I have no in-principle objections to this (on-wiki reporting of
long-term loans of equipment) as long as:
(a) "Long-term" is defined.
(b) There is no requirement to breach anonymity (e.g. recording against
username OR realname, as preferred by the volunteer, not necessarily
both),
(c) People borrowing the equipment are informed that it will be recorded
publically in advance.
(d) The recording does not endanger the safety/security of the volunteer
and/or equipment.
For example I borrowed a laptop for the train-the-trainers event at the
beginning of February (as mine was broken) and also transported another
laptop for the use of a second volunteer. I spent a few days with my
family en-route back from the training and used one of the laptops for
purposes including (but not limited to) Wikipedia and Commons editing
during that time. The other was with me but not used. Does this count as
long-term?
Regarding the security aspect, I took I think it was four WMUK laptops
(and my own) up to Newcastle for the editathon at the Mining Institute in
November. If it was publicly known that I was carrying five laptops then
there is a (admittedly small) chance that I could have been targetted by
someone with criminal intent. In this case reporting the details after the
event would not have the same security implications, and for a 2-day event
the delay would not be very significant. This might not be the case for
all scenarios though - e.g. someone borrowing a DSLR for a fornight to
take photos of remote parts of the Western Isles.
Chris
On Fri, 14 Mar 2014, Fæ wrote:
I have no idea why long term loans should be in secret. If someone
wishes to borrow a camera or a laptop for a project that helps create
content for Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, the charity should
encourage an *open and transparent* proposal and report on the project
as one funded/supported by the charity. This is a good thing and we
should celebrate it.
If it turns out that long term secret loans over the last couple of
years are mostly to employees (outside of their defined role) or the
friends and family of employees, it could damage the reputation of the
charity if questioned on how it manages its assets to ensure that
there are no inappropriate benefits, and how it maintains its
commitment for transparency. In comparison, when the WMF has provided
money and equipment to worthy projects that lacked funds (many laptops
have been given out over the years), as far as I am aware, this has
never been done in secret, even if the justification was that the
potential contributors were not rich enough to purchase their own kit.
Please openly report long term loans on the charity's wiki. For
example, I see no reason why my long term loan of a Macmini should not
be a matter of public record, and I am prepared to report on related
content creation - doing otherwise is likely to fall in conflict with
the proposed changes to the Terms of Use of Wikimedia Foundation
websites. It would be unwise and potentially misleading to give
volunteers or employees with long term free loans of equipment the
impression that they would not be obliged to declare that their
editing/contributions were directly supported and effectively
sponsored by the charity.
Fae
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----
Chris McKenna
cmckenna(a)sucs.org
www.sucs.org/~cmckenna
The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes,
but with the heart
Antoine de Saint Exupery