Crowd-sourcing: A Personal Experiment
Dear Readers,
Some of you may know that over the last year or so, I’ve been struggling with finding funding sources to finish my graduate degree.
I’ve decided that an attempt at crowd-sourcing might not be the worst way to try it, given the exhaustion of many other avenues and I’ve started a new Indie Go Go campaign on the matter.
The campaign’s details are available here.
This is, I realize a highly personal appeal. The deadline and the amount requested are a bit daunting.
In addition to any financial contributions of course, I’d appreciate thoughts on how I could spread the reach of a campaign like this. Any feedback is always appreciated.
Thanks everyone.
I realize this isn’t as interesting a partisan snipefest as discussing Hobbes as the anti-libertarian…
I guess I do get a little…antsy without feedback. Even if it’s just a “fuck off and die”.Report
…Bueller?…Bueller?
Anyone?Report
Nob: have you approached any Japanese angles yet? Let me go beat an old bush over at State Department.Report
I’ve applied to a fair number of Japanese programs. Most of them were telling me that I wasn’t eligible because I didn’t go through a Japanese university for a study abroad. (Why this is relevant, I’m not sure.)
I’m waiting on a handful of scholarships, but I’m a bit on the short side at the moment.Report
Anata wa Amerika shimindesu ka?Report
If I were an American citizen, I wouldn’t be running this interesting experiment.
Being as it is, the big thing about not qualifying for student loans is one of the reasons crowd-sourcing is one of my final options.Report
I’ll shoot the link out to some Panasonic and Matsushita people, see if they can spread the word around. Most of them hold a dim view of the Japanese university system, for what that’s worth.Report
Vastly appreciated, sir.Report
I’ll have a talk with Maribou when she gets back from Canada.Report
I appreciate that…can you think of any venue I could promote this on where I could get more traction?
I’ve tried contacting George Takei…but he hasn’t written back, yet.Report
Dude, this is the biggest venue I’ve ever been involved with. I’d suggest making a front page post with a handful of goofy pictures (put yourself in a lab coat in one, holding a rescued kitten in another, shovelling snow (and say it’s your neighbor’s sidewalk) in another) and basically explaining how Frigging Awesome you are and sending emails to Sullivan, Balloon Juice, Alas A Blog, and most of the other sites who see us as “the good ones” and ask them to do nothing more than link to your post on their own front page.
Open with comedy, close with a serious discussion of what you hope to accomplish and how you intend to change the world for the better and put a link right there at the end.Report
It’s the opening with Comedy thing that I’m finding a bit difficult.
I figured a mini-post would be less controversial, I’m trying to figure out how to frame an argument like that.Report
If comedy doesn’t work for you, then go for making people smile. Pictures of you doing good deeds and smiling broadly at the camera will suffice. The important thing is to MAKE EYE CONTACT and smile (smile big!) and generate good will on the other side of the screen. If you make people laugh or smile, you’re halfway there… and the other half can be accomplished by your explanation of how you want to change the world.
If people feel like they know you, they’ll do more to help you. A picture where you’re making eye contact and smiling is worth a dozen arguments of approximately 83 words each.Report