Notes From When™ project

This blog is a history of a software crowdfunding project. The project is at http://www.indiegogo.com/notes-from-when?a=1782875. The project is to fund implementation of software that will strengthen family ties by helping younger family members understand how the world has changed since older family members were their age, using automatically selected historic facts of interest to the younger member. For instance, if a child Adam is interested in animals and cars, the software could generate a message like this:

Adam, with your Grandpa George’s birthday just 6 days away, I thought you might like to know some ways the world has changed since Grandpa George was your age. When Grandpa George was 17, in 1934, the Central Park Zoo was opened in New York City, and the Nash Motor Company produced its 1,000,000th car. The world changes, but your Grandpa George will always be proud of you. Love, Dad

The project was initially targeted at Kickstarter, but after it was all assembled and submitted (video, rewards, bio, etc.), and after I had jumped the hoops to register with Amazon payments as Kickstarter requires, Kickstarter sent me an email saying they declined the project:

Hi John, Thanks for taking the time to share your project with Kickstarter. We review projects to ensure they meet our Project Guidelines (http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines), which define how Kickstarter can be used. They express our commitment to being a platform for projects in the creative arts. Unfortunately, this project does not meet our guidelines. In the Design & Technology categories we have a "form as well as function" aesthetic focus that we apply to all project submissions. In short, we're looking for projects that are either anchored in the art and design world or the hacker/maker community. You'll see this listed in our prohibited items and explained in our Product Design & Tech guidelines. This isn't a judgment on the quality of this project, just a reflection of our focus. We wish you the best as you continue to pursue this endeavor. If you have future projects that meet our focus, we hope you'll consider Kickstarter again. Best, Kickstarter If you feel that your project meets the Kickstarter Project Guidelines, you can submit an appeal for reconsideration:

<URL redacted>

Kickstarter's decision was very disappointing, and I still do not understand the reasons for it; the email is vague and they didn't say which of the various criteria they considered unsatisfied.

But porting the project to Indiegogo was pretty easy - mostly a matter of shortening the descriptions of the rewards ("perks") offered for supporting the project. Indiegogo also accepts credit cards directly, which Kickstarter apparently does not. So in the long run, Kickstarter's narrower focus on projects to host will probably be a good thing for the Notes From When^TM project.

It's 4:17 am and I've been up since 1:45, checking emails, assembling a list of the sites involved (more on that in a later post), writing this blog, etc. I really want this project to succeed! But as one piece of feedback said, We shall see. :-)