Crowdfunding for Bristolians only

Crowdfunding for Bristolians only

What could have been a fine report on a local space technology story has been ruined by poor writing in the Bristol Post.

Yesterday’s Post carried a story on Bristol SpacePlanes and its efforts to develop a reusable orbital vehicle.

CGI impression of Bristol SpacePlanes Ascender craft
A CGI impression of the Bristol SpacePlanes Ascender craft

The Post’s journalist gets off to a bad start in the first sentence:

Bristolians are being invited to help launch planes into space in a new crowd-funding [sic] campaign.

Just Bristolians, Bristol Post?

I thought the idea of crowdfunding (minus the hyphen. Ed.), was that anyone can be part of the crowd that provides the funds, irrespective of geography.

This suspicion is borne out by 30 seconds research. The first item on crowdfunding I found, from Wikipedia, states: “Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet.

Nowhere in the Wikipedia entry is there is indication at all that crowdfunding is to be restricted solely to Bristolians.

Or am I just misreading to local media’s propensity to find a local angle to a story? Here’s a hint: it already has one, featuring a local high technology company and doesn’t need a second one! 🙂

Author: Steve Woods

Generic carbon-based humanoid life form.