freelender.org goes open source !

It has always been our intention to make the freelender.org code open source, and to make distributed development more easy. Today, both those goals were realised as we put into practice our message of sharing.

Many of the web's most successful projects are open source, for example the Firefox web browser and Open Office, the free almost-clone of Microsoft Office. Open source code is available for anyone to view, meaning complete transparency of the project. This can result in faster development times, and more robust code as the team now includes anyone who wants to be involved. It also means that the code can be re-used in other projects at no financial cost.

The project code is now hosted on assembla.com.
Click here for the freelender.org project development page, and here for the freelender.org source code.

If you'd like to join the freelender development team, maybe to pick up some Ruby on Rails experience for your CV, or just because you want to support the project, contact us and let us know.

Meanwhile, feel free to browse the source code, and let us know if we could be doing anything better.

Jailbrake invitation received

Just received this in:

"I am emailing you about the Jailbrake weekend as although your ideas were not selected, we'd love to have you along to the weekend. 

There is one idea in particular that we thought could really use your help, with your background in Restorative Justice. It's called Common Ground and is about restorative dialogue in the web space. Is this something that would interest you? Would you like to come along?"

and replied:
 
Hi Katherine

Thank you for the invite to the Jailbrake weekend. It might be an opportunity not to be missed and I will get back to you on whether I have been able to clear my diary.

When I read that you wanted my input on one of the other projects, I had assumed that is was MyPA, because I had been in the group and key in moving the idea on from something that related to probation service appointments to youth being supported more generally with a host of appointments. I would particularly welcome an opportunity to look further at how this one progresses.

Meanwhile, I will look at the Common Ground proposal and at least let you have my comments. Today I'm working on [an urgent and important Restorartive Justice Business Plan], and that takes priority.
If you could clarify willingness to pay the travel and accommodation costs from Bristol for the Jailbrake weekend, this would help me assess how much my input is valued at this stage.

Meanwhile, with or without expenses met, I look forward to any opportunity to work further with the social innovation camp and I will let you know within the week whether I am willing to jeopardise a key relationship by cancelling my other current arrangement for the last weekend of March.

(It might interest to you know -re Web 2.0 that I am considering tomorrow putting a poll on my freelenders blog on which to prioritise for the end of March - and I will also conduct a friends' poll via facebook in order to inform my decision).

LetsAllShare.com in Hungarian and English

Thank you to Andrea (a freelender.org member in postcode BR2) for providing this translation:

LetsAllShare.com – Használjuk együtt!

A LetsAllShare nevű honlapot 2006-ban találta ki sörözés közben két angol srác. Stas beszámolt Lecky nevű barátjának egy korábbi telefonbeszélgetéséről: a nővére hívta fel – tudván, hogy Stas odavan az autókért és a hozzájuk tartozó kiegészítőkért -, hogy tanácsot kérjen, milyen tetőcsomagtartót vegyen az autójára a családi nyaraláshoz. Stas nem értette, miért nem kéri egyszerűen kölcsön az övét, ami az év 50 hetében a garázsban porosodik. A nővére pedig ezt válaszolta: „Honnan a csudából tudnám, hogy mit tartasz a garázsodban?”

Two English guys came up with the idea in the pub.  Stas asked his friend, Lecky about which roofrack  to buy as his sister was interested in getting one then he offered to lend him his, which gathers dust in the garage for 50 weeks a year.

Stas eltűnődött, mennyi minden van a garázsában, a házában és a sufnijában, amit örömmel kölcsönadna a családjának, barátainak vagy a szomszédainak, ha elkérnék tőle. Hogy mi minden? Sövénynyíró, sátor, szerszámok, alkalmi ruhák, etetőszék, sífelszerelés, könyvek, DVD-k… Feltette Lecky-nek a költői kérdést: Miért van az, hogy megveszünk és aztán tárolunk egy csomó dolgot ahelyett, hogy inkább kölcsönkérnénk őket a barátainktól? Milyen jó lenne, ha volna egy weboldal, ahol kialakíthatnánk a saját közösségeinket, és megoszthatnánk egymással a dolgainkat! Lecky egyetértett, egy korty sör erejéig elgondolkodott a dolgon, aztán azt mondta: „Csináljuk meg!” Így indult útjára 2008 elején a LetsAllShare.

Stas had a think about all the stuff he has in his garage, house and shed. He would be glad to lend them to his family friends if they wanted it. Tent, hedgetrimmer, tools, highchair, ski gear, books, CD-s. He put the poetic question to his friend, Lecky: "Why do we buy so much stuff and then store it instead of borrowing it from others. It would be great to have a website where people could from their own communities and share each others' things." Lecky agreed, had a sip of his beer and said: "Let's do it!" That's how Letsallshare started in 2008.

A pazarlás a múlté, a közös használaté a jövő! Wastage is the past, shared use is the future!

A kezdeményezés célja: The aim of this initiative:  

• 
  
  
  Összekötni az embereket Get people connected
• 
  
  
  Közösen használni a dolgainkat és megosztani hasznos információinkat másokkal; share usage of our things and information
• 
  
  
  Spórolni a pénzzel és a természeti erőforrásokkal.save money and natural resources

Így működik - How does it work
Ingyenes regisztráció után automatikusan a tagjává válsz két csoportnak: az egyik a „család és barátok”, ahová meghívhatjuk a közeli ismerőseinket, a másik a „helyi közösség”, ahova az irányítószámunk alapján sorol be a rendszer. Később tetszőleges számú további csoportnak lehetünk tagjai (pl. szakkör, klub, civil szervezet stb.). Ezekre a csoportokra külön-külön definiálhatjuk, hogy milyen feltételekkel milyen tárgyakat osztanánk meg a tagjaival.

After free registration you become member of two groups: friend and family where you can invite people closest to you and Local community where you are classified according to the post code. Later on you can create sub-groups (club, civil organisations, etc). We can decide the terms of lending and borrowing fro each of these groups.
Ezután felteszünk az oldalra pár dolgot, amit szívesen megosztanánk az ismerőseinkkel, és megadjuk a kölcsönadás feltételeit. Lehet, hogy a közeli ismerősöknek minden további nélkül kölcsönadod a könyveidet vagy a fűnyíród, de az idegenektől letéti díjat kérsz, esetleg kisebb kölcsönzési díjat. A lényeg, hogy pontosan megadhatod, kivel, mit és milyen feltételekkel szeretnél megosztani. Később, amikor l��tod, hogy jól működik a rendszer, biztosan egyre több dolog jut majd az eszedbe, amit szívesen megosztanál másokkal.

We advertise a few things that we want to share with people we know and we decide the terms of lending. You might decide to lend for free for family and friends whereas you may take deposit or a small rent fee from stangers. When you see how it works you may wish to add to the list of things for lending.Ha neked van szükséged valamire, akkor megnézheted, hogy a csoportjaid tagjainak van-e az adott dologból az adatbázisban. Ha nincsen, akkor felírhatod a keresett dolgok közé. Lehet, hogy valamelyik barátod kölcsön tudná adni, csak még nem regisztrálta, ezért te nem tudsz róla.

If you need something you can check if it is available or you can post it as wanted object. Someone might have it who hasn't put it on the datebase yet.
Mit oszthatok meg az oldalon keresztül? What can you share through this webpage?

• 
  
  
  Tárgyakat: pl. barkácseszközöket, kerti és egyéb szerszámokat, autófelszereléseket, sportkellékeket, túrafelszerelést, konyhai eszközöket, ruhákat, bútorokat, bőröndöket, könyveket, CD-ket, DVD-ket stb.
• 
  
  
  things: tools, garden or DIY, motoring equipment, sport equipment, rambling gear, kitchen equip.m clothes, furniture, suitcase, books, CD, DVD etc
• 
  
  
  Szolgáltatásokat: gyerekpesztrálást, szaktanácsadást, segítséget (szerelést, bevásárlást), üres helyeket az autóban stb.
• 
  
  
  Services: baby sitting, consultancy, home help (DIY, shopping), car share
• 
  
  
  Ajánlásokat: étterem, szerelő, kőműves, burkoló, festő, fodrász stb.
• 
  
  
  recommendations: restaurant, handyman, builder, tiler, decorator, hairdresser etc

Biztonság Security

Az idegenek csak az aliasodat, azaz „nickedet”, becenevedet látják, te határozod meg, hogy mikor és milyen adatodat osztod meg a másikkal. A tagok megbízhatóságáról tájékozódást nyújthatnak az adott tagról korábban beküldött (az e-kereskedelemmel foglalkozó oldalakhoz hasonló rendszerben működő) értékelések. A LetsAllShare honlap szolgáltatásai ingyenesek – az alapítók civilként fejlesztették ki és működtetik. A hosszú távú üzemeltetés és a fejlesztések érdekében azonban folyamatosan keresnek szponzorokat a szolgáltatáshoz, valamint új üzemeltetőkre is szükség van. A lap remek kezdeményezés, de sajnos csak az Egyesült Királyság területén működik (más irányítószámot nem ismer fel). Ha valakinek van hozzá kedve, megcsinálhatná a magyar verziót!

Stangers will only see your nickname, you decide what information you share with whom. Regarding the reliability of the members people can view feedback that is common practice in e-commerce. Services of Letsallshare are free, the founders developed and maintain it as non-professionals. In the interest of long term viability they are looking for sponsors and developers. The website is a fantastic initiative but unfortunately it only covers the UK, doesn't recognise other postcodes. Someone adventurous could create a HUngarian version!

letsallshare.com

Going beyond 'Has anyone got?'

Prompted by someone emailing the Bristol freeconomists to let us all know/remind us about freecycle, I wrote the following back: 

"Hi Sam

I saw your message about freecycle and wondered:
a) whether you are involved enough in the local freecycle politics to know why they haven't decided to defect to Freegle UK?
b) whether you see freelender.org as a more viable way for freeconomists to list all their possessions so that it is easier to search for what people have got and therefore not have all these messages saying 'Has anyone got...?'"

  
What's your position in relation to this?

The Laminator I'm borrowing for a friend via facebook, Collaboration/ Co-operation and user feedback

I don't think it's helpful for me to pretend that freelender.org is the best thing since sliced bread.

(By the way, the history of sliced bread is that -just like freelender.org- it took many years to catch on. That's another story though, and if you can find me the link to the source of the story about sliced bread I'd be grateful. It sounds like something Malcolm Gladwell would talk about on Ted.com :


 ).

So, to cut the hype, so far I haven't received more than one successful response to the 6 wanted requests I've put on that site. (By the way, if you are logged in to freelender, the top request I have is currently this one).

As I say, freelender.org is not where I've had the highest success rate in asking for items. Where I have had 100% success in requesting items which I want to borrow is via my news updates on my facebook page. (NB A social networking look-alike version of freelender.org would look like this.)

What amazes  me is that not only did a new friend called Richard look through my old news feed and find that a friend of mine wanted to borrow a laminator. What he did that was far beyond expectations was that he was also willing to put it on freelender.org:

• to log the transaction in the way that works best for me 
• and that makes one of his possessions available to the wider community after my friend has finished with it. 

Richard even went one step beyond, and agreed to test two other sites in the 'sharing and gift economics sector' to provide me with his take on them.

Hi Richard
People who provide feedback about websites I'm interested in are few and far between!

I gained a lot from your site testing of our two main collaborators/competitors :-letsallshare.com- and justfortheloveofit.org.

We haven't quite worked out in the 'sharing & gift economy' how we do the optimum combination of sharing our databases/code etc; that's some way down the line I imagine, though freelender is Open Source and does want to put it's code into a suitable forum soon, along with an organised set of suggestions we can get on improvements to be made to the site, and how it could also be integrated with freegle UK and freecycle UK.

Best wishes
Paul

If you have any time to try sharing more in your life and to try any of the sites in this blog posting please then send your feedback to Edmund and I, directors of  Freelending CIC via this link or join in the editing of the collective information in the wider freelender community site.

The problem with hubris and being two steps ahead

A couple of weeks ago I tweeted as follows:

You've heard of #Freecycle & #freegle ?The next step IMHO is #letsallshare & beyond that, us #freelender.org.

Being a 'clever clogs' often irritates and confuses others who can only see the next step. (ie I end up tripping.
As Edmund and I are now agreed that LetsAllShare.com is currently a more credible site than freelender.org at present, questions arise like:

1. Whether I put all my thousands of items on that site, instead of (or in addition to) freelender.org?
2. Whether I advertise freelender.org primarily in my neighbourhood and advocate letsallshare nationally?
3. What mix of websites is going to best serve the 'Sharing and Gift Economics' sector of the economy? 
4. What is the most responsible thing I/you can do in relation to the gap between where we are now in how we share resources and where we need to be ASAP?

As well as commenting below, please see (& join) the occasional twitterstream: http://twitter.com/gifteconomics

How to share the best idea so far coming out of two and a half years freelender work?

Yesterday, Edmund and I came up with an idea that we thought might save us a year out of the 5 years it might take for freelending (and associated resource-efficient ideas) to come of age. The latest idea, which we are calling 'Wanted', does not require us to create a whole new market of people wanting to share their stuff with strangers. It promotes helping people get deals that are even better than the best that the web offers. 'Undercutting' e-bay and Amazon put together, plus all web-lowest price search engines (apart from the car-insurance ones) is a bit daunting.
We'd like to build the trust with you so that you can join in the team too.
We are willing to negotiate giving you shares in Freelending Community Interest Company until the revenue comes in, which will of course be prioritised in further developing freelender.org and the other initiatives in resource efficiency and community connections about which we remain keen. If you want to hear more:
More details about what we are working on is at the 'private business wiki site'; to join in please contact us first.
Also please add any comments to this blog (click on Comments below) to say what you think our great idea looks like; your idea of what 'Wanted' does might be crucially inspiring (or correcting) again!

Money as Debt

The story of stuff -intro

The full video story of stuff  (and other stuff-type stories) are available at 'The Story of Stuff website'

The second way of contacting freelender.org

If you really want to get a message through to the maximum number of freelender.org team members and haven't got a response from this freelender.org contact page then please send to the two Pauls and Edmund via this Mediation Support Ltd contact page.