Hi all;

There has been a flurry of activity near the end. Another 4,400 people have seen the video since my last update and another 68 people have donated. That is the best day yet. That is also keeping with the ratio of 1.5% of people who watch the trailer end up donating.

Thanks to all 399 of you! We’ve raised $9,600 which is a chunk of money that will be used to finish. There is interest in sponsorship from two places now which could help a lot.

Here is a shorter interview I did for Linux.com: https://www.linux.com/news/software/multimedia/...

I also received a nice message of support from the Python Software Foundation.

Here is a funny article about Linux versus Windows: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1...

30 hours! If you can think of anything else to do, it would be appreciated now.

After the campaign is over, we’ll announce periodic updates on progress. Looking forward to working with those who signed up to be a part of our virtual team. We plan to run content and difficult questions by you guys to get more input and help us make a better final product.

There are 2 of the 35 days left! Thanks to all 331 of you for your $8,247 and your articles, advice, links, etc.

I recently discovered that Gizmodo has a policy of not writing articles about crowdfunding, so while a journalist there was interested in the movie, he can only discuss it after it is finished. I suspect others may have a similar policy. I worked hard to get it out to as many tech people as possible but the result ended up being that 20,800 people watched the trailer. That is much larger than my address book, but I either needed to get 500K to watch or 30% to donate and that didn’t happen. A company saw the trailer and is thinking about sponsoring, but nothing is arranged. We will figure it out.

I just did an interview with Red Hat for their advocacy website, discussing various topics. Here is the link: http://opensource.com/life/13/1/software-wars

Feel free to pass it around or post something to encourage any last minute stragglers who were thinking about funding!

Hi all;

So far, 18,300 have watched the trailer, with 262 donors. 1.5% of viewers have funded 4.5% of what we need. This movie will be finished somehow, even if not the easy route ;-) Thank you for your support, the money will be used to move the project along, and we are happy to see others are interested. 262 people fill up the average-sized movie theater. If people enjoyed themselves for those 4.5 minutes, they should be entertained for 90. There is plenty to discuss and things about today’s world to improve.

I contacted all the big US-based tech websites and many journalists, but this week there are a million shiny things at CES, so I don’t have hope to compete. When the feature is finished, it should be easier to get attention. Not many people write about teaser trailers.

9 days left! Whatever happens, I’m looking forward to the finality and focusing on the next steps.

Here is a nice picture of software wars that went into an article on a Greek site. (http://sittingduckbe.deviantart.com/art/Softwar...)

Update #3 from Keith:

Happy 2013!

Thanks for your support! Almost 14,000 people have watched the trailer, and there are now 191 funders.

The bad new is the campaign is 20 days old and raised 3.7%. It seems we will not come close to what we need in the remaining 16 days, but I’ll keep working till the end. Somebody has to win the lottery. I have passed around a link to every tech site and journalist / blogger I know and am continuing to reach out. Unfortunately everyone in the tech industry has a full inbox, so between today’s news of Petville closing down, Windows 8’s poor sales numbers, Ubuntu’s new device, and everything else, it is hard to get people’s attention. Can a movie have anything new in it?

In fact, the story will put things in context, and explain why we should already have have robotic butlers, how NASA could have built a space elevator if it wanted to, how to have faster progress in AI, etc. There aren’t articles today about that.

Thanks again for your help! This movie will be finished one way or another, crowdfunding is just the best and fastest. A lot of traffic is from Spanish speaking countries. I added subtitles in Spanish and Portuguese to the trailer that people sent me. The power of us is inspiring.

I would be grateful if you could post a link to your favorite tech news site that you visit, or email the tech blogger you know. The best chance is to get the message out to journalists who buy bits by the barrel. Every site has a way to submit links. There is a fine line between reminding a busy person and pissing them off. Or perhaps you say something in your own words and catch interest in a way I cannot?

Hi all;

The campaign keeps humming along. Now it has raised $2,772 from 116 suppporters with 8,655 views of the trailer. We are at 1.85% of the goal with 30 days remaining.

I removed the option to have a 30-minute phone conversation with the producers, and replaced it with a $100 option to become an executive producer, part of our virtual team, and help us on various aspects. A couple of very nice people donated $100-$250 with no perk selected. If you’d like to convert to that option, please email me.

I also added a sponsorship option at $5,000. I will keep lowering it until someone signs up who wants their name or product plastered in the opening credits or something ;-)

I appreciate the financial support and help getting the message out!

-Keith

P.S. Here is a great chunk of raw audio from Linus’s interview that I posted on my Youtube page after the interview. Most of it didn’t make the trailer, but more will make the main feature.