The behind-the-scenes story of the Kickstarter is that these meta-analyses were going to happen anyway. I get involved in things, and somehow I ended up getting involved to the point of having my apartment be used as an office for students while I’m off at work. Typical.
But the more you do, the more it gets difficult to coordinate things without money being involved.
I believe the cause is good. I believe it is only one small part, but a useful part. Packaging it into a book is only for the benefit of the Kickstarter; it wasn’t the goal.
The development community is an intensely cynical and skeptical community — through experience. Many people do development/aid/charity to make themselves look good. If anything, I think this Kickstarter threatens to make me look bad. It looks blatantly self-promotional (though it is all for the student team), but I’m just following the format of other Kickstarters and I don’t know how else to sell it without putting myself out there. I’m better situated to do that than the student team, after all.
Fortunately, throughout life, I’ve noticed that if I’m open and honest and cheery, people somehow end up liking me. So here goes nothing.