[Fsuk-manchester] Fwd: [nwdc] RE: MDDA Actively Discriminating against Communities.

[Lucy]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Phil Winstanley
Date: 2009/6/24
Subject: [nwdc] RE: MDDA Actively Discriminating against Communities.


Dave, Alan and everyone else.

Thanks for coming back to me, and reassuring us of your commitment to
be inclusive to all communities.

It's good that the MDDA is there for Manchester and you guys keep on
giving whatever help and resources you have to both business and
communities and also equally important that you get the support from
the communities wherever possible.

I received this e-mail: -

       "We're looking for a venue in central Manchester to host some
SUGUK meetings. Digital Agency place said they couldn't help out as
SharePoint isn't open source!"

Understandably, that made me react.

On further investigation, my contacts interpretation was somewhat of
an exaggeration (I only received the original e-mail some time after
the initial complaint), although there's a certain undertone that
clearly led to the misunderstanding: -

       "Unfortunately we are not able to accommodate a Sharepoint User
Group other than on as paid booking. All our costs are met by external
funding and our current users groups are freelance workers who utilise
open source software with the underlying aim of supporting the digital
industry in Manchester.  At the moment this is under review pending
the outcome of funding."

In hindsight it's clear I was wrong to have sent out such an explosive
response to what my contacts had told me so publically (although I was
careful to do so only within this closed group of community leaders).
The information I was given was wrong and inappropriate and I reacted
without checking in depth, so please, accept my wholehearted and full
apology for the way in which I approached this.

Regards,

Phil.


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Carter
Sent: 23 June 2009 09:37
To: Alan Holding; Phil Winstanley
Cc: John Keys; address@hidden
Subject: RE: MDDA Actively Discriminating against Communities.

Dear Phil,

I just wanted to follow up Alan's email with a confirmation that this is
not and never has been MDDA's policy and I'm sorry that you have
misunderstood this and have not felt able to check this before you sent
out such a statement. I would now ask you to retract this.

MDDA is part of Manchester City Council and we have a very
straightforward policy towards support for user groups. Where we receive
funding to do this, usually through EU projects that we are running, we
charge the cost of room bookings and staff cover to those projects. At
the moment we have no EU project funding for generic support to user
groups, we do have a number of small scale projects where we are
supporting open source developments and in these cases we can charge the
costs to these projects. Otherwise anyone can use the MDDA's services
for free advice and attend open events and also book rooms for a very
reasonable charge.

There is also the issue that as a public body we do not want to undercut
any commercial services offering room bookings with connectivity.
Instead we keep a list of a range of venues that we believe ofer good
connectivity and value for money. In this way we aim to support small
businesses in Manchester and encourage user groups to make use of these.

I hope that explains the situation and I look forward to hearing from
you.

Best wishes

Dave


Dave Carter
Head
Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA)
Manchester City Council
Lower Ground Floor
117-119 Portland Street
Manchester
M1 6ED
Phone: 0161 255 8111
Fax: 0161 236 2849

www.manchesterdda.com

Please note that MDDA is part of Manchester City Council and I can be
contacted on either of these email addresses:
address@hidden
or
address@hidden


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Holding
Sent: 10 June 2009 15:07
To: 'Phil Winstanley'
Cc: John Keys; address@hidden; Dave Carter
Subject: RE: MDDA Actively Discriminating against Communities.

Dear Phil,

Thanks for you email.

I'm not sure where the confusion has arisen, but can I assure you that
this is is not MDDA's policy.

We continue to suppport all user groups, where possible, given the
resources available to us.

As I am on leave after today until 18 June, please forward any responses
to my colleague John Keys:

address@hidden
0161 255 8111

Regards,
Alan


--

Alan Holding
Principal Digital Development Officer
Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA)


MDDA is part of Manchester City Council.
www.manchesterdda.com


________________________________

From: Phil Winstanley
Sent: 10 June 2009 12:08
To: Alan Holding; address@hidden;
address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: MDDA Actively Discriminating against Communities.



Dear MDDA,



Recently I was made aware of a disgusting attitude that the MDDA has
adopted
towards some of the technical communities working within Manchester.



To make matters worse, this discrimination was being drawn across lines
of
ideology and not those of practicality or reality. It is a disgraceful
situation which your organisation should be ashamed of involvement
within.



What situation am I referring to ? Well, the fact that the MDDA have
told
people that unless the technology which user groups are talking about is
Open Source then the MDDA cannot host those groups.



Let me draw to your attention some of the public statements made by
Manchester City Council.



"Manchester has been one of the leading local authorities in working to
ensure that all communities in Manchester have equal access to Council
services and job opportunities."



"Whilst all local councils have a legal duty to combat inequality,
Manchester City Council has gone beyond this and made sure it has had an
active, campaigning role on many equalities issues. Through consulting
and
involving those on the sharp end of prejudice the Council knows how much
damage discrimination and prejudice do. "



--

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=
264





Then, there's this on your own site.



"We have modern, flexible and accessible meeting rooms available for
hire
for groups of up to sixty delegates. Consisting of four individual
contemporary styled suites, the spaces have full disabled access, air
conditioning and high speed wireless internet access throughout."



-- http://www.manchesterdda.com/about/





It's nice to know you say all the right things publically, it's a real
shame
your actions in reality are completely contradictory to these points.



I have made other leaders within the Technical community aware of this
situation and they (on all sides) are equally disgusted by your
organisations attitude towards the non-open source community.



I look forward to your prompt rectification of this situation.



Kind Regards,



Phil Winstanley.








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