Wikipedia and Wikimedia, Where's your money going Options

[Peter Damian]

How many people who donate to Wikimedia think that their money is going to Wikipedia. I never realised this until recently (not that I have donated any money anyway).

I am still struggling to understand what Wikimedia is for, other than hosting all those servers. In particular, now that Wikimedia UK is registered as a charity, I am wondering what the money is for.
Wikimedia UK has 'raised' £500,000, but I understand this is a cheque from the parent WMF. It took me a long time to find out how it is actually being spent, but the page linked to below explains some of it. I itemise them below (I didn't finish it, it being far too boring). The CEO salary is about right for London charity director, but I don't understand what he (Jon Davies) is doing, apart from raising money to pay his own salary. The Office Manager is also about right, but, again, what are they actually doing? The other stuff is impenetrable, apart from the second "Wikipedians in Residence" which is (because of the Bristol connection) is probably a nice cheque for Martin Poulter for being a good all-round nice guy.

The whole thing seems to be to raise money for 'mates' - the various ne'er do wells and useless people that hang around the WMF.

Further investigation, followed by a letter to the charities commission, would seem to be in order.

Chief Executive 60,000
Office Manager 25,000
Events Manager 30,000
Communications 20,000
Developer 30,000
Train the Trainers Programme 20,000
Outreach merchandise & publications 5,000
Extended Reach programme 10,000
Technical development to support cultural outreach 80,000
GLAM-Wiki Conference Autumn 2012 10,000
Outreach Events 10,000
Wikipedians in Residence 15,000
Digitization 20,000
World Wars I and II project 30,000
University outreach events 10,000
Wikipedians in Residence 10,000
[etc]

http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Activity_Plan

[Peter Damian]

That's the way the money goes http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikim...ary/007022.html

I'm currently putting together a proposal for purchasing tech equipment to support future events/activities at:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Event_Tech
Input on this would be very welcome - please edit the page directly, or leave comments on the talk page.

In particular, I'm going to recommend that we purchase a couple of laptops this month, for volunteers to use at events/activities/when visiting the office (the OTRS workshop last weekend highlighted the need for getting these asap). Laptop recommendations would be much appreciated. The default option at the moment is a standard cheap Asus 15"/1.5GHz/4GB/500GB machine, with the pre-installed Windows wiped and Linux installed - but there must be better low-cost laptop options out there than that...

Thanks,
Mike

I recommend that we purchase 4 of these machines, at a total cost of £1,400.
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Event_Tech

I will admit that a lot of this reads like witchcraft to me Jon Davies WMUK 11:45, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Smoke and mirrors, witchcraft, whatever. And for once, Mr Dalton gets it right.

I don't see the point of buying Windows and then deleting it,
especially on a machine that is going to be used by lots of different
people. Pretty much everyone is comfortable using Windows, but a lot
of people aren't familiar with Linux. If you can save money by getting
a machine that doesn't come with a copy of Windows, then fine, but if
you've spent the money you might as well get the benefit. You can
dual-boot them if people really want Linux.

Using open source options where possible is a good policy, but it
shouldn't extend to throwing away software we already own.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikim...ary/007023.html

Yes but Microsoft is corporate and evil. Pay for it and delete it.

This post has been edited by Peter Damian:

[EricBarbour]

Yes but Microsoft is corporate and evil. Pay for it and delete it.

You've just discovered a textbook example of Wikipedia "freetards" doing things that defy all logic
and reason. A nice fat juicy one too.

If they really wanted to save $$$, the idiots would buy used or reconditioned laptops, thus
Saving the Earth whilst also saving a few pounds. Used laptops often have usable Windows
installs on them, sometimes all they need is a fresh install of whatever OS (Ubuntu is great
for that purpose). Firefox, LibreOffice etc. are all readily available to use in Windows, Mac,
or Linux.

One can easily purchase used/reconditioned netbooks for less than $300 or about £200.

I even know dealers in the US who are great sources:
Surplus Computers
Mwave
Geeks.com

But of course, we're talking about idiots here. Peel is a sad case. Yes, you may quote me.
I bet he hates Windows because his surfing tendencies end up filling a Windows PC with
malware. Porn sites, gambling sites, etc. Seen that a million times.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: