Re: Kickstarter was not successful... but it did help things...

[Markus Hitter]

Am 19.11.2013 09:24, schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller:
> IMHO most important is to have access to an already big community 
> which expresses a clear need for something that you want to and can 
> fulfill. E.g. if everyone is talking about smartwatches you are 
> likely to be successful by offering one. If everyone is talking about
> 3D printers you are likely to be successful by offering one.

A RepRapper here. At RepRap (probably the worlds' biggest 3D printer
community), we discuss some "3D printers", a lot. Most of the offerings
on KS are pretty much independent from the community, but you're right,
having a big community helps for awareness.

Sadly, communities don't develop on their own, so demanding them doesn't
help.

> So the most important aspect is to offer something so great that 
> people feel urgent demand.

Doesn't match my observations. People have no urgent need for 3D
printers. There are hundreds of proven models available already, most of
them Open Source / Open Hardware.


An aspect which was found to be much more important is to have
something "fancy". Some of the 3D printers backed with hundreds of
thousands of dollars can't work the way they're advertised and an
engineer with a minimum of experience can show such shortcomings within
an hour or too. Other offerings are just cheap.

Still these projects are backed to no end. I talked to one backer and he
asked me to "do something interesting; it doesn't matter wether it
actually works at the end".

That's exactly what happens. "Interesting" ideas are backed, solid work
not. Go, figure :-)


What happened to Darling? Running e.g. Keynote on Linux and Windows
might be such a fancy idea. How about running iOS apps on Android?
Enhancing GNUstep is no goal considered to be worthwhile on its own, but
if it happens along the way, all the better.


Markus

-- 
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Dipl. Ing. (FH) Markus Hitter
http://www.reprap-diy.com/
http://www.jump-ing.de/