Friends,
I have been a big fan of Nicholas Negroponte ever since my latent inner geek became unchained when I read Stewart Brand’s 1988 book about him, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M. I. T. Over the years, his think tank and laboratory has been the leading edge in all things digital, and his own writings in Wired, many of which appear in his 1995 book, Being Digital, provide historical perspective, prognostication, and peroration.
I was not surprised when he turned his attention to the developing world and created the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC). It's a great idea--at a low cost distribute special laptops to third-world children that can function in the harshest environments and network together wirelessly, and package it as a "gimme" for American donors. Here's the pitch: for $400 you give one and you get one. Even better, OLPC managed to get T-Mobile to provide all "donors" with a free year subscription to their internet hot spots at Starbucks and airports around the country--a $400 value. Everybody wins with this deal!
Well, I was excited and made my “contribution” of $400 in mid-December, understanding, of course, that I might not receive my laptop until right after Christmas—this was made clear in my thank you letter on December 20th. On January 6th and 10th I received identical emails thanking me for my gift and advising me of my order reference number. Then, on January 20th, they sent me an email message to tell me that my laptop was in the queue for shipment and that I would receive another email on the 23rd to tell me when I could expect it to arrive.
I found this strange, and I wondered whether there was a supply/demand problem that would affect third-world children from receiving their laptops--after all, that's what this program is all about.
On the 24th my email from them advised me that they were awaiting the arrival of new inventory and that I would hear from them in a couple of days. On the 31st, they finally acknowledged a problem and advised that I would receive my laptop within 45 to 60 days, and that a dedicated phone line was set up to handle refund requests from those who want to reconsider their "contribution." They also finally touched on the mission side of the equation:
In the meanwhile, please know that laptops are in the process of going to Mongolia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti as part of the "give one" side of the equation. Fortunately, OLPC's mission of getting laptops to the children in these countries has not been delayed. In Mongolia , the children are already enjoying themselves and learning new things with their XO laptops. Please see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ulaanbaatar.
A week went by and I finally decided to ask for a refund. I called their number, and it took twenty minutes for the person on the other end to locate my gift, perhaps because my reference number was different in three of the emails. Upon finding it, she asked if I would accept a $200 refund so that a laptop would still be provided to a child in a developing country. I explained that they failed to gain my confidence in their ability to deliver on anything and that I would rather re-direct the funds to a philanthropy in which I felt confident. She said she would pass my comments and I would receive a refund on my credit card within seven business days. Three weeks later, there’s been no credit to my account.
Why am I not surprised?
In my next post, I’ll share some lessons learned from this experience as well as general observations of incentive-based philanthropy.
Talk to you soon!
