On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Yardena Cohen <yardenack@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm searching my email for "basement computers" and "basement GCEA"
and I see a few different threads going back to this summer, all of
them involving people being confused and asking questions and
complaining that they have Windows. But I'm not able to find any
record of the delegates or the commons working group actually talking
about designating that space for GCEA. Can anybody point me to meeting
notes about this?

Personally, I think if GCEA has a legitimate need for these computers
in order to do their work, we should accommodate and help them make it
"official", whatever that looks like. Maybe they should be
acknowledged as stewards of a commons in the basement just like
Sudoers are stewards of a commons in our (relatively large) space.

At this point, anytime I see a new group enthusiastic about using
Omni, my instinct is to encourage and welcome them rather than hit
them with a bunch of rules. I get sad seeing the building empty and
would like to have more people around.

I'm not trying to impose rules, I'm just trying to avoid a repeat of this incident where someone installed linux over a computer that apparently needed windows for its intended function. Labeling stuff with ways to contact the steward(s) is just a good idea and takes little effort (though permanent markers do have an annoying tendency to be scarce when most needed). Maybe we should print out a bunch of labels that say "Hi! This thing isn't labeled and I (the person who put this sticker on it) don't know who, is the steward of this item. Please label this item with at least an email address, phone number or other point of contact. If you can add the intended purpose and name of associated omni collective then even better!".