Though it seems good form to use the umbrella term, for us here at MAKE, so far, “crowdfunding” essentially means “Kickstarter.” Searching the word returns exactly 100 published posts in our archives, dating back to the first kickstarter we ever mentioned (the MakerBeam project) in October 2009. Of major competing crowdfunding sites, only IndieGoGo has received any significant coverage, here, with eight total posts, and only one of those included a direct link to a project then in-funding (which did not, incidentally, meet its goal). So, formality aside, this post is mostly about our year in kickstarters. Founded in 2009, Manhattan-based Kickstarter was mentioned in four of our posts that year, 33 posts in 2010, and 62 this year. Excluding general mentions of the site, posts that don’t link to a specific project, and posts that are following up on a previously-mentioned project, 24 different kickstarters were promoted on MAKE in 2011. Except for Greg Leyh’s Lightning Foundry and Eric Strebel’s Solar Vox projects, all the linked kickstarters, below, eventually met or exceeded their funding goals. Most Lucrative 
The biggest kickstarter of 2011, taking top place in three of our six metrics, was undoubtedly Brook Drumm’s PrintrBot, a $500 FDM/FFF printer kit that, as of December 17, had raised $830,827, which makes it not only the most lucrative kickstarter we covered this year, but also (per Wikipedia) the second-most-lucrative in Kickstarter history. - $830,827 — Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Our Post
- $259,293 — HexBright, an Open Source Light by Christian Carlberg — Our Post
- $131,220 — The Oona: Whatever You Need It To Be by Sam Gordon — Our Post
- $114,796 — Romo– The Smartphone Robot by Romotive — Our Post
- $96,248 — Trebuchette – the snap-together, desktop trebuchet by Michael Woods — Our Post
Most Surprising
I calculate “surprise” in terms of how much a successful kickstarter exceeds its funding goal. For example, $830,827 is some 3300% of PrintrBot’s $25,000 stated goal, which gives it top slot not only in terms of total dollars, but in exceeding expectations as well. The runner up, pictured above, is Andrew Hyde’s Record Monsters, a relatively humble project offering creepy-crawly models laser-cut from used LPs; though it “only” raised $15,000, that amount probably comes as quite a surprise when your goal is $500! - 3,323% — Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Our Post
- 2,950% — Record Monsters (Laser Cut Vinyl Record Puzzles) by Andrew Hyde — Our Post
- 1,312% — The Oona: Whatever You Need It To Be by Sam Gordon — Our Post
- 836% — HexBright, an Open Source Light by Christian Carlberg — Our Post
- 739% — Project ShapeOko: a $300 complete cnc machine. by Edward Ford — Our Post
Biggest Per Capita Investment 
This is the third category in which PrintrBot took top spot, with the average backer committing almost $460 to the project. The pictured runner-up is Eric Agan’s isostick, a USB thumb drive that emulates an optical drive at the hardware level, so you don’t have to keep a USB optical drive around just to install operating systems on netbooks and other small devices. Back in July, I bought into isostick at the $225 level, which means I committed a bit more than the average backer’s $159. For my experience with that project, to date, see the end of this post. - $459.53 — Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Our Post
- $158.97 — isostick – the optical drive in a usb stick by Elegant Invention — Our Post
- $122.56 — The Lightning Foundry by Greg Leyh — Our Post
- $108.11 — Solar Vox personal USB solar charger by Eric Strebel — Our Post
- $99.65 — Romo– The Smartphone Robot by Romotive — Our Post
Smallest Per Capita Investment 
Interesting to note that the two top performers in this category are both camera lens cap retaining systems, one covered by myself and one by Adam, which seems to speak to the commonality of the problem among photographers. Also interesting to find two “artistic” projects, here, (Matthew Goodman’s Playa Time Lapse movie and Sandy Antunes’s Space Calliope), as opposed to the “product development” kickstarters that otherwise tend to monopolize our lists. - $21.60 — Camera Lens Cap Holder by Mark Stevenson — Our Post
- $26.09 — The Nice Clip – a Universal Lens Cap Clip by Nice Industries — Our Post
- $32.04 — Playa Time-Lapse 2.0 by Matthew Goodman — Our Post
- $33.52 — The Oona: Whatever You Need It To Be by Sam Gordon — Our Post
- $36.58 — Capturing the Ionosphere: Ground Station Calliope by Sandy Antunes — Our Post
Most Backers 
Sam Gordon’s Oona reconfigurable smartphone mounting system gets my vote for “overall runner up” for the year. Like PrintrBot, it appears in four of our six “top 5s,” including “most lucrative” and “most surprising.” Though sheer number of backers is the only category in which it takes top spot, it’s also notable for being among the cheapest 2011 kickstarters to invest in, with the average backer committing just $33.52. - 3,915 — The Oona: Whatever You Need It To Be by Sam Gordon — Our Post
- 3,156 — HexBright, an Open Source Light by Christian Carlberg — Our Post
- 1,876 — Trebuchette – the snap-together, desktop trebuchet by Michael Woods — Our Post
- 1,808 — Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Our Post
- 1,152 — Romo– The Smartphone Robot by Romotive — Our Post
Most Ambitious 
Seeking more than a third of a million dollars, Greg Leyh’s scheme to surpass his own record for the largest Tesla coils ever constructed outstrips any other kickstarter we’ve covered, this year, in terms of the sheer fiscal magnitude of its goal, by at least seven-fold. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also ended further from that goal than any other, wrapping up on December 10 a bit north of 10% of the way there. I say three cheers for Greg’s big dreams, anyway. I mean, just look at that picture. - $348,000 — The Lightning Foundry by Greg Leyh — Our Post
- $48,000 — Trebuchette – the snap-together, desktop trebuchet by Michael Woods — Our Post
- $35,000 — Solar Vox personal USB solar charger by Eric Strebel — Our Post
- $33,000 — Radiation Detection Hardware Network in Japan by Marcelino Alvarez — Our Post
- $32,000 — Romo– The Smartphone Robot by Romotive — Our Post
Looking Forward, Looking Back Of the 24 kickstarters we promoted this year, 21 (87.5%) met or exceeded their funding goals, and 3 went unfunded. Per Wikipedia, the general success rate of Kickstarter projects is only 44%, but that doesn’t imply anything about our ability to pick winners, since kickstarters often don’t appear on our radar until they’re already quite popular. Personally, I make it a point to only cover kickstarters that have already met or exceeded their goals, which saves me from difficult decisions about the many promotional requests I get from sponsors of as-yet-unfunded projects. When it comes to putting my money where my mouth is, I have only bought into one kickstarter, ever, which, as I mentioned above, is Eric Agan’s isostick. The project was funded on August 22, and though I don’t have my 32 GB isostick, yet, no particular delivery date was promised, and I knew that going in. Eric has been very good about keeping his backers informed about the project’s progress, to date, and though my initial enthusiasm has worn off, a bit, I’m still glad I ponied up and still feel confident that I’ll eventually receive the reward I bought in for. But your mileage, as they say, may vary. And as exciting as the crowdfunding revolution has been and is, some scandals and backlash are probably inevitable. One of the things that concerns me, personally, about Kickstarter’s present model is the way it blurs the line between investors and customers. Many backers, I think, open their wallets for Kickstarter feeling like customers, but the Terms of Use makes it clear that they are, in fact, speculators. No guarantee that you will actually get the reward you “paid for” is expressed or implied. That, coupled with the lack of a clear feedback channel to report under- or non-performing projects suggests to me that, as in most money matters, a healthy dose of skepticism remains a good idea. If you’ve got a personal Kickstarter experience that you’d like to share, please let us know, below. 
Photo by Andrew Kelly for The Economist
The year 2011 was abuzz with news of makers and making. From The Economist to Forbes, to Dale Dougherty (MAKE founder) being recognized by the White House, political and business leaders recognized that small companies and startups drive the economy, and that increasingly, innovation for these new ventures is coming from a rapidly growing maker business community. Here is a list of some of the top stories influencing the growth of maker companies this year, followed by a deeper look at each. What Was Big this Year? - Crowdfunding
- Government recognizing small business/basement innovation as a driving economic force
- Major retailers and electronics suppliers increasingly aware of the maker market
- Open source hardware gaining more mainstream awareness and becoming increasingly affordable
- More kit makers, build-to-order shops, and local factories coming to market
Crowdfunding is one of the most powerful tools for makers and do-it-yourselfers to advance an idea into a commercial product and it came into its own in 2011. Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are two of the best known, but RocketHub (which focuses on education and the arts) is another to watch. And there are many others popping up. 
All of the above bullet-point items are helping to fuel the trend in open source hardware projects, such as Lasersaur, Ultimaker, PrintrBot, OpenPCR, and a host of other devices and services. This MAKE post from early September explains how Crowdfunding Gets Traction in DC. While it isn't specifically about crowdfunding, Mitch Altman’s a href=”http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/mitch-altman-on-manufacturing-your-design.html”>Manufacturing Your Design is terrific and highlights what every maker business should consider. I highly recommend reading the full article linked to in the post.  Governments have long recognized that small businesses drive the economy; the White House created the Champions of Change initiative to acknowledge those individuals who are catalyzing this market and type of growth. MAKE’s founder, Dale Dougherty, was honored this year for his work with and commitment to makers, starting with the very youngest in primary and secondary schools up to older adults starting second careers as an entrepreneurs.
The Economist, as well as numerous other major media outlets, are starting to pick up on the maker trend. More Than Just Digital Quilting is just one of pieces The Economist ran in 2011. PBS’s NewsHour did an amazing, inspiring segment on the maker movement. Major retailers and large electronics suppliers are increasingly spending marketing and advertising dollars in the maker space. They are also forming synergistic partnerships, such as RadioShack’s 2011 Great Create program and their carrying of Maker Shed kits and merchandise in RadioShack stores. Even Home Depotran crafty DIY holiday ads on TV (where the commercial itself was a holiday project how-to).
 While at first glance, some of the advertising appears to be solely aimed at the hobbyist maker market, it goes much deeper. In some research work I did for a parts sourcing startup, I found that many of the large electronics suppliers have tools available to automate (to some degree) tagging, bagging, and kitting parts list for pro makers. Mouser, DigiKey, Newark/element14, Jameco, and many others are partly aiming at the small company or department that needs to automate parts sourcing. From conversations with growing maker companies, I've frequently heard that managing the supply chain and order fulfillment is a serious pain-point and bottleneck in getting to the next level of growth. If these large companies, or nimble small sourcing experts, can make it easier for pro makers to sell parts and kits, it will raise the tide for everyone involved. Big company attention also leads to acquisitions and investments in maker companies as we've seen with Autodesk acquiring Instructables, MakerBot Industries receiving a $10M venture capital investment, and many incubators, such as HAXLR8R, and accelerator type organizations like BetaSpring sprouting up to help makers bring their inventions into the marketplace. In addition, Shapeways started a new production facility in NYC with a $5.1M infusion from Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures. Smart and successful maker companies are inspiring the rest of us to keep moving forward.  Shapeway infographic via Venturebeat
Many up and coming kit makers capture the hearts and minds of those who want to start their own small company. It isn’t just because these entrepreneurial makers produce kits, they also share their knowledge and passion within an open source ethos. Look at how innovative makers like Limor Fried from Adafruit, David Ten Have from Ponoko, and Windell Oskay from Evil Mad Science, share their designs, kits, and business success stories. In 2012, I think we'll see more growth around initiatives like 100K Garages (joint effort between Ponoko and ShopBot) through which you can find a great fabrication shop, such as Cut It For You, that runs a CNC router on-demand, creating the parts for makers who need things made-to-order, but don't have all the tools or access to a hacker/makerspace. If you already have a handmade product or kit, look at the explosion of handmade marketplaces, starting with Etsy, ArtFire, Supermarket, and Spoonflower (though I'm not a textiles guy, I find this service amazing – print your own custom fabric design). Twenty four more niche marketplaces are included in a post I wrote about at Small Business Trends in late October. This large list is a testament to the burgeoning markets that specialize in a manner reminiscent of what Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly wrote about in 2008 – where you need only 1,000 True Fans to build a thriving business. This year certainly saw the maker community more fully in the limelight. While the flagship Maker Faires that MAKE produces are catching plenty of attention in the major metropolitan areas of Bay Area, Detroit, and New York, one can't escape the enormous potential of the growing Mini Maker Faire phenomenon – in small and medium cities and towns around the world, small groups are joining with MAKE to share the Faire experience on a grassroots local level. Look for a profusion of such Faires in 2012. The coming year promises to be as fruitful and exciting for makers as 2011. There are more opportunities for building profitable kit businesses, for finding corporate sponsors for projects or products — or crowdfunding your own sponsorship, big companies looking to buy successful small companies, and a growing marketplace of resources and services available to help incubate and serve maker professional. No doubt we will see more impressive investments, more acquisitions, better tools for making on a bigger scale, but all that is really insignificant compared to the creative and collaborative potential for healing a broken economy by encouraging people to innovate, start new companies, hire new employees, and to provide products locally. It should all make for an exciting year. More:
Predictions for 2012 – Add Yours
Bio: TJ McCue is a maker, entrepreneur and runs MakerCode, a membership site to help makers market and sell their kits and products. He also writes a weekly blog at Forbes called “The Makers” that focuses on makers going pro.  
Simon St. Laurent (one of the editors of our Arduino Cookbook) brought forth fire and ice to soften this time when the northern hemisphere’s light dims: In the darkest season of the year, the lights go up. Every year, Christmas lights go up on houses, trees, shrubs, and lately, all kinds of stands. They go up on my house too, three brilliant sets of LED lights that add up to a mere fifteen watts of power. Some of these displays are massive, some tiny, but nearly all of them are electric reminders of long-ago candles and lamps. Electric light feels very different from candle light. Even the best electric lights seem frozen in place, or blink and move awkwardly. I decided this year that I wanted to do something with candles again – something safely outdoors, far from the children and the house, but something beautiful. That brought me back to ice lanterns, something I’d talked about doing years ago…
Living in Dryden: Making beauty out of cold  
Open Music Labs has released a tutorial and detailed build documentation on how to read 48-key electronic MIDI keyboard with the XMEM interface on an Atmega640. If you’re building something that uses a musical keyboard and need to shave a few clock cycles off of your scan time, this is a good way to do it.  
Inspired by this Instructable, Thingiverse user patchorang designed a 3D-printable plastic card that fits in your wallet and can hold the right amount of coins so that you can be prepared to pay with exact change. The card holds to coins in place with a friction fit and lets you carry the change without that jingle in your pocket. [via Makerbot]
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