Zapped Again
No more free computer labs, says the Internet company ZapMe
Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2000
ZapMe, the technology company that attracted a lot of attention both for giving schools free computers and then exposing students to ads (see "Zapped by Ads," August 2000, p. 29), announced in October that it would be leaving the education market. Teachers and media specialists waiting to have ZapMe labs installed were told that although the company would ship no more free computer labs, they could still purchase computers from ZapMe, and that the ZapMe Internet service would continue for the time being. 
When the New York Times reported the company's decision, many people at schools with ZapMe labs were stunned. Those who contacted ZapMe technical support heard conflicting information. Debbie Hall, a librarian at Bellaire (TX) High School, said that when one of the hard drives in her ZapMe lab malfunctioned in early November and she contacted a ZapMe technician, he told her that "a major announcement" would be coming in the mail in a few days. A week later, she had still not received it. Hall says she would hate to lose the lab and the access to the Web tools on ZapMe's site. "It would be like losing www.ipl.org [the Internet Public Library] or one of the major educational portals," she says.
Staff in schools that have invested time and money in preparing their buildings for the arrival of ZapMe's equipment were also upset. Debbie Weiler, a librarian at Auburn (IL) High School, says, "I have not received a lab from ZapMe. The last time I talked to one of their reps [two weeks ago], I was told a letter had been sent explaining the situation to me. I have not received that letter, either. I really hate that my small, financially strapped school spent money on rewiring the library for these computers, only to be treated this way."
On October 9, ZapMe announced that its CEO, Rick Inatome, who described education as his "passion," would become chairman of the board. Several days later came the announcement that ZapMe had reached a tentative deal with Gilat Satellite Networks to purchase 51 percent of ZapMe's stock. Soon after, the ZapMe site at www.
zapme.com vanished, replaced by the home page of r)Star Broadband Networks, a ZapMe subsidiary providing satellite networks to businesses.
Over the past year, ZapMe has seen its stock price plunge from about $17 a share to about $2. A ZapMe spokesperson blamed its financial woes on the campaign waged against the company by activist organizations, such as the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education and the group Obligation, Inc. The staff at the Center for Commercial -Free Public Education (www.commercialfree.org), which has led battles for several years against companies like ZapMe and Channel One, were elated by ZapMe's abandonment of the schools. "We're definitely excited to see that taking advantage of kids isn't a sustainable business plan," Dylan Bernstein, the Center's senior program director, says. "We're happy to see ZapMe go away."
The ZapMe spokesperson, who did not want to be named, said that the company was considering several options regarding its current education customers, but that those who had been told they would be getting free labs would not receive them. ZapMe was searching for another company to purchase its education business, or for a foundation to fund current and future free labs in the schools. "For the present time, we will continue to provide Internet services to our current customers," the spokesperson says, "with no ads."--Walter Minkel
