Dear Cornelio and all, IMHO Cornelio rasies concerns that cross the three tiers of PC redistribution (supplier; distributor/refurbisher; recipient). My comments are an attempt to perhaps offer a different perspective from each of these tiers.
1) Like many corporations, my employer will often donate computers to disadvantaged groups including to NFP computer distributor/refurbishers. In my capacity as the company IT Manager I usually approve (or otherwise) donations of this type, and generally do not regard these donations as a charitable contribution for the purposes of taxation... although were we to donate hundreds of computers (as some other companies do), then I possibly would seek tax relief to the value of the donation. The justification for such a course of action would entirely depend on the value of the donation and any other contributions we are asked to make. When considering the altruistic value of corporate donations it is important to understand that donations rarely include obsolete machines from any other than a corporate perspective. The machines we donate are usually Pentium or better industrial-quality workstations and servers, that for reasons of depreciated "book value" and for software upgrades are being replaced - these are not machines ready for the scrap-heap and will usually provide quite a few years of additional reliable service. Your comments on computer waste products and environmental legislation are correct and also apply in Australia, however this generally does not apply to the types of computers made obsolete by corporate donors for the aforementioned reasons - we do not need to 'scrap' old computers because they are quite marketable and can be easily sold at auction for a good return - further, machines disposed in this manner (at auction) do not require the considerable time commitment of erasing hard-drives, proper packing, palletising, and ensuring serviceability (as we do with donated computers - machines sold at auction are sold on-site "as-is" with the purchaser, usually a second-hand computer merchant, signing a waver and guarantee to erase any/all software found on the computers (although we do erase anything of a confidential nature beforehand!). To suggest that donating computers offers business a lucrative potential is, I'm afraid, simply incorrect - each and every computer we donate costs our business in excess of $100.00 in time and effort, and being a business with extensive transport infrastructure, we usually also donate freight to the recipients address free-of-charge (another +- $50.00 per machine). Compare this with the cost of dumping and compacting (about $20.00 per machine) or the potential to sell computers at auction (for anything up to $5-600.00 for a second-hand server), and rather clearly our donations are not "a lucrative business-operation" - they are a very real overhead, yet an overhead we adopt in our capacity as a socially responsible business. 2) From the perspective of an NFP distributor/refurbisher, your comment on the mean temperature of recipient climates is very valid and I would add to this a range of other factors including relative humidity, dust, the likelihood of electrical storms, and of course the quality of the local electricity supply - all aspects traditionally not conclusive to trouble-free computing - These are important considerations for donor organisations and often require the supply of harshware computers, line filters, UPS units and other peripherals to ensure that any computers donated are suitable for the environment they are going to. We are perhaps fortunate that few climates are harsher than rural Australia (where I live). Mean temperatures for this time of year commonly approach 40 deg C and severe thunderstorms and dust-storms are fairly commonplace (it is 34 C as I type this message in my non-air-conditioned home on a stock-standard 4 year-old IBM Aptiva). Most larger local businesses, my own included which is spread over 200 hectares, have computers located in non air-conditioned and subsequently quite harsh environments - corporate computers located in these areas are usually certified 'harshware' and donations of this type of equipment can offer a very good computing solution for other parts of the world with similar climates and environments. Wherever possible I do try to make our redundant harshware computers available for organisations with a need to distribute this type of hardware. 3) From a recipients perspective, (and I am also able to wear this 'hat' having coordinated a recipient campaign for our local Youth Cafe' and several Australian Telecentre's). Too often the view of recipients is that of "free computers for life", leading to the perspective you have offered - yet this is not the intent of computer donor organisations. The intent is to foster interest; acceptance; and to ultimately provide some basic tools whereby a group or community can decide for themselves if computing offers any real development potential. There are many examples of communities who through receiving donated computers have found a sufficient 'spark' to develop computer-related educational and other campaigns leading to broader acceptance and ultimately a fledgling local industry. This is what we attempt to achieve. It is inevitable that in some circumstances donated computers will not fill a need or provide development potential - however this does not negate the value of the work, nor does it make the companies donating this equipment any less altruistic. Best regards, Don ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
