Give and Take

I have to admit to being rather taken with Freecycle. It keeps many useful items away from the national and local landfill lunacy which seems unstoppable, and you get to meet some great people.

However, it is making me wonder whether people are naturally 'givers', 'takers, or whether you can be both?

If you look at the archives, some names never ever occur in Offered, only Wanted, and vice versa.

I had to ask whether anyone had something/ a particular item today, and I had to think about it first. How important is this item that I go public and ask for it? What would I do with it if I get it? Do I really want to put myself out as begging for this item, or loan of it, or should I just bite the bullet and spend over £200 to get one? That was sort of the deciding factor. I couldn't afford one if I wanted, and having looked on Ebay, I am never really going to find one at a price I can afford.

(I know you want to know, so it's an overlocking machine. I bought a jumper from Guru in Darlington, and it doesn't fit. Even if I eat 20 cakes a day for the rest of my life, and grow 4ft taller it is never going to fit, but I love it. It's a South American real wool multi-coloured jumper and all I need to do is take it in with an overlocking machine. This jumper was my annual buy of a new item of clothing for me and it cost £30, which is a bloody fortune, and more than most of the rest of my wardrobe is worth.

The fact it didn't fit was absolutely irrelevant as it was the jumper I wanted, and still want, and will want every day of its life. However, if it fit, it would stop everyone else wingeing about the fact it's too big! And I would actually be happier if it fit me, not some 8ft gorilla in the Andes. Having been there, I can't possibly imagine who they knit it for! And yes, I did try putting it in the washing machine on a hot wash, and through the tumble dryer, and it is still gloriously too big!)

However, my trawl through the Freecycle archives did reveal that there are people on there who (seem to) just want, and people on there who offer. There are very few people who offer and want and give away items better, or better condition, than those they want.

So, tonight, I am wondering. Even in the fab world of Freecycle, is our grabbing, greedy culture still at work? Or do people find when they go to collect an item from a Freecycler that you come away with far more than you expected, and you end up giving these new friends items you don't need but they do?

Is the value of the network hidden?

Because the value I have had from Freecycle so far is far and away beyond what I had expected from an initial advert. The good feeling from giving is actually quadrupled when the person you are giving to suddenly gives something back, unexpectedly. Whether that is a glass of home brew, a promise of some apples later in the year, or 10 mins meeting their kids and a whole new family in your community, that giving from then, unasked for and unexpected, adds the hidden value of the network.

If you could capitalise on it, IMHO, you would break it, because you would break huamn nature. But if you could bottle it, pwoo-ee! I think you'd have something. Watch out for my next ads on Ebay!

Joking aside, I think the real value of networks is in the hidden intricacies of such networks, the little asides that human nature can add. And I think this ties in to my Mechanical Turk post on the Web PR blog yesterday. In a mechanised world, there will always be the 'human touch' that adds a spark, an incandescence, a passion to everything.

And long may it reign!

Let them take, let them give, let me meet the ones who have what I need, and take away what I don't. The trusted and untrustworthy, The friendly, the needy. And Pan, give me an overlocking machine so I can enjoy my jumper to the full!