Kickstarter: a data analysis exercise
I am a data nerd.
I am a platform geek.
I am passionate about commerce.
These are things that, if you have met me, you know.
What you may not know (unless you have seen the fingernails on my right hand) is that I also am a guitarist.
Music represents a unique creative outlet that I find wildly important. Recently, I have had the opportunity to partner with good friends at LaunchPad Studios, Inc. (in Arvada, Colorado) as a studio musician and a producer on an as needed basis.
Over the last several months, it has been interesting to watch as a high percentage of projects have been funded through Kickstarter. This, in and of itself, is not that suprising…after all, Kickstarter announced this week that their Platform has enabled more than 1 Million backers and more than 100 Million in funding.
Kickstarter is a platform, it enables a commerce workflow, is related to music, and generates a wealth of interesting data. Seems the perfect confluence of events and interests for a Friday night exercise…
I will warn/advise you, in advance, that the purpose of this exercise was not to discuss the methodology by which Kickstarter collects and disburses funds (although that is an interesting discussion) but to analyze the outcome of the funding process itself.
In discussing this process with several of these artists, there are some base assumptions that are made regarding the most popular level of backing, duration of project, etc. And, while experiential knowledge is important, I was interested in whether I could identify any patterns from some simple analysis of data available on the Kickstarter website.
My methodology was not what I would refer to as “rigorously scientific” but the analysis thereof did result in some interesting patterns. continue reading »
Innovation: a thought exercise
It has been a long time since I’ve written on this blog…
and, frankly, I miss it.
While I have been writing, sometimes at excess, for work purposes…my personal author activities have been overwhelmed by the activities of the summer (see previous posts for more). With that said, my daughter is now healthy and my internal musings desire to be put onto a series of servers in html format.
In August of 2010 I wrote a post entitled Solving Problems: Innovation Upon -or- Innovation In Spite Of. In it, I discussed two blog posts that had similar content and spoke about the import of innovation. At the time, I made the following assertion.
Aoife Liron Hannan: a surgical pictorial
Aoife is doing wonderfully, the surgery was wildly successful, and the process of recuperation has begun.
A few photos, in somewhat chronological order, and omitting the most horrific, are below.
We are blessed by the care and support of our friends, our family, our colleagues…Thanks to all of you.
Aoife Liron Hannan: the story of a child’s heart
In my recent post Family Photos: Courtesy of Joseph Jestes Photography, I mentioned that I have been somewhat emotive as of late. This explains the “why”…
It is, in fact, the result of this little one
Gabriella Lirit Hannan, our 4 year old…the big sister, was diagnosed with a heart defect at 9 months old. This defect, called Patent Ductus Arteriosus, was a blood vessel between the aorta and pulmonary artery that should have closed sometime after birth. In her case, and in the case of 2 of every 1,000 full-term births in the United States, the duct doesn’t close.
The procedure for “plugging” (do you like my precise medical terms?) the hole was via a catheter. Relatively simple, outpatient, and it broke my heart to hand my 9 month old to a nurse in sterile garb and watch as they carried her through a door for the procedure.
Gabriella Lirit Hannan has no complications.
She is considered “healed” of her congential heart defect.
When my wife and I found out we were pregnant with Aoife, we asked the doctor about the potential for a similar heart condition. We were assured — not that it would have made much of a difference in anything other than preparation — that additional tests were not necessary. With congenital heart defects occurring so infrequently, the chances of Aoife would have a PDA were miniscule.