First article, published March 16, 2012:"...the prospect of financial crowd-sourcing on the Internet has been enthusiastically embraced by some as an important new model for the future of arts financing."

Published March 28, 2012 from a Seattle based media group: "With more than $150 million projected to fund thousands of projects on Kickstarter this year, co-founder Yancey Strickler made a bold comparison during a February interview with web-news site Talking Points Memo: “It is probable Kickstarter will distribute more money this year than the NEA.” “But maybe it shouldn’t be that way,” he continued. “Maybe there’s a reason for the state to strongly support the arts.” Americans have rarely come close to agreement about the role of art in society, let alone how to fund it. But a growing consensus in the media and the general public contends that crowd funding is a democratizing force, a peer-to-peer system of market-driven benevolence far more fair and efficient than the traditional, top-down model of government and foundation support."

Next, published April 2 on the San Francisco Business Insider, here is a compilation of various Crowdfunding sites (to date - not sure if this list is completely exhaustive; but there is more than KickStarter

Mashable is a great resource for social media and technology topics. This link changes as posts and articles are collected on the topic of crowdfunding

Published March 26, 2012 in the NYTimes. (you may need to sign up to access the article)Crowdfunding has grown beyond the arts (they are always first to try new things, no?) ".. Over the last several years, I have often had to balance the short-term demands of investors with the long-term needs of TerraCycle. Unfortunately, the two do not always coincide. Thus the appeal of equity crowd-funding for socially responsible businesses, which would result in a diverse spread of investors who are focused as much on the company’s impact as on financial returns. This prospect is most relevant to social entrepreneurs, which much of the other coverage of this legislation has missed. I believe the long-term goals and socially responsible mindset of these investors will add stability to capital markets. Entrepreneurs looking to finance socially responsible start-ups will use crowd-funding to find capital from patient investors who want long-term results and not just a quick exit."

Here's a nice video that sums up the process

Info graphics are a easy way to understand work flow to a system. Carefully read through this to understand how crowdsourcing works.

If the infographic above isn't enough to help you understand the system of crowd sourcing, here's a video that explains crowdsourcing and crowdfunding

The "Kickstarter is Out-Funding the NEA" got a major boost in national conversation at the SXSW - This article reveals a growing concern that crowdfunding may usurp advocacy to keep public funding available in the National Endowment for the Arts. And that's a whole OTHER issue! This conversation started all the way back in February - the article was published Feb 24, 2012.

On February 28, 2012, this blogger (via Tumblr) writes about the potential pitfalls of crowdfunding. "Although crowdfunding is an appropriate and effective fundraising tool for certain individuals and businesses (it seems to work particularly well for artists, musicians and designers), it raises a number of red flags for start-ups and small businesses trying to raise equity capital. " 

Example of one KickStarter Campaign - all require a short video.

Published March 30, 2012. Crowdfunding is EXPLODING. There is a related article embedded in this article warns that a fast growing industry could lead to fraud.

Here's an example of a Lehigh student that used Kickstarter for his launch of Joulies:

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