Kickstarter hires tech journalist to investigate failed Zano project

Kickstarter has informed backers of the failed Zano project that an investigation is underway. The organization enlists the help of freelance tech journalist Mark Harris. He will have to investigate what exactly happened to the money.

People who pledged money to the failed Zano project received an email from Kickstarter, informing the company that it has appointed Mark Harris to research the project’s history, how the money was spent, and to see if there are things that should have been handled differently. Harris is a tech journalist who writes for publications such as The Guardian, The Economist and IEEE Spectrum. He himself explains the assignment he received from Kickstarter in a blog post on Medium.

Harris writes that the primary goal of his research is to provide the more than 12,000 backers with “the information they are entitled to.” According to Kickstarter, hiring a journalist is the best method to get the full story. As far as we know, this is the first time Kickstarter has launched an investigation into a failed project. The company has no obligation to do so under its own terms and conditions.

The journalist will not only investigate Zano’s role, but will also see if Kickstarter could have done more for the backers of the project. Harris notes that he is paid by Kickstarter and that the company may view the report before publication, but does not have the right to make changes to its text. In the coming weeks, Harris will conduct interviews with people involved in the project. When the story is complete, it will be published transparently for everyone. The journalist expects to complete his investigation by mid-January.

The goal of the Kickstarter project Zano was to release an autonomous intelligent mini-drone. Converted 3.35 million euros was raised for this. In November, it was announced that the project had failed. After the urging of Kickstarter, Zano released a statement about the costs incurred some time later. The promoters argued that upgrades added during development played a major role in the project’s failure.

One of the project’s backers made a more readable chart