The Freecycle Network
Encyclopedia
The Freecycle Network is a non-profit organization
registered in the state of Arizona, USA, and separately registered as a UK charity, that organizes a worldwide network of "gifting" groups, aiming to divert reusable goods from landfill
s. It provides a worldwide online registry, and coordinates the creation of local groups and forums for individuals and non-profits to offer and receive free items for reuse or recycling, promoting gift economics as a motivating cultural outlook. "Changing the world one gift at a time" is The Freecycle Network's official tagline.
. RISE subsequently handed it over to the project leader, Deron Beal. Beal set up the first Freecycle e-mail group for the citizens of Tucson. The concept has since spread to over 85 countries, with thousands of local groups and millions of members.
Each local group currently exists either as a Yahoo! Groups
mailing list
or on the TFN's own MyFreecycle software run by volunteer moderators. TFN encourages the formation of new groups, subject to approval by regional New Group Approvers (NGAs). Groups approved by TFN are listed at the official website, can use the name and logo, and are subject to rules enforced by a structure of global and regional GOAs (Group Outreach Assistance). TFN originally planned to move a custom designed, centralized site in 2004, but the project moved slowly, largely because of a shortage of skilled volunteer labor. In 2008, Freecycle went live with a beta version of a centralized, custom site. As of March 2009, all new groups must be started on www.Freecycle.org's new group system, giving TFN even more control over the individual groups. Moderators of existing Yahoogroups have the choice (at this time) of remaining on Yahoogroups or moving their groups to the freecycle.org site.
As of May 2011, the membership stands at 8,406,190 across 4,940 communities.
The original idea has since been copied and varied by hundreds of similar groups around the world.
.
As of March 2010, Freecycle UK claimed 494 groups with 1,722,575 members.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
registered in the state of Arizona, USA, and separately registered as a UK charity, that organizes a worldwide network of "gifting" groups, aiming to divert reusable goods from landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
s. It provides a worldwide online registry, and coordinates the creation of local groups and forums for individuals and non-profits to offer and receive free items for reuse or recycling, promoting gift economics as a motivating cultural outlook. "Changing the world one gift at a time" is The Freecycle Network's official tagline.
Background
The organization originated as a project of RISE Inc., a nonprofit corporation, to promote waste reduction in Tucson, ArizonaArizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. RISE subsequently handed it over to the project leader, Deron Beal. Beal set up the first Freecycle e-mail group for the citizens of Tucson. The concept has since spread to over 85 countries, with thousands of local groups and millions of members.
Each local group currently exists either as a Yahoo! Groups
Yahoo! Groups
Yahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum, in other words, Group messages can be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group's...
mailing list
Mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
or on the TFN's own MyFreecycle software run by volunteer moderators. TFN encourages the formation of new groups, subject to approval by regional New Group Approvers (NGAs). Groups approved by TFN are listed at the official website, can use the name and logo, and are subject to rules enforced by a structure of global and regional GOAs (Group Outreach Assistance). TFN originally planned to move a custom designed, centralized site in 2004, but the project moved slowly, largely because of a shortage of skilled volunteer labor. In 2008, Freecycle went live with a beta version of a centralized, custom site. As of March 2009, all new groups must be started on www.Freecycle.org's new group system, giving TFN even more control over the individual groups. Moderators of existing Yahoogroups have the choice (at this time) of remaining on Yahoogroups or moving their groups to the freecycle.org site.
Successes
TFN has grown rapidly into a global organization of over four thousand local chapters, and passed the 2 million member mark in February 2006.As of May 2011, the membership stands at 8,406,190 across 4,940 communities.
The original idea has since been copied and varied by hundreds of similar groups around the world.
Corporate support
In February 2005, Deron Beal accepted TFN's first corporate support of $130,000 from Waste Management, Inc. (WMI)Trademark issues
- A formal trademark opposition was filed in federal court by FreecycleSunnyvale against The Freecycle Network in January 2006. An injunction was granted against Mr. Oey in May 2006 for allegedly disparaging the TFN trademark. This injunction was stayed in July 2006 and was eventually dissolved by the Ninth Circuit in September 2007.
- During 2006, in order to defend their trademark TFN also pursued other free recycling groups who either mentioned the term "freecycle" or allegedly had "confusingly similar derivations thereof".
- Free speech advocates, including the Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
and 38 law professors filed an Amicus brief to oppose a trademark infringement lawsuit TFN filed against Tim Oey. The basis for the opposition is that the lawsuit violates First Amendment rights. Separately Jimmy WalesJimmy WalesJimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
, and some law professors, including Lawrence LessigLawrence LessigLawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, filed a second amicus brief also supporting Tim Oey. - On November 24, 2010, TFN lost its trademark claim to "Freecycle" and to its logo in United States federal courtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
. In her opinion Judge CallahanConsuelo María CallahanConsuelo María Callahan is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.-Background:...
stated unequivocally that "Beal did not coin the word “freecycle” and TFN is not the first organization to promote freecycling" and that "even ... viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to TFN ... [they] engaged in naked licensing and consequently abandoned the trademarks."
UK breakaway
Over the course of 2009, there was repeated conflict between the UK's Independent Association of Freecycle Moderators and the US-based founders of the company, regarding the lack of freedom for UK-based Freecycle groups to develop new localized initiatives and features, and their treatment of volunteer group owners and moderators. This culminated in the UK Director Neil Morris and at least 20 local group owners and moderators being dismissed and replaced with US-based counterparts. In response the leaders of Brighton’s Freecycle broke away from their US parent organisation and formed a rival site, GreenCycleSussex and other UK-based Freecycle groups formed a new independent association called FreegleFreegle
Freegle is a British organisation that aims to reduce landfill by encouraging people to give things away instead of throwing them away.Freegle was formed on 11 September 2009 after many Freecycle groups in the UK decided to break away from the US parent organisation following disagreements on how...
.
As of March 2010, Freecycle UK claimed 494 groups with 1,722,575 members.
See also
- DaruDarDaruDarDaruDar is an international community where people give away things, their skills and time to each other for absolutely free requiring nothing in return....
- gift-giving community of things and skills - PostcrossingPostcrossingPostcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive real postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!” Its members, also known as Postcrossers, send postcards to other...
- gift-giving community of postcards - BookCrossingBookCrossingBookCrossing is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which began in order to encourage the practice, aiming to "make the whole world a library."The...
- gift-giving community of books - BeWelcomeBeWelcomeBeWelcome is a hospitality exchange service that is run by a non-profit organisation. The site was founded in February of 2007 by volunteers from another hospitality exchange website Hospitality Club. As of November 2011, the organisation has more than 15,000 members from all over the world who...
– an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and non-profit hospitality exchange network - CouchSurfingCouchSurfingCouchSurfing International Inc. is a corporation based in San Francisco that offer its users hospitality exchange and social networking services. It is a for-profit private corporation, planning to go public. With more than 3 million profiles in 246 countries and territories, CouchSurfing has an...
- for-profit hospitality exchange network - Hospitality ClubHospitality ClubThe Hospitality Club is an international, Internet-based hospitality service of appr. 300,000 members in 226 countries Its members use the website HospitalityClub.org to coordinate accommodation and other services, such as guiding or regaling travelers....
- gift-giving community of hospitality - Scavenger - gift-giving community promoting the reuse and upcycling of peoples junk
- Gift economyGift economyIn the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
- GlocalisationGlocalisationGlocalisation is a portmanteau word of globalization and localization. By definition, the term “glocal” refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organisation, and community which is willing and able to “think globally and act locally.”-A variety of usages:*Individuals, households and...
- Reciprocal altruismReciprocal altruismIn evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time...
- ReuseReuseTo reuse is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function, and new-life reuse where it is used for a different function. In contrast, recycling is the breaking down of the used item into raw materials which are used to make new...
- SharingSharingSharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
- Social softwareSocial softwareSocial software applications include communication tools and interactive tools. Communication tools typically handle the capturing, storing and presentation of communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a...
- Waste HierarchyWaste hierarchyThe waste hierarchy refers to the 3 Rs of reduce, reuse, recycle, or and [ which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability. The Rs are meant to be a hierarchy, in order of importance...