Crowdfunding

I read an interesting article in Electronic Design about a company called Gumstix. They make some little modules that look like gum sticks with various computer functions on them. They have software developed to put them all together to make what you want. But the thing that was interesting to me was that they have an open source hardware solution that will let you share the design with other users. They can then sign up for your system if they have a similar requirement. Hobbyists and robotics were the two examples used. You pledge for how many systems you want and pay before the build starts. The savings comes from sharing setup fees and price breaks. I thought it an interesting concept. Seems like it could be expanded to something like a forum. There are always people wanting to build motor drivers and power supplies. The problem would be to get enough at the same time. It could also eliminate mission creep since you could limit the options.
Any thoughts?