Chip In is a new crowdfunding platform where a prospective Windows PC buyer can invite their friends and family to pay for the new PC. Think of like Kickstarter where the end result is you getting a new PC after enough people back it.

In an obvious bid to get more people to buy Windows PCs, Microsoft contributes the first 10 percent of the total cost for the computer. After that, prospective buyers must beg and plead friends on Facebook to contribute random amounts of money to your fund. After funding is successful, Microsoft will ship off the PC to you.

Of course, there are some caveats here. The first is that all the PCs are equipped with Windows 8. The second is that you’re stuck with the limited selection of PCs Microsoft offers on its Web site. That means that you’re not going to get some super powerful PC out of this. In fact, the most expensive PC on the list is the mid-range Sony VIAO all-in-one for $1169. Oh, and they’re all touch screens as well if that’s going to bother you.

Oh, and all of these Windows 8 PCs come with equipped with Office 365 University. College students get three months of the service for free and only have to pay $1.67 a month for it afterwards.

Still, this is kind of a cool idea. College students, and poor people in general, are always wanting new PCs. Surely you have a few hundred Facebook friends willing to toss $5 your way for a new PC. It’s not a bad deal at all if you’re willing to put up with mid-range Windows 8 PCs.

in the first month, UK-based projects saw £2,069,164 in funding across 45,799 individual backers. 407 total projects have been launched since Halloween, and 30 of them have been successfully funded.

“Of the 400 projects that have launched, 30 have already been successfully funded and many more are on their way. A public art project called the Chime Pavilion was the first successfully funded project, with triple its funding goal. The very first project to launch, a hardware project called Picade, was successfully funded with £74,000 pledged — double its funding goal,” says Kickstarter.

Funding for these UK-based projects has been global. While 78% of backers for US projects come from the US, only 39% of backers for UK projects come from the UK.

Back when Kickstarter opened up to UK creators, company co-founder Yancey Strickler hinted that more international expansion may be based on the success of the UK launch.

“The request to expand internationally has long been one of our most requested features. We certainly are interested. We’re going to see how the UK launch goes and figure out the next moves from there. There’s a lot of places that will be interesting,” he said.

After the first month, it looks like Kickstarter is calling the UK expansion a success. They note that the over £2 million in pledges is “amazing” and that they are “thrilled by [creators] success.”

There are plenty of just-launched projects from the UK, including places like London, Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. Kickstarter gave UK residents the option to start building their products about three weeks ago.

If you remember, Kickstarter added a streamlined international shipping option for both U.S. and U.K. projects earlier this month. They also explained that projects from each location will work pretty much the same, with one little change: payments.

“The mechanics of Kickstarter (all-or-nothing funding, rewards, etc.) are identical for US and UK projects. When pledging, however, backers of UK projects will enter their payment information directly on Kickstarter rather than through Amazon Payments. All pledges will be processed securely through a third-party payments processor,” they said.

And the UK may not be the only expansion we see. In an interview with the BBC, Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler said that the company was definitely looking at other countries.

“The request to expand internationally has long been one of our most requested features,” he said. “We certainly are interested. We’re going to see how the UK launch goes and figure out the next moves from there. There’s a lot of places that will be interesting.”

Stay tuned.

On October 31st, people in the UK will be able to launch their projects on the site. Kickstarter is announcing this three weeks in advance in order to give creators what they feel is “plenty of time to build and tweak” their projects. Starting today, UK users can begin to build their projects by heading to the Kickstarter Start page.

All UK-based projects will reside among the rest of the Kickstarter projects – as in there will not be a separate site for UK users.

According to Kickstarter, payments will work a bit differently in the UK:

“The mechanics of Kickstarter (all-or-nothing funding, rewards, etc.) are identical for US and UK projects. When pledging, however, backers of UK projects will enter their payment information directly on Kickstarter rather than through Amazon Payments. All pledges will be processed securely through a third-party payments processor”

One last thing as part of this announcement: Kickstarter has added a streamlined international shipping option for both U.S. and UK projects, which they hope will make it clearer when creators need backers to tack on a little extra to their pledge for international shipping costs. Creators can also cut off rewards to international backers if they please.

Last month, Kickstarter made a pretty big change to the way creators display their projects, banning simulations and forcing them to outline all risks associated with backing them.

So, UK-based project-creators, get to building! Kickstarter says that they will send you an email when your project is ready to officially launch on October 31st, just in case you happen to forget.

With that in mind, they’ve instituted some changes in how product creators can advertise their projects on the site. The first new mandate is that creators have to discuss “risks and challenges” to their projects.

Now, under the product description on Kickstarter page (starting today), Creators must answer the questions “What are the risks and challenges this project faces, and what qualifies you to overcome them?”

We added the “Risks and Challenges” section to reinforce that creators’ projects are in development. Before backing a project, people can judge both the creator’s ability to complete their project as promised and whether they feel the creator is being open and honest about the risks and challenges they face.

Translation: You have to tell people exactly what they’re putting their money into, and describe what could go wrong so they can make a more informed decision. This new information will appear on every Kickstarter project.

And Kickstarter has made new guidelines for specific types of projects – hardware and product design. Once again, in order for backers to get the most accurate representation of what they’re backing, Kickstarter has banned product simulations and renderings. Any videos and images of their products must be genuine, current versions of the product that only show what it’s capable of right now.

“Products should be presented as they are. Over-promising leads to higher expectations for backers. The best rule of thumb: under-promise and over-deliver,” says Kickstarter.

They’ve also banned the offering of multiple quantities of a reward (unless it makes sense as a pair or set).

Kickstarter continues to draw skepticism from backers who are concerned with where their money is going, considering not all projects come to fruition. With this update, Kickstarter aims to protect investors while also making sure they know the risks involved.

Tagging people in posts or photos is something that we all do every day. It’s really the only way to make sure that someone sees something that you want them to see. In this Facebook Story, titled “Degrees of Separation,” one researcher uses Facebook to crowdsource the identification of thousands of different species of fish – simply by tagging other scientists in the photos of the fish.

We’ve all woken up to a surprising amount of Facebook notifications. I’m sure that this time, it was one of the more satisfying moments of Brian Sidlauskas’ career.

Check it out below:

Last month, Facebook launched their revamped Stories site, which they said will help them “celebrate the extraordinary ways that people are using Facebook.” The Facebook Stories site has a different theme each month, as August’s story “Remembering” involved a man who pieced his life back together with Facebook after forgetting everything due to an illness.

Understandably, people are angry that TPP is still veiled in secrecy. They want Wikileaks or some other organization to get ahold of the most current negotiating text and share it with the world. To achieve that, Democracy In Action is crowdsourcing a bounty for TPP’s text. That bounty is now up to $25,000.

Here’s what the group hopes to accomplish:

At this very moment, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP)–a trade agreement that could affect the health and welfare of billions of people worldwide–is being negotiated behind closed doors. While 600 corporate lobbyists have access to the text, the press, the public, and even members of the US Congress are being kept in the dark.

But we don’t have to stand meekly by as corporate cronies decide our futures. Concerned citizens from around the world are pooling together their resources as a reward to WikiLeaks if it makes the negotiating text of the TPP public. Our pledge, as individuals, is to donate this money to WikiLeaks should it leak the document we seek.

As WikiLeaks likes to say, information wants to be free. The negotiating text for the TPP wants to be free. Someone just needs to release it.

The project is like a Kickstarter of sorts. People can pledge any amount of money that they want. Wikileaks, or whoever else leaks it, will receive the combined amount of pledged money. The group would prefer Wikileaks leaking the documents because they want the group to reaffirm its commitment to the public, and not just self interest.

It’s an great way to get people involved without expecting much from them. People can donate just $1 to the cause. Unfortunately, it could just backfire horribly in the end. There’s no guarantee that people will pay the amount they pledge. The text could be leaked and the those responsible wouldn’t get the money that was promised.

Even so, that wouldn’t be so bad, right? Important trade agreements like TPP should have been made transparent in the first place. It’s pretty sad that we have to resort to bribery just to find out what the Executive branch of our government is doing behind our, and Congress’, backs.

The company highlights this today in a blog post entitled “The Year of the Game.” Its main point? More money is currently being pledged for gaming projects than any other type of project on the site. In 2012, crowdfunders have pledged over $50 million (and the year is only two-thirds complete). That compares with $42 million spent on film projects, $40 million on design, $25 million on music, and $16 million on Technology.

And it’s not just that Kickstarter users are spending more on games than all of the other categories. It’s also important to note that this is a new trend. There hasn’t been a gradual increase in money spent on game projects over the last few years – it’s been exponential.

In 2009, $48,190 was pledged for games. In 2010, that number climbed to $519,885. In 2011, it increased sizably to $3,615,841.

Now, it stands at the aforementioned $50 million+. Here’s what that looks like on a graph, if you were curious:

And there’s still four months to go in 2012.

Kickstarter says that 23% of all dollars pledged this year are for games. Last year, it was only 3.6%. Seven out of the eleven projects that broke through the $1 million barrier are games. Apparently, the time is now to get your project set up on the site.

Kickstarter points to a game project called Double Fine Adventure as a catalyst for the surge in game-related pledges. That game currently has over 87,000 backers who have pledged over $3.3 million. As you would expect, this kind of success prompted other developers to get to work on Kickstarter.

“Crowd-sourced fundraising sites like Kickstarter have been an incredible boon to the independent development community. They democratize the process by allowing consumers to support the games they want to see developed and give the developers the freedom to experiment, take risks, and design without anyone else compromising their vision. It’s the kind of creative luxury that most major, established studios simply can’t afford. At least, not until now,” says the game’s developers.

According to Globes, the two companies have already had discussions – as Facebook execs apparently visited Waze offices in Israel. “The purpose of the talks is not known, but the two companies are reportedly headed for collaboration, possibly involving the use of Waze’s application via Facebook. Alternatively, Facebook may acquire Waze,” they say.

Waze is originally an Israeli startup, although they do operate a main office in Palo Alto, California.

Although Waze provides GPS services and free turn-by-turn navigation, one of its most interesting uses is as a giant traffic crowdsourcing platform. People can report accidents, traffic issues, speed traps, and much more. The app is constantly morphing, as it reacts to information gathered from drivers using the service. It’s a truly community-oriented GPS application.

So, one could see Facebook and Waze working well together, considering the nearly 1 billion Facebook users who could add to Waze’s crowdsourced traffic data.

This is not the only Israeli company that has (reportedly) attracted Facebook’s attention. Earlier this year, the company acquired Tel-Aviv-based facial recognition software company Face.com.

[via Forbes]

It’s only been live for a couple of weeks, but Offbeatr is beginning to pick up steam.

It works in a manner similar to Kickstarter – person starts a project, people fund it (or they don’t), and they have a certain amount of time to reach certain goals. Plus, Offbeatr also allows project leaders to offer rewards.

The difference is that Offbeatr has a selection process. Once a person becomes a verified project creator, they are allowed to create a project idea. That idea must then be approved, and after that a voting process begins. Before they can start collecting money for their project, creators have to hit a certain vote goal.

Of course, Offbeatr would be a prime target for illegal and otherwise questionable project ideas. That’s part of the reason why they have an approval process. They do forbid certain projects as well, for instance ones containing elements of rape or violence, bestiality, incest, minor involvement, etc.

As of right now, some of the featured project include a furry adult comic book called “Inside the Candy Box,” a video series called “Super F*ck Friends,” a website to find your “Sex twin,” an e-book that explores sexuality and Asperger’s syndrome, and a “Japanese Porn Cultural Exchange.

So, as you can see, the ideas are pretty diverse.

As of now, Offbeatr is only accepting project creators from the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. When asked why Offbeatr charges a little more than other crowdsourced project sites, they cite their all-or-nothing funding model and the fact that adult websites have a harder time getting their payments processed or have to pay more to do so.

Offbeatr caps its goal amount at $30,000. The lowest project you can submit is one with a $300 goal. Project creators are only allowed to run one project at a time.

Offbeatr offers a SFW versions of the site and NSFW version of the site. Browsers are taken to the SFW version by default.

[via ReadWriteWeb]