Backing the bucket (follow the Twitter list)

Bud Caddell’s collaborative Kickstarter project has three days to go but his backers have more than doubled the initial target amount $5k. I just upped my contribution to $100 so that I can fully participate in the adventure.

$100 gets you full Editorial Board Membership, a voice in the evolution of the book and access to full interview transcripts. Bud also promises to “set up a place where we can chat together”. A very interesting micro-community of digital thinkers has already gathered around the Kickstarter page, and so I thought it would be useful to create a Twitter List and feed from the backers – it’s called ‘Backing The Bucket’ (sorry for those few who had followed it when I was calling it #imbackingbud – I thought the new name would work better and be more consistent with Bud’s blog posts at What Consumes Me).

You can follow the list at: http://twitter.com/malbonster/backingthebucket

The exercise of creating the list prompted a few thoughts:

1. The greater proportion of the people backing Bud have joined Kickstarter specifically to do so
2. Although Kickstarter allows users to add a biog, avatar and linkage (including Twitter names) to their profiles most people have not – although it wasn’t that hard tracking them down using Twitter’s Find People search: most of them are *tweeting hard*
3. The way in which a community is naturally forming around Bud’s ’cause’ demonstrates the power of Kickstarter projects to create really meaningful – action-oriented – social connections. However, this is currently under-exploited by Kickstarter who could try harder to persuade people to complete their profiles (think about the way LinkedIn nags you for years to do this). I also think that a button that allows you to follow all the backers of a Kickstarter project who are on Twitter would be an excellent and presumably very simple enhancement to make – in other words, auto-creating a Twitter list for each project (where users are sharing their Twitter details).
4. There is a massive collective desire to ‘do something’ and not just talk about it – Bud’s project is a lightning rod for this networked inclination.

I apologise if you are a backer and have not made it into the list at this stage – that’s because a few people (around 20) proved too difficult to track down. Please send me your details and I’ll add you.

For those who are new to the idea, I’ll quote Bud – and you should read his various blog posts about it too.

This book will be for anyone interested in creating products that are not just market exchanges, but cultural exchanges – for anyone that wants to build or reshape an organization for doing business in a world gone digital – and for anyone just finding their footing in the marketing industry today. Ultimately, I want the book to serve as the how, not just the why or what, for transformational growth at a time when a commitment to strategic change will reshape the entire business landscape. At the core of the book will be ten new principles for creating, promoting, and distributing products in the future – my ten new commandments for brands and marketers.

It’s really exciting and I’m looking forward to learning a lot and having fun. If you haven’t yet backed him, you’ve got 3 days!