Decentralize the Web with Diaspora by Daniel G., Maxwell S., Raphael S., and Ilya Z.

Daniel, Maxwell, Raphael, and Ilya only needed $10,000 to prepare their open-source social network Diaspora for launch. But when the New York Times profiled the then-college students in the midst of the Facebook privacy scandal, the backers started pouring in — and didn’t stop. By the time it was all over, the four NYU students had raised more than $200,000, at the time the biggest funding total in Kickstarter history. Diaspora embodies everything we love about tech on Kickstarter: open source, a compelling story, and execution on a project that breaks the mold.

Honorable Mention: Famulus’ incredible quest to build an open-source fusion reactor; MIT fellow Jeffrey Yoo Warren’s creative approach to tracking the Gulf oil spill; and OpenPCR’s project to create an affordable, open source gene-copying machine for DIY scientists. All three amazing.