Tag Archives: Business

Thoughts on Kickstarter

I saw this post about Gizmodo being done with kickstarter. They mentioned another post by Ryan Tate, saying the same thing.

Their reasons for not being fans of kickstarter are their own, and while I agree Kickstarter needs some overhauling, I’m not opposed to it in general, in fact I’ve backed 3 things.

I do think they should take a little oversight, and implement some rules. I don’t normally like rules for the sake of rules, but a good case in point is a project I backed called “The Present”. I backed it in late 2011. It funded the next month. The planned ship date was “beginning of 2012″ well even loosely, that would be what? First quarter? I backed it because the intro movie was incredibly inspirational to me. I backed it because at the time, time was on my mind.

16 updates since funding, no new ship date is known, and the creator (I’m sure a great guy) seems to be traveling the globe, making (admittedly) very cool videos to share with backers on his thoughts on all manner of things. He also mixes in moaning about not finding the right mediums for the product, not being able to have it made in the US. He’s basically started from scratch after funding. It might have been mentioned, but I don’t recall US manufacturing being a factor in the initial “please back me” phase. If it was, perhaps he should have worked out arrangements ahead of time to ensure it was possible. I’ve no idea what it will be made of, the initial information was metal and glass. Two things I like a lot. Then he was talking about wood, no glass, and now I don’t recall what he’s thinking of using. Definitely not the experience Kickstarter wants. At least I assume they don’t want this type of experience.

Obviously things happen, but I think it’s fair if Kickstarter had some rules in place  to make sure the people getting backed had the ability to deliver. Whether that’s more escrowing of money or something else I don’t know. But had I know the thing I bought (I actually bought two. one was to be a gift) wasn’t gonna make it’s ship date, and then wouldn’t have a ship date, I wouldn’t have backed it. He’s got my money, in fact he’s had it for 5 months now. The thing I eventually get, may not even look anything like the thing I backed. That’s pretty crappy.

Of course other projects rock, they fund, they create, the ship. More importantly when they update the backers, they actually give new information. I love my Lunatik iWatch, and I’m anxious to get my LunaTik stylus thing next month.

 

So yeah I’m being way more careful now in backing Kickstarter projects. I love the idea of crowd funding, but worry now we’ll see projects fund that sound great, and never deliver.

 

 

Can’t change minds

The strangest thing happened the other day.

Two people over twitter asked about coworking. Our awesome friends of Uncubed all chimed in without our asking and recommended Uncubed. That’s awesome in and of itself. We love that the community feels strongly enough about us that they’ll recommend us.

Both guys seemed interested and we made sure they knew we’d love to have them come check the space out. Both seemed like they intended to do just that.

Then yesterday (the initial twitter exchange was about 2 weeks ago or so) one tweets that Uncubed and another space nearby are out. Too shady of neighborhoods and too far from downtown. Say what? He spent one day at another coworking space, and formed that strong of an opinion?

The other guy, replies and says he too ruled us out for similar reasons. (He never tried either space as far as I know) We tried talking to both who clearly don’t know the neighborhood or downtown for that matter. One even went so far as to say Taxi was in a better spot. I love Taxi but that place is just past East Bum Fuck at the corner of “nowhere” and “Hard to get to”

Oh, Unucbed, is the “A” and Taxi is the arrow. If “better area” means nothing around and only one road in or out, then yeah I guess Taxi is better.

One questioned whether his car would be safe when he worked at night… Jake pointed out that the hundreds of people who come thru Uncubed for meetups each month, plus members who work late have never once, had an issue. As a resident I can say, the only cars I’ve seen broken into (and yes it does happen, just like it does anywhere in downtown) are the cars that look like they’ve got good stuff and are left for a while and clearly not being paid attention too.

It was clear in their tweets with us and others who chimed in to defend the neighborhood, that neither knows the area. Hell neither even ever came to Uncubed to try it out. But while part of me wanted to convince them they were wrong and win their business, another part (which won out) pointed out that it was a losing battle. Some one who’d made a decision with little or no facts or research, isn’t likely to change their mind in the face of contrary evidence. The fact that our “shady neighborhood” is also where my house is, home to several great bars, many awesome indie coffee shops, tons of small businesses etc. clearly wasn’t a factor. Maybe it’s because there’s less sidewalks?

It was clear, neither would be members. The community that is Uncubed wasn’t important, something else was, and we didn’t have it. It still stung to be ruled out without even having a chance tho.

At any rate, since I can’t rail against those two guys directly because that’s bad business and plain silly, I’ll blog about them so I can have the last word in an argument they didn’t know they were having. After all isn’t that largely what blogging is about? :)

An Open letter to Hulu and the Networks

(Or, “The networks are forcing me to steal their content.”)

I’ve railed about this before, but wanted to bring it back to the top. It’s simple, I have money, and I want to spend it. BUT I want to spend it on what I want, not a bundle of shit with a few nuggets of goodness in it. That means I don’t want ESPN, I don’t want MTV or Nicktoons and I certainly don’t want Lifetime, but I do want HBO, USA, the main networks, FX, etc. I’d pay per network or per show. But I’m not against paying people who make content for that content. I’m also not against suffering through ads in exchange for it (within reason)

I’ve been paying for Hulu+ since it went live. Many networks were onboard and I want to pay them for their content….  Except… The only way Hulu is usable is if you use the desktop app, because of licensing bullshit, the mobile apps can’t show certain shows, some are web only, etc. The desktop client skirted that shit and we could watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, on our TV via a Macbook running the desktop app.

Too bad Hulu’s desktop app is a red-headed step child and hasn’t been updated in years. Not only is it not updated, but now it’s so old that if you update your Flash player, the app breaks. So you have to choose, new flash or hulu.

Ok fine, the PS3 has a hulu client and is HD with surround vs. our Macbook that is simply stereo. Except… The PS3 client is hamstrung with all those stupid licensing rules. Some ABC shows are ‘web only’ All USA and Sci Fi shows are too. So now I’m paying for shows I basically can’t watch. Why can I watch Castle on the  PS3, but not (it’s for my wife) The Bachelor?

So what’s the solution? Torrents. I was already torrenting CBS programming because they won’t be a part of Hulu and have even said they believe “cord cutting” is a fad that will pass and are willing to wait it out rather than offer streaming options.

The downside of torrenting TV programming is that the network doesn’t know I’m watching. The advertising don’t get my attention, and the net effect can be canceled shows, etc. It’s a trade off, be treated like shit, or risk not being counted as a viewer. I choose to not be treated like I don’t matter.

All that said, Dear CBS, ABC, Fox, HBO and the rest. Figure it out, it’s 2012. We don’t fax things anymore, we don’t gather round to watch TV when it airs, and we don’t want to pay for things we don’t want. Adjusting is up to you, not us the consumers. We’ve moved into the 21st century, and we’re waiting for you to join us.

The problem with eBook pricing

I saw this NYT blog post and retweeted it (props to @datingdad) with “Good for amazon”

My friend Dave (@courier_new) asked some questions clarifying my position, so I thought I’d write my thoughts up (not new here, check the eBooks category) in a bit more than 140 chars.

Publishers are fighting companies like Amazon on eBook pricing. Many have won with agency pricing. Agency pricing lets the publisher set the price and more often than not you see this.

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