The Wikimedia Foundation is donating a number of used (but fully
functional) laptops to individuals that will use them in support of
Wikimedia's goals. See the link below for a detailed description, but
essentially the recipient needs to have made 1000+ contributions, have
been involved for more than a year, and state how they plan to put them
to good use in furthering WM's goals.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [African Wikimedians] Fwd: Announcing the Hardware donation
program
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:07:41 +0000
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Reply-To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
<african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
<african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
FYI.
A.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:abartov@wikimedia.org>>
Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:06 PM
Subject: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>
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