, The Editorial Board is a private digital community (hosted through Basecamp) and members of the community will help to:

  • identify experts/case studies to include
  • help shape the questions asked or topics covered w/ said experts
  • they’ll also receive early transcripts of those interviews b/c it’s awesome
  • later the board will see early drafts of chapters, will weigh in on them, etc
  • then we get to make the fun decisions about the product itself, does it have to be a book? what should it look like? where should it be distributed? do we charge for it?

Sold? Visit the Kickstarter page!

And be sure to check out all of the supporters of the project. If I had more time, I’d include all of them. Oh, and I want to send a special shout-out to MailChimp for backing the project at $1,000 yesterday. Wow, huh?!

the bucket brigade on psfk

07 Jul, 2010 • posts i've written • No comments

Paloma Vazquez at PSFK was kind enough to interview me on the topic of the Bucket Brigade, crowdfunding, and my goals for the book.

Go read the full interview.

Support the project at Kickstarter.