2017 permaculture design course & alternative technology course - live streaming kickstarter

I humbly suggest putting the kickstarter into quick N fixation mode by offering a recorded group podcast (or series) with podpeople willing to speak, interact, and get their ideas and projects utterly dismantled by the Duke of Permaculture  Maybe a "PDC Thinktank" or something along those lines.  

Joe

I was trying for 700 but I got an email saying "You're backer 701"  We Broke the 55K!  I am so excited about this opportunity to support you Paul and the Empire!  

Can you explain a bit further the $550 reward? I understand the coming to the labs for 3 days this fall, in conjunction with watching the videos. But is this with an additional $550 on top of your kickstarter pledge? Thanks -

Whilst for those that can, getting to visit Wheaton Labs as part of the PDC certification would be awesome. May I ask if it could be an option for those that can't travel (due to distance/work/other) could complete it remotely - much like how Geoff Lawton and others offer full certification online?

I am most definitely going to support the kickstarter, but as the rewards have changed I am now leaning towards the $150 level rather than the $100 originally. If I went for the $150 level today, can I simply change my tier to a higher level (such as the pdc option), or shall I hold back for another couple of days?

joe pacelli wrote:I humbly suggest putting the kickstarter into quick N fixation mode by offering a recorded group podcast (or series) with podpeople willing to speak, interact, and get their ideas and projects utterly dismantled by the Duke of Permaculture  Maybe a "PDC Thinktank" or something along those lines.  

Joe

So, maybe a reward would be at ...  say ....  the $300 level, we set something up sometime in, say, july, where the people that are part of the $300 could make a design like the designs that they see in the class.   And then we all get togher  ...   suppose there are 30 people that do this, so 30 people participate ...   me and the 30 people ....    We look at the design and we collectively discuss it.   Something like that?  We could do four designs in a two hour go.   Maybe out of 30 people, only 10 people want to do this.   The others just want to be part of the discussion.  Something like that?

Aaron Turley wrote:I was trying for 700 but I got an email saying "You're backer 701"  We Broke the 55K!  I am so excited about this opportunity to support you Paul and the Empire!  

I think a great question right now would be:  how could we have reached you sooner?

Dustin Rinker wrote:Can you explain a bit further the $550 reward? I understand the coming to the labs for 3 days this fall, in conjunction with watching the videos. But is this with an additional $550 on top of your kickstarter pledge? Thanks -

First, I gotta, gotta gotta make it clear that this is, at this time, just an idea I had and I'm putting it out there as nothing more than an idea at this point.   Tim is in australia, so I am just now getting his feedback on the idea and so far, he isn't really feeling it ..... right now.   His response is that we should really plan that sort of thing out super thoroughly before offering it.  

So, for now, it is an idea.  But it sounds like it isn't gonna get sorted out in time for the kickstarter.

John Derry wrote:Whilst for those that can, getting to visit Wheaton Labs as part of the PDC certification would be awesome. May I ask if it could be an option for those that can't travel (due to distance/work/other) could complete it remotely - much like how Geoff Lawton and others offer full certification online?

I think there are already plenty of online courses available.  At the top of the offerings is geoff.  

I've heard some really great stuff about geoff's course.   And I've heard that after geoff's course, a lot of people then go to a physical pdc.  I think a lot of people coming to this pdc have already taken geoff's course.

I really like what tim has laid out here.  And I like our lineup of guest instructors.   And ..... I guess I just really like the whole in-person pdc.   I like the intensive feedback for any one person's design.   I like showing respect to bill mollison by having people present their designs to the class and doing talent night.   I like the extremely beautiful certificates that we will be giving out.

So I kinda feel like what you are looking for "geoff's got that covered."   I like the path that we are exploring with something a little different.

I am most definitely going to support the kickstarter, but as the rewards have changed I am now leaning towards the $150 level rather than the $100 originally. If I went for the $150 level today, can I simply change my tier to a higher level (such as the pdc option), or shall I hold back for another couple of days?

I've never changed a reward for something I supported on kickstarter, so there are details I don't know about that.   But I do get notifications that people are increasing their pledges and selecting new rewards.

Also, keep in mind how stretch goals work:   first we pick a stretch goal and announce the stretch goal.  Then we don't do the stuff in the stretch goal unless we hit that amount.

The only thing I would do is swap these two goals..  Doing this would help foster more creativity and spread cheer and joy through the permies world.

So make the 65K goal the private forum, while the 70K goal is naming rights and that type of nice fluff.

paul wheaton wrote:
idea for the $65,000 stretch goal:

Everybody who supports the kickstarter at $60 or higher will have their name (as creative as they wanna be) appear in the credits of the first video for the PDC and the first video of the ATC in a scrolling credits section labeled "this production made possible by our kickstarter supporters".   And the people that supported our kickstarter at $150 or higher, will be able to select far more creative options in three categories such as the examples in this clip:

(image coming soon!)



idea for the $70,000 stretch goal:

Everybody who supports the kickstarter at $75 or higher will get access to a private forum on permies with all of the PDC video content.   People will then be able to POST THEIR OWN DESIGN and get feedback from all of the other participants!   All of the teachers will also have access to this forum, and they might (no guarantees) provide feedback also!

Have already gone through my PDC, but I really like the thought of the $550 reward.  Only tip / suggestion for that is a way to validate that the prospective students have watched all the videos.  This could be done by having a "secret code word" displayed randomly.  Maybe not every segment, maybe not every day, but enough sprinkled throughout to have them watch.

paul wheaton wrote:

joe pacelli wrote:I humbly suggest putting the kickstarter into quick N fixation mode by offering a recorded group podcast (or series) with podpeople willing to speak, interact, and get their ideas and projects utterly dismantled by the Duke of Permaculture  Maybe a "PDC Thinktank" or something along those lines.  

Joe

So, maybe a reward would be at ...  say ....  the $300 level, we set something up sometime in, say, july, where the people that are part of the $300 could make a design like the designs that they see in the class.   And then we all get togher  ...   suppose there are 30 people that do this, so 30 people participate ...   me and the 30 people ....    We look at the design and we collectively discuss it.   Something like that?  We could do four designs in a two hour go.   Maybe out of 30 people, only 10 people want to do this.   The others just want to be part of the discussion.  Something like that?

Exactly-- and you could scale that up or down (moneywise and when it actually occurs) depending on your workload in managing the empire and workload in managing the course itself.  Yet it would be a long enough call where you (or someone at the Lab) can also update everyone on what's happening on-the-ground, for those that can't physically make it.  So it could actually be a live version and a pre-recorded version.

Now if you make it a LIVE podcast, that opens more doors. Even someone who doesn't want to submit a design can listen in on a live permaculture consult and hear from you directly-- I think there is an incredible teaching and learning value in something along these lines (even for certified permaculture instructors).  

Folks participating at the $300 level are likely to have some really focused questions.  Add a live chat room to the process and you will have more people participating (even if they haven't submitted a design--perhaps a $250 level reward unlocks access to the live chat+audio with no personal submission of their design).  

An possible additional "selling" point would be to mention how much it would normally cost to have an online consultation with you.

Just more ideas with more options, to help us meet the overall stretch goals.

As I type this, we are four dollars away from hitting $60,000.   I guess I'll have to wrap my head around that much coin later.  For now, I need to nail down two more stretch goals:


$65,000 stretch goal:

Everybody who supports the kickstarter at $60 or higher will have their name (as creative as they wanna be) appear in the credits of the first video for the PDC and the first video of the ATC in a scrolling credits section labeled "this production made possible by our kickstarter supporters". And the people that supported our kickstarter at $150 or higher, will be able to select far more creative options in three categories such as the examples in this clip:




$70,000 stretch goal:

Everybody who supports the kickstarter at $75 or higher will get access to a private forum on permies with all of the PDC video content. People will then be able to POST THEIR OWN DESIGN and get feedback from all of the other participants! All of the teachers will also have access to this forum, and they might (no guarantees) provide feedback also!




These are now the official stretch goals. I would add them to the kickstarter, but I have used up all of my allowed space on the description part of kickstarter. I am hopeful that tracy can make images and add these in with images!

I seriously doubt that we would need a $75,000 stretch goal, but if people have ideas, now is a really good time to make suggestions!


(I am about to attempt to add three new rewards)

I just now added three new rewards.



$175 ALLFORMATS
   
   HD download
   everything in "BOTHLIVE"
   everything in "DOWNLOAD"
   everything in "BOTH"
   everything in "CANDY"
   everything in "THANKS"



$250  DESIGN

   Participate in design process via conference calls with Paul Wheaton and other students at this level. The whole group, including Paul, will be able to view and comment on your design. And you will be able to comment on the designs of others - live! Sessions in July, August and September.

   everything in "ALLFORMATS"
   everything in "BOTHLIVE"
   everything in "DOWNLOAD"
   everything in "BOTH"
   everything in "CANDY"
   everything in "THANKS"



$350 GOOFBALLS (limit 10)

   your face and name appear in the image "Permaculture Goofballs Keen on World Domination" mentioned in nearly all segments

   everything in "DESIGN"
   everything in "ALLFORMATS"
   everything in "BOTHLIVE"
   everything in "DOWNLOAD"
   everything in "BOTH"
   everything in "CANDY"
   everything in "THANKS"

http://kck.st/2q6Ycay

Well, you got me to increase from $60 (ATC only) to $100 (both PDC and ATC, after the fact) with your $75 forum idea, so there's a data point for you!

Julia Winter wrote:Well, you got me to increase from $60 (ATC only) to $100 (both PDC and ATC, after the fact) with your $75 forum idea, so there's a data point for you!

I wish to put an evil laugh here, but I'm about to do the thing that a good businessman should never do ....  


Julia,

As a member of the permies.com staff, you will have full access to all this stuff.  It is both a perk of being on the staff, plus the people that have paid for it might need some help once in a while.  The forum will still need moderation too.  Also, it will be a new feature, and the staff is intimately aware of how we go about testing stuff and getting little issues mended.

So, if you switch your reward level from $100 to zero, I will entirely understand and say "thanks for all you do for our spectacularly awesome community."

ALLFORMATS, with HD Download, is a great addition and nudged me from $120 to $175. I wasn't sure if Kickstarter would let me change my support level, but for those interested, it was very easy and only took 2 minutes.

Mike Arr wrote:ALLFORMATS, with HD Download, is a great addition and nudged me from $120 to $175. I wasn't sure if Kickstarter would let me change my support level, but for those interested, it was very easy and only took 2 minutes.

That is very helpful to know. Thanks.

paul wheaton wrote:
http://kck.st/2q6Ycay

Now that the Kickstarter has passed $60k, it is getting very close to $65k. You may want to add the $65k and $70k stretch goals soon. (If they are already there, I'm not seeing them.) Adding them could help push the total up.

I put your Kickstarter on ViralContentBee hoping to get some other influencers to share it. I wish I had thought to do that sooner.

Gail Gardner wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:
http://kck.st/2q6Ycay

Now that the Kickstarter has passed $60k, it is getting very close to $65k. You may want to add the $65k and $70k stretch goals soon. (If they are already there, I'm not seeing them.) Adding them could help push the total up.

I put your Kickstarter on ViralContentBee hoping to get some other influencers to share it. I wish I had thought to do that sooner.

The problem is that I am not allowed to add any more text, but I can add images.   The idea to was to announce the stretch goals with images.  I though tracy was doing that yesterday, but I see they are not there.   I just sent an email to tracy to say "wuzzup?" - hopefully she will get them up there in the next hour or so.

48 hours to go!

And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

paul wheaton wrote:And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

Congratulations on passing $65,000 and already hitting $66,054.

The $65k and $70k images are visible now. Given the speed you made it to $65k there is a good chance you'll make it to $70k. That will make some Permies really happy who want to see that goal made.

paul wheaton wrote:  Wow.  I'm amazed that this kickstarter is doing THIS well!

I'm honestly not! I think there's a lot of people who really want the permaculture knowledge, but just can't fork out the money &/or the time off work to get that knowledge. This kickstarter gives them that information for a VERY reasonable price. It's seriously amazing, and I think you're doing a wonderful thing for many people (and the earth) by offering this!

♥Thank you!♥

paul wheaton wrote:And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

$176 to go for 1000% funded. FWIW, you evil tempter you, I ponied up the extra $55 (from $120 to $175) for HD video.  

Just put in for $100. Thank you for making this.

paul wheaton wrote:And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

Congratulations, you have passed 1000% funded!

Gail Gardner wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

Congratulations, you have passed 1000% funded!

Oh my.  

And it is almost to $70,000.  Uh .... um .....   I haven't thought of any new stretch goals ....  any suggestions?

paul wheaton wrote:

Gail Gardner wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:And we have now hit the $65,000 stretch goal!  If we hit $68,000 we will be 1000% funded!

Congratulations, you have passed 1000% funded!

Oh my.  

And it is almost to $70,000.  Uh .... um .....   I haven't thought of any new stretch goals ....  any suggestions?

No suggestions, just thinking this is a pretty clear validation of your work congratulations!

Bumped my pledge up to $75 to get that extra candy for the $70k goal.  Should hit it, only around $500 to go!

And now we are past $70,000.

Wow, that happened rather quickly.

By the time I think of a stretch goal, we might be past the stretch point?

Hi Paul,

I just noticed that the $200 pledge level doesn't include ALLFORMATS. Was that missed or is the intention to only provide it "bundled up" if you pledge $250 or more?

Either way, my wife and I are really glad you put this kickstarter together and look forward to the event

Faison Zutavern wrote:I just noticed that the $200 pledge level doesn't include ALLFORMATS. Was that missed or is the intention to only provide it "bundled up" if you pledge $250 or more?

You are the third person to ask about this.  Here is what now appears in the faq:

Kickstarter does not allow me to change a reward once somebody has selected one of those rewards. Which makes it hard to insert new rewards. At the same time, my experience with fulfilling stuff is that there are lots of people helping and ... if you say one thing but provide another thing, and there is any room left for alternative interpretation, things become less than optimal.

So when coming up with the new rewards, I embraced that I cannot change the existing rewards and selected dollar values and wording to make it clear what is offered.

That is why the "DESIGN" level contains everything in "BUNDLE" and everything in "ALLFORMATS" and so much more.

Does this help?

Idea for a $75,000 stretch:   make a drone video of basecamp before the pdc starts.  This will be an edited video and made available to all supporters at $75 and higher.  But since all designs will be about basecamp, this will help with people trying to understand how to make a design as well as people trying to understand the designs they see.  This will be of especially great value to the people that will be doing designs online after the PDC ($250 reward level)

Idea for a $80,000 stretch:   For the people that support at the $250 level, they make a design and it gets reviewed in a conference call with other students.   I will arrange for two other permaculture instructors to be part of those conference calls.

paul wheaton wrote:Idea for a $75,000 stretch:   make a drone video of basecamp before the pdc starts.  This will be an edited video and made available to all supporters.  But since all designs will be about basecamp, this will help with people trying to understand how to make a design as well as people trying to understand the designs they see.  This will be of especially great value to the people that will be doing designs online after the PDC ($250 reward level)

Idea for a $80,000 stretch:   For the people that support at the $250 level, they make a design and it gets reviewed in a conference call with other students.   I will arrange for two other permaculture instructors to be part of those conference calls.

I went ahead and bumped my pledge up to $250 from $200. However, I am brand new to permaculture, by like a month, so I have a lot to learn and not sure if a design call will do me any good. Doesn't hurt to try though.

blew past 70k!

Paul - i really like the idea of the 75k.  Maybe you can use the video to make a huge panoramic type picture so that we can view it as a map.

joe larsen wrote:blew past 70k!

And we are almost to $72k.  

I think my stretch goals are pretty good ...   i think I'm gonna run with them.

paul wheaton wrote:Idea for a $75,000 stretch:   make a drone video of basecamp before the pdc starts.  This will be an edited video and made available to all supporters at $75 and higher.  But since all designs will be about basecamp, this will help with people trying to understand how to make a design as well as people trying to understand the designs they see.  This will be of especially great value to the people that will be doing designs online after the PDC ($250 reward level)

Idea for a $80,000 stretch:   For the people that support at the $250 level, they make a design and it gets reviewed in a conference call with other students.   I will arrange for two other permaculture instructors to be part of those conference calls.

Go for it.  These are awesome.

paul wheaton wrote:You are the third person to ask about this.  Here is what now appears in the faq:

Kickstarter does not allow me to change a reward once somebody has selected one of those rewards. Which makes it hard to insert new rewards. At the same time, my experience with fulfilling stuff is that there are lots of people helping and ... if you say one thing but provide another thing, and there is any room left for alternative interpretation, things become less than optimal.

So when coming up with the new rewards, I embraced that I cannot change the existing rewards and selected dollar values and wording to make it clear what is offered.

That is why the "DESIGN" level contains everything in "BUNDLE" and everything in "ALLFORMATS" and so much more.

Does this help?

You know what, I feel mildly silly because I've listened to the podcast episodes about kickstarter twice now and forgot that you can't alter rewards that already have pledges. There's a lot of info in those episodes though, so only mildly silly.

I think that FAQ helps a little. It doesn't outright say that the $200 pledge level doesn't include ALLFORMATS, but I'm 90% sure that you're saying the $200 pledge level does not include ALLFORMATS. Maybe adding something like "If the reward doesn't have something listed, it's not included" would help clear out any confusion, though I'm not entirely sure it's necessary.

Either way, I'm bumping up to $250 for the other goodies

So, yes ....


each reward is currently accurate


For reasons.  

And I tried to make the $250 level extra, extra sweet.   I kinda feel like the $250 level would be the most popular reward right now if it was offered at the very beginning.