We interrupt normal programming to bring you some interesting news. The Awesome Foundation, a new way to fund small projects, has launched in London.
Basically the idea is this. Ten micro-trustees get together in a local area and put £100 into a brown paper bag every month. They then look at the ideas submitted and hand out the £1,000 to the project they most like.
Yes, I know it sounds slightly insane. Indeed, the only requirements are that the idea be “awesome” and the money has “a meaningful impact on its realisation”. But given that they only have a pretty small amount to lose each, the risk is prettry low, and we are not talking a big tech exit here.
But what this idea does do is have the potential to allow someone to do some 20% time on a project which might will turn out to be pretty cool. It particularly lends itself well to open source projects.
The most recent grant in the US funded a project to allow villages in developing countries to map their area with more accuracy than Google Maps, enabling all sorts of projects like better planning.
The first grant will be on the 9th June.
The origins of the organisation are here. Worth checking out.