HKDSE

ENG LANG
PAPER 4
TERM HONG KONG DIPLOMA OF SECONDARY EDUCATION EXAMINATION
PAPER 26
TERM PAPER 26
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 4
(suitable for S5 students)
PART A Group Interaction
This blog appeared on the author’s personal webpage:

Reflections on my crowdfunding experiences

This post is a final update on the ZeroPhone. A quick summary: the ZeroPhone was a crowdfunded phone
that was supposed to be ultra-thin and bendable. I ordered one over 11 months ago and never got any
correspondence from the developers. Now I’ve learnt that, as I feared, the phone is never coming.
Sometimes a crowdfunding project fails because the creators bite off more than they can chew, and their
design just doesn’t work. Quite often that’s understandable, and I’m willing to take the risk. In this case,
though, they didn’t fail. The fact is, they never even tried. The whole project was an outright scam from the
start.
Having been cheated, will I stop contributing to crowdfunded projects? No, probably not. I’ve had some
good crowdfunding experiences in the past, like Galaxy Next, an awesome video game developed by a
young programmer. Crowdfunding let him design and create the game independently, instead of at a studio,
so he had full creative control. It felt good to support an artist I like, and the game itself turned out to be
super fun.
Plus, that cool device I bought that turns your phone into a drone – that was crowdfunded. I would never
have heard of the thing if not for its crowdfunding campaign. It was such a clever idea that the campaign
went viral, and I saw it and decided to contribute. The product came (just a tad late), it worked really well
and I still use it today.
Thanks to my experience with ZeroPhone, I probably won’t take that kind of risk again – I’ ll stick with
projects from well-known companies. It’s too bad, but I don’t want to lose that kind of money again!

Your ICT class is discussing how the Internet is changing the ways people do business. Your group has been
asked to discuss crowdfunding. You may want to talk about:
 the pros and cons of crowdfunding
 whether certain risks of crowdfunding can be avoided
 whether crowdfunding will remain popular
 anything else you think is important

PART B Individual Response

1. Have you ever contributed to a crowdfunding project?
2. What are the risks involved in purchasing things online?
3. Do you think crowdfunding is risky?
4. Do you worry about becoming the victim of a scam?
5. If you could crowdfund any type of product, what would it be?
6. Why are some crowdfunding campaigns more successful than others?
7. Who do you think benefits most from crowdfunding?
8. Should people who fail to complete a crowdfunding project be fined?

DO NOT TAKE AWAY

First published March, 2021

Term Paper 26  Paper 4