by Nicolo Traina | Feb 6, 2015 | The Urban Media Lab
Crowdfunding has shown in the last years to be a viable alternative to conventional sources of financing, and to be especially able to give visibility to a project if is shared from a large public. But, what can be the limit?
Looking at more successful projects we can find that most of them are the items of new technologies, objects that make people dream… and what about a Formula1?
David Brabham, son of the famous pilot Jack Brabham, decided to bring back to life the team founded by his father, who won four world titles, two of them with another famous father, Nelson Pique.
David has included a call on Indiegogo, a platform for crowdfunding campaing, where he started to look for $ 250 000 in order to create the team and move the project forward. The first will be a kind of test year in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), and then if things will go well they will try to arrive at the Formula1.
Obviously this budget is not enough, cause it’s more than 8 million dollars that they need just to participate at the WEC and many more for the Formula1, however David explained that if the project will take off, important sponsors will come out and this will cover most of the costs, and it is therefore essential to have a lot of people that participate and share this project and their experience.
Another interesting innovation that they propose is transparency. Mr. Brabham announced that they will not keep all the secrets close inside the team and if some brave engineer wants to participate to the project can do so by getting all the information and internal documents of the team, to be able to analyze them and provide his comments or ideas.
Obviously being an operation of crowdfunding will not be fully open to everyone, but you have to buy the “package” that interests you the most, with costs ranging from $ 1 to 10 000, and in which are included different privileges: training days for pilots, confidential data for the engineers or simple news preview for fans!
If you want to donate or just learn more about the project, below you’ll find the link, but hurry up because the first target of $ 250,000 has already been achieved in less than 3 months!
http://www.redbull.com/it/it/motorsports/f1/stories/1331683804671/project-brabham-crowdfudning-in-formula-1
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/project-brabham
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Diventare il nuovo Flavio Briatore direttamente dal tuo pc? ora si può!
L’idea del crowdfunding è da tempo diventata una realtà consolidata, nonché una valida alternativa alle più convenzionali risorse di finanziamento.
Ma fino a che punto può espandersi la partecipazione del pubblico? La risposta dell’ambizioso progetto di David Brabham, ci assicura, è quella di condividere progetti e tecnologie da sogno, come quelle della Formula 1.
Maggiori informazioni ai link di seguito:
http://www.redbull.com/it/it/motorsports/f1/stories/1331683804671/project-brabham-crowdfudning-in-formula-1
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/project-brabham
![The future of transportation?! Now it’s also a series..]()
by Nicolo Traina | Sep 26, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
Is difficult to say what will be the future, and when it will comes, especially in a fast field such as transportation. Some Years ago we imagined flying cars, teleportation and advertising everywhere, a kind of “blade runner” reality. Today we already have prototypes of cars that drive themselves or streets that incorporate solar panels to light them self and, for example, alert you where the parking is free.
Definitely one of the major problems for us Italians in general, but also for anyone living in a metropolis, is the traffic is blocked and the roads impassable. Getting in the center of Rome or Milan often takes hours, and even on the highway is always difficult to calculate travel times with precision because the traffic is huge and always a great unknown.
Many cities are developing the car-sharing to reduce the number of cars in the parking and streets, or forms of economic-help for those who commute to work or university with a car full rather than single-car. Certainly this are good ideas but where will the future of transport?
In US was born in the last few months a new mini-series in episodes to talk about these problems and their possible solution that will drastically reduce one of the major problems of work: to get there. “The future of transportation” will examine the full extent of America’s transportation challenges and explore how US cities are reinventing the way we navigate them, focus on the Initiatives and technologies being developed right now That will change the way we move around cities in the next 5, 10, and 25 years.
The series will be split into three parts. We’ll begin with the elusive search for “The Perfect Commute,” exploring new and better ways to Enhance what can be the most infuriating part of the day, the journey to and from work. Next we’ll examine “The Smartest Trip,” focusing on the crucial connections between transportation and progress and achieving sustainability. Finally we’ll document the current state of “Design in Motion,” sneaking a peak at the Technological and planning innovations That will fundamentally alter America’s transportation landscape.
Now let’s see what will be and let’s play our role, starting to fill up our car !!
http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml
http://www.citylab.com/special-report/future-of-transportation/
by Nicolo Traina | Sep 18, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
If you think that Mexico it’s only sombreros, nachos and tequila you are wrong, maybe in a few in the cliché-list there will be also crowfunding.
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people. Supported in recent years by increasing internet access, crowdfunding has been gaining momentum, even if it has been out there for hundreds of years (e.g. church’s alms or tandas) new technologies now allow larger numbers of potential donors or investors creating event or spreading the word.
Why crowdfunding and Mexico?! Because in Mexico borrowing from bank requires high securities and involves high interest rates, and this literally blocked the capitalistic spirit and the culture of growth and investment. That’s why crowdfunding could fill the gap and solve a lot of problems for all the small and medium enterprises that would like to grow the businesses and who have not access to the traditional system.
A recent report, from the Multilateral Investment Fund, member of the Inter-American Development Bank, called Crowdfunding in Mexico: The Power of Digital Technologies to Transform Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Economic Inclusion it’s analyzing the opportunities and challenges that Mexico will faces to foster this practice but also the optimism for the success of crowdfounding in creating the country’s entrepreneurial culture.
But will be a long way, there are big challenges like regulating, businesses education, development and diffusion of internet technology, and other basic aspects to make people sure of what they are doing and understand what they to take informed decision. For example now crowfunding is naturally seen with some skepticism among the main part of the population,but working on the above-mentioned challenges would unveil the potential benefits of accessing to a new and affordable financial source, close and possible for everyone.
