[Foundation-l] WMF-projects: Carbon neutral/low/aware website?

[Andrew Gray]

On 08/06/07, Alison Wheeler <wikimedia at alisonwheeler.com> wrote:

> I don't want to get into discussion about Carbon-Neutral and the rest, but
> have to say I would worry if we started putting the logo on the WMF
> projects, and for one simple reason.
>
> Who is to say why *this* logo should be added? Why shouldn't the logos for
> Breast Cancer awareness, Aids awareness, etc be added too? Or let's get
> really serious and add the Taiwan flag proclaiming it is entirely
> independent of China? or a Basque flag?
>
> This could easily either open floodgates of demands for logos and links,
> or create such animosity between editors, or outside the projects, that I
> feel it would be very inadvisable.

Yeah. We're simply a sufficiently high-profile "target" that even if
we voluntarily chose to affiliate with one organisation or another,
the subsequent volume of demands for similar agreements - even from
perfectly worthwhile groups - would be interesting.

Not to mention the fact that it.wp would probably decide it was
advertising and threaten to fork ;-)

[Also the good old ultra vires principle - I'm not sure quite how
relevant that would be in this case, and I don't know how many teeth
it has in Florida, but one should always keep a weather eye on it for
guidance...]

None of this should stop us *doing* such a generally "good thing", if
we have the money to spare and the legal wiggle room to do it, but
making a symbolic *statement* out of it, aligning ourselves with an
external pressure group, might cause more trouble than it is worth
both within and without the community. And as we don't have the money,
anyway... ;-)

[Actually, there's a thought. I wonder how many organisations have
considered doing a specific, small-scale, fundraiser specifically to
get the money to spend on going carbon neutral, over and above their
existing expenses. It could be presented very well; it would have a
clearly defined goal; and it would interesting to compare the money
raised to that by the normal fundraising process...]

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk