[Computerbank] Re: Fwd: Questions regarding constitution

[Chris Guiver]

Howdy all

I'm not part of the discussion - but I do see some sense in a fee.. for 
reasons listed.

>Reasons for charging a fee include:
>1. Filter people who really want one as opposed to those who simple get
>   it because its there and free.
>2. Reduce the likely hood of profiteering where individuals might
>   immediately resell the hardware.
>The fees need not be excessive and in some cases microcredit schemes may
>exists to enable people to access your project.

I don't like the idea of fee's being excessive - maybe not even fixed; maybe 
this was outlined (sliding scale!?; means tested - made by someone who tries 
to assess a fair fee - the down side is more work though !)...

Another advantage with a fee - for some anyway - is that it may help 
ownsership - ie. they paid money for it - they may therefore try harder to 
make it work (ie. get the computer going, learning more) rather than giving 
in easily - too hard basket....

-- My thinking

For me, who's familiar with computers - I still found the machine hard to 
use; and frustrating when ABIWORD kept crashing whenever I put it to real 
use... Made me want to re-load OS many times so I could put a word processor 
that worked on it (ie. Word Perfect 5.1!! & DOS); I wonder how many other 
machines this occurs to (maybe with another "friend" installing another 
more-familiar OS)...

But I think a small fee make help people put more effort in trying to make 
it work before they "give in". After all if it cost them nothing to get, 
it's generally I feel easier to throw it away (too hard; it cost nothing, I 
gained nothing - you get what you paid for...)

Sorry if I intruded, hopefully comment of interest; a thought useful..

Chris
---
>From: Kylie Davies <kylied at projectx.com.au>
>To: computerbank at lists.linux.org.au
>Subject: Fwd: Questions regarding constitution
>Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 18:02:51 +1000 (EST)
>
>Here is some more feedback re the constitution; this time around recipients
>paying a small fee for computers, training and support.
>
>Let the discussion begin! :)
>
>K
>
>
>----- Forwarded message from Tony Joblin <tonyjoblin at yahoo.com.au> -----
>Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 18:03:22 +1000
>From: Tony Joblin <tonyjoblin at yahoo.com.au>
>Reply-To: Tony Joblin <tonyjoblin at yahoo.com.au>
>Subject: Questions regarding constitution
>To: Kylie Davies <kylied at projectx.com.au>,\"Penni Diffey (CBV Sec)\"
><moose at artificial-stupidity.net>
>
>Hi Penni and Kylie,
>
>I have a few questions and points I would like to make about the
>constitution.
>
>3.1 Objectives
>
>In this section there is a strong sense of intention to give away the PCs
>and training for free. Is the intention ? Some of the community workers we
>have spoken to here in QLD have suggested charging a small fee for the PCs
>and training and have also suggested that by charging a fee for access to
>other programs they have been involved with actually improves the outcomes
>of the project. This section of the constitution might preclude this.
>Reasons for charging a fee include:
>1. Filter people who really want one as opposed to those who simple get it
>because its there and free.
>2. Reduce the likely hood of profiteering where individuals might
>immediately resell the hardware.
>The fees need not be excessive and in some cases microcredit schemes may
>exists to enable people to access your project. If you want to allow for 
>the
>possibility of charging fees then you might want to clarify the language in
>this section. It may also be necessary to modify one of the sentances eg 
>\"To
>provide computers and services, either for free or for a reasonable fee, to
>...\". You might need to modify the sections on management or committees to
>give this power to the committee.
>
>Tony Joblin, President
>Computerbank Queensland
>07 3371 1311 (working hours)
>cbq-exec at dstc.edu.au
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------
>www.projectx.com.au
>-
>ComputerBank Australia -- http://www.computerbank.org.au/
>

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