Crowdsourcing...

Kickstarter is one of the most popular sites for a major internet sensation called Crowdfunding, but I'm more personally interested in crowdsourcing.  What's the difference you might ask?  Well crowdfunding is a concept where you have multiple people donating money to a cause or project.  This can include donations because of generosity, preorders, or other vested interest in the project that is being done.

Crowdsourcing is where one person has a project or product but rather than asking for funds, they're asking for support in the way of advice, suggestions, testing, and things like that.  This concept here is that it's a sharing of ideas and the hope is that if you don't know how to tackle a certain problem, someone else will.

Then you have some that are really the best of both worlds.  Most Kickstarter campaigns employ an aspect of both.  First they ask for funds, but then they take the users that have donated funding, which means they have a vested interest, and invite them to forums, play/beta testing, and more.  This lets the first customers also assist in the development of the project and makes them deeply involved in it, and thus they are more likely to release a better product.

So check out kickstarter, find something you like, and get involved even if it's just for one dollar.  You might be surprised at what you find, and the right projects means you didn't just buy something, you got involved in a community and you're building something pretty amazing!