Dear Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce a small new program called
the Hardware Donation Program. In a word, it is a program designed to
donate depreciated (but fully working) hardware from the WMF office to
community members who would put it to good use.
The program, including instructions on how to apply, is described on Meta,
here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program
Please read the information carefully. I especially encourage you to pay
attention to the program's design considerations, which determine most of
the decisions we'll be making.
We currently have approximately 20 laptops ready to be donated.
Applications are welcome.
The upcoming Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (in about two weeks) would be
an excellent opportunity to deliver some of those laptops in person to
approved applications, so if you think you might be interested, I'd
encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Please also help spread the word about this program, by forwarding this
e-mail to other Wikimedia lists you're on, and posting the link to the
program page on village pumps and *community* (not public) social media
channels or other communication forms you use.
Special thanks to User:Anntinomy from Wikimedia Ukraine, who had the idea
of asking about possible donation of older machines from WMF, and inspired
this program.
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: WMF's Office IT determines a lifetime for work machines, and regularly
replaces older machines. This creates a stock of older, working machines,
that are available for donation. We can donate them locally to San
Francisco charities, but figure that if we can find low-cost ways to
deliver them to our own community members, that's so much better.
Q: Am I eligible?
A: Read the fine program documentation.
Q: If I'm eligible, am I guaranteed a donated laptop?
A: no.
Q: Once these 20 laptops are donated, will there be others?
A: yes, eventually.
Q: How can you ensure people would use the machines for Wikimedia purposes?
A: We can't. We'll be making a good-effort assessment of the likelihood of
Wikimedia use, and make a decision to donate (or not) the equipment. Once
donated, the equipment no longer belongs to WMF. We encourage, but can't
enforce, reporting on impact achieved using the equipment.
Q: I need a few laptops for my event in two weeks! Can I get them through
this program?
A: No. Read the fine program documentation.
Q: I'm really happy about this!
A: So are we! :)
Q: I'm really angry about this!
A: So it goes.
Q: I have more questions!
A: Hit 'Reply'. :)
Cheers,
Asaf