Pro'Am 'emergent' financial power ?

Lots of people would take for granted that 'amateurs' don't have the financial power for funding or buying expansive projects by themselves.

This was probably true before the democratisation of the web but now :

- more than a billion people already have a web access
- it's easy and quick to contribute small amounts of money
- exposure to the ideas of Free Culture (wikipedia, Creative Commons,...) and Free Software (Open Office, Firefox, Linux ...) continuously increase

To my knowledge this understanding arose when NaN (the company behind the 3D software Blender) went bankrupt in 2002.

Lots of simple users collaborated together through the web to buy the sources and the rights for 100 000 €.

Since then Blender has a very dynamic development and is now as powerful as the most expansive 3D tools of the professional industry.

This example is not an exception.

Right now, the company behind the MMORPG "The Saga of Ryzom" went bankrupt and ... guess what ?
Users and open source sympathizer are trying to buy it back.
In few days the pledges already overcome 150 000 € and rising.

I also notice how successful certain donations campaign are (like the one for the Wikipedia).
It means these projects are not just successful because they are free like in beer but that many users/amateurs are ready to pay for other forms of freedoms.

Some vertical financial powers will probably have to understand this and hopefully adapt. And remember, who are for the first time person of the year ? ;) ...