Kickstarter

Have you ever designed something that you believed would benefit the world, but you didn't have the funds to back it up? That is where Kickstarter comes in to save the day. What you do is you make a video and describe what your goal is and you ask people "hey, I need your help to get this project off the ground! Will you help me?" Afterthat, you tell the public that for a certain amount of money they donate to help you, you might give them something back.

So in a nutshell, Kickstarter is away for new inventors/creators to crowd source people by asking them for a donation to their creation or invention; in return, the donor receives a variety gifts, depending on how much money they pledged.

If I had $500 to spend on kickstarter, I would do a few things; I would buy the Pebble watch, a Remee, a Geode digital wallet, and donate $50 to LowLine Park.

For $178, i would get a Geode digital wallet. This thing is really cool because it is an iPhone case that scans all of your credit cards, so you can keep them all in one easy and secure place- your cell phone's memory. To get into the software, the case has a fingerprint scanner, which is the key to accessing all of your cards. Then you scan your cards into the system with the credit card swipe/scanner it comes with. Finally, when you are ready to make a purchase, the app temporarily imprints your card data onto the universal GeoCard in the back of the case, which you can take out and swipe. Check out the Geode now!

Next, I would buy the pebble watch in white for $125. I love this watch because it connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone or Android smartphone. With a variety of different apps you can run on the watch, telling the time has never been so intelligent an beautiful. The watch also gives you notifications of emails, Facebook, texts, and caller ID. The Pebble E-Paper Watch is amazing!

Also, I would purchase a custom Remee Lucid Dreaming Mask for $140. I do not really understand how the technology of this sleeping mask works, but I do know what it does. The Remee allows you to control your dreams while in REM sleep (Rapid eye movement). This is definitely worth it to me.

Finally, I would make a $50 donation to the construction of LowLine Underground Park in NYC's Lower East Side. I would fund this Kickstarter project because it is a great idea that will better NYC. The money will go to a group of people who will construct a city park entirely underground. It is just to cool to describe in words, so you will have to check it out yourself.

After all my spending on Kickstarter.com, my total will come down to $493 spent, leaving me with $7 left. These projects on Kickstarter are all genius but wouldn't be made possible without the needed funds from people like me.

Crowdsourcing: ExploraVision

ExploraVision is very much an example of crowd sourcing. Crowdsoucing is using a crowd or community of people to get information and then using it for a service, or product, or business. ExploraVision is an anual competition where students around the nation submit an product idea to become a real life product. The students provide a full blown report from materials need to what the invention does. Then, Toshiba and NSTA make it a reality. They are using students inventions to sell, and in return, the winning student gets some profits. Here are some websites with more information on ExploraVision: ExploraVision Site Wiki