crowdfunding

Crowdfunding sites set up by friends and families of the Boston bombing victims are giving the world a way to help. And the world is stepping up.

As of this writing, Bucks for Bauman on GoFundMe has raised more than $192,000 in two days for Jeff Bauman, a 27-year-old marathon spectator who lost both legs to the blasts. Bauman also reportedly helped ID the suspects from his hospital bed.

"Medical bills are going to start rolling in, let's get a head start on helping out Bauman and his family! Every dollar counts!!" reads an introduction by Brooke Gibbs, who started the site. It's just one of a number of crowdfunding efforts that have sprung up this week to aid Boston Marathon bombing victims through grassroots campaigns -- and have collectively drawn more than $1 million in a matter of days. … Read more

What would happen if you could take "The A-Team" and "Storm Chasers" and put them together in a blender? You'd get something like Tornado Junkies.

As their name suggests, this trio of young men are crazy about tornadoes. So crazy they think they can build a tornado-proof van.

Yes, this $5,000 Kickstarter project wants your money to build an armor-plated Ford to carry these Des Moines dudes down Tornado Alley chasing twisters. … Read more

In the tech world, crowdfunding is most associated with Kickstarter and raising money for technology-centered projects like the Ouya gaming console, the Elevation Dock, and the Pebble smartwatch. But, the concept has a far wider reach than just consumer devices.

Global crowdfunding raised nearly $2.7 billion for more than 1 million campaigns in 2012, according to a new report by Massolution. This means that the crowdfunding market grew by 81 percent over the year prior.

"While lending-, donation-, and reward-based crowdfunding have thus far been leading this global financial revolution," CEO of Massolution Carl Esposti said in … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--If you cringe when you hear a company described as "Kickstarter for" this industry or that genre, yesterday's Y Combinator Demo Day was probably not for you.

As happens twice a year, a Who's Who of A-list (and B- and C-list) venture capitalists and angel investors descended on the Computer History Museum here for the semi-annual Demo Day. There, the newest graduating alumni of the world's leading tech incubator had the chance to show off their talents -- and wares and/or services -- to the money men and women and reporters … Read more

My dear sweet Internet, you have been the light of my life for nearly two decades, so why must you choose now to impart so much darkness and sadness?

Last week, my editors spotted and passed on an adorable project on Kickstarter attempting to raise 800 bucks to send a 9-year-old girl to a weeklong camp where she would learn to design her own role-playing game. Backers who pledged $10 or more would get a copy of the game she produced. The heartwarming sentiment resonated, and the project quickly caught fire and has so far raised more than $20,000, or more than 20 times its target.

So we published a brief write-up of the campaign's success on Friday and began our weekend in good spirits, our faith in the world reaffirmed and visions of a new generation of empowered gamer girls dancing in our heads.

Then came the trolls.

… Read more

Last I checked, licking one's finger and holding it up to the wind can be a fair indicator of what's blowing.

But if you're into activities like sailing, windsurfing, or flying your army of robot drones, you might want to check out Vaavud, a wireless wind meter that works with your smartphone.

The subject of a 20,000-pound ($30,456) Kickstarter campaign, Vaavud was developed by a Danish trio keen on windsurfing and kitesurfing.

You can plug the little wind meter into your phone's audio jack, or simply hold it near your handset. It works wirelessly and doesn't even have electronics. … Read more

Mackenzie Wilson, 9, may just be the youngest Kickstarter rock star to date, and if all goes as planned she'll be a coding superstar one day as well.

Wilson teamed with her mom, Susan Wilson (to respect Kickstarter's official ban on minors owning crowdfunding projects) to launch a campaign to raise $829 to cover the cost of attending a weeklong role-playing design camp for 9- to 12-year-olds.

"I love computers, video games, apps, and role playing games - especially Magic the Gathering and Borderlands 2 that I get to play with my Dad (because my 15 & … Read more

You've got the quality locks, you've seen the how-to-lock videos, and you're very careful about where to leave your bicycle. But is that enough?

Not according to the backers of BikeSpike, a GPS tracking device being promoted on Kickstarter.

If a thief makes off with your ride, the BikeSpike will show its map location on your mobile device or home computer. Police can be given access to the data to help recovery. … Read more

April may be the cruelest month, as T.S. Eliot said, unless you've been jonesing to hack the massively popular Pebble smartwatch.

Founder Eric Migicovsky has announced that a watch-face SDK (software development kit) for the Pebble will be released in the second week of next month (and that 40,000 Pebbles have been assembled so far).

He showed off some early developer work in the Kickstarter video update below, including watch faces with an animated dragon, Mario running around the screen, and even the first game written for Pebble, featuring a Nokia-style Snake done in very simple graphics.

It's all very 1980s, but lots of fun. … Read more