The Zano nano drone was one of the top 20 most-funded Kickstarter campaigns in history, pulling in over $3.5 million in pledges from more than 12,000 backers. If you read the Kickstarter story I wrote late last month, you already know that Zano is one of two high-profile campaigns that have fallen on hard times.

In the case of Zano, the project has folded completely after shipping just 600 of the 15,000 nano drones promised to backers. Those left empty-handed will be happy to hear that Kickstarter is now looking into the matter (although you probably aren't getting your money back).

The site has hired investigative journalist Mark Harris to help backers of the project understand what exactly happened that led to the project's failure – Harris announced as much in a recent post on Medium. The piece will cover the story of Zano from start to finish and will be published perhaps by mid-January.

Harris said he also aims to answer whether the project's creators could have done anything differently to avoid the unfortunate outcome or if there's anything that future Kickstarter projects can avoid. What's more, the journalist will be looking into Kickstarter's role in the project to determine if it could have better served Zano's creators or backers.

Regardless of what Harris uncovers, it can only be seen as a good thing that Kickstarter is looking into the matter. If it genuinely wants to help prevent similar occurrences, the best way to do so is to study those that have failed.

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