[Wikimediauk-l] Poll: Should Wikimedia UK accept in-kind donations of kit?

Fae

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Mar 27, 2012, 8:43:34 AM3/27/12

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Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting
kit from donors. <http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv> (the table
looks better if you click "Show all 7 options")

Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a
particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the
general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any
compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of
being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular
"brand".

Cheers,
Fae
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Chris Keating

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Mar 27, 2012, 9:05:09 AM3/27/12

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On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM, Fae <fae...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting
kit from donors. <http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv> (the table
looks better if you click "Show all 7 options")

Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a
particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the
general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any
compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of
being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular
"brand".

Difficult to answer - I imagine (and hope) we would treat a request to endorse a press release about a donation of goods with a value of £100,000 differently to a donation worth £1,000. It would also depend rather on the reputation of the potential donor.

Chris

Thomas Morton

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Mar 27, 2012, 9:07:40 AM3/27/12

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It's hard to make a difinitive answer with no data; my personal view would vary drastically depending on various factors:

- Is the donation intended to publicity reasons

- What is being donated

- What sort of publicity is expected

- Are the organisation someone we would agree with

And more.

Tom

Gordon Joly

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Mar 27, 2012, 10:25:01 AM3/27/12

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On 27/03/2012 14:07, Thomas Morton wrote:
> - Are the organisation someone we would agree with
>

Yeah. Would we want Microsoft IIS with SharePoint on a blade?

Gordo

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Gordon Joly
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Alison M. Wheeler

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Mar 27, 2012, 10:33:19 AM3/27/12

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----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon Joly" <gordo...@pobox.com>
> Yeah. Would we want Microsoft IIS with SharePoint on a blade?

So long as they hadn't required WMUK to actually *use* SharePoint or IIS (ie. were aware that the first thing which would happen to the box was the OS etc would be replaced) then possibly why not?

It is also, to a limited extent, value-dependent imho. eg. for a gift of something worth £100k it would be unreasonable to not say a public thankyou, indeed _any_ offer accepted should be acknowledged in order that it cannot be perceived as having been a 'secret deal'. What it should never be is something accepted *because* the giving party wants to make a big splash about it themselves, ie a 'pure (sic) PR stunt'.

There are also other considerations as to source, eg. I have a couple of Dell servers I no longer use*, and would be happy to donate one to WMUK should it be considered useful. I'm sure others here are in a similar position. Isn't the question therefore *why* would one accept donations of kit: what requirement would it be meeting which cannot be met in another way.