The idea behind Freecycle is sound. It’s an online forum where people can give away unwanted items and not dump them in a landfill site. There are local Freecycles around the world – I’ve used one in Auckland, New Zealand.

In my case, I’ve listed items I no longer need in the forum. People who want the items email their interest, arrange a meet up and the item is then given away. There’s an alternative approach where people who need things can ask for them.

It sounds simple enough and I’ve used it to unclutter my garage ahead of a house move, but I’ve run into a number of problems with Freecycle, which make me question its value.

Problem 1: Can’t be bothered. I’ve offered a number of items on Freecycle, had them requested and then found the person at the other end of the deal fails to pick up the item. I’m guess here that because an item is free, it has little perceived value by the recipient. Maybe there are other reasons. Either way, my first three forays into Freecycle resulted in people not picking up the items they had requested from me.

Problem 2: Slackness. This is closely related to problem 1. People make appointments to pick up items, I wait at home for them, they don’t turn up. Then they start to mess me around making more broken appointments etc. While I accept a little rescheduling is fine, we’re talking about people who constantly shuffle appointments. It’s rude and, from my point of view, costly.

Problem 3: Greed. I’ve noticed some of the people turning up to pick up items ask for more. In one case the picker-up wandered into my open garage asking if he could take items than were clearly not for recycling. This makes me uneasy with the process. I also don’t like it when I offer item X, and get tons of emails from people asking if I’ll also be giving away a loosely related item Y.

Problem 4: Inefficiency. When someone requests an item, I post a taken message on Freecycle. The matter should end there, but often emails pour in for days and weeks after, asking if the item is still available. Not taking notice of “Taken” posts is just plain rude.

Problem 5: Venality. Some of the stuff I’ve distributed via Freecycle has turned up for sale on TradeMe (if you’re outside New Zealand this is the local equivalent of eBay). On one level I don’t care when happens to the items I’ve given away. Once they’ve gone, they’ve gone. On the other hand, I suspect some Freecycle users are professional scavengers – which disturbs me. Apart from anything else this undermines the idealism of the project.

Have you run into problems with Freecycle? Or are you happy with it? I’d love to hear other people’s opinions.

My original New Zealand media people on Twitter list is still available on this site. It’s been updated many times with two new entries yesterday and four updates. If you think you should be on the list, or if you are on the list and think your entry needs to change, please get in touch.

In addition to the HTML list I’ve also created a Twitter list:@billbennettnz/new-zealand-media-people.

Everyone who is on the HTML list is now on the Twitter list.

According to overseas-based Kiwi blogger Cactus Kate a memo circulated to staff at the New Zealand Herald and other APN titles telling journalists to adopt a “more conservative editorial approach”. The memo, apparently sent to staff from the company’s Sydney headquarters follows a decision to cut the company’s budget for legal action and defence to zero.

According to Cactus Kate, APN instructed editors to spike any stories that could trigger legal action or are otherwise risky.

The New Zealand Herald has never been considered the nation’s hardest newspaper, but Cactus Kate’s APN Chicken Out says the company is no longer participating in ‘real media’.

This creates an enormous news gap in the nation’s largest city – one that television and radio seem equally unable to fill. Bloggers alone can’t fill the void left when a major newspaper decides not to do its job properly.

Update: If you are a journalist or have other relevant skills and would like to take part in a project to develop an online alternative to the Herald please get in touch.

I’m impressed with Windows 7. After running the beta for months I’ve discovered it’s everything Windows should be. Sure there are a few niggles – but that would be true of any plausible alternative.

I was so impressed I decided to buy the operating system upgrade. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Dick Smith lists the Windows 7 Ultimate and Professional upgrades at $499 each.

The price is ridiculous. The same Dick Smith has notebook computers with Windows 7 installed starting at $899 – that’s notebook not netbook.

OK. I understand the $899 might not ship with Windows 7 Professional – but that’s not the point. For just $400 more than the cost of a software upgrade I can have a spanking new, faster computer. The cheapest netbook on sale in New Zealand is $425 – just $25 more than the upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

If I got to Digital Shop I can buy a desktop for just $487.64 with Windows 7 Professional installed.

That’s right. In effect I can pay just $87.64 for a new computer. It’s not that bad either.

So here are my choices:

1. Buy a new PC with Windows 7 Professional. Throw my existing, perfectly serviceable machine into a landfill. Have a better computer experience but stop sleeping at night because I’m destroying the planet.

2. Revert to Vista or XP. This costs nothing – but will give me a slightly more annoying computer experience than at present.

3. Look once again at Linux.

What would you do?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Apple Bites Windows 7 (sitepoint.com)

Australian Reseller News, Computer Reseller News, New Zealand Reseller News and The Channel serve readers working at the sharp end of the information technology industry.

While many of the stories they cover are similar to those dealt with by other technology media, their specialised audience means the journalists need to filter information through a channel-oriented lens. In most cases this means asking “what does this mean for the channel” and sticking the answer at the top of the story.

Because people who sell or distribute technology read these titles, they are often slightly ahead of market trends. That’s because companies need to speak to resellers and distributors before speaking to the public.

When these publications work well, there’s a flinty realism to their approach. They tend to deal with the nuts and bolts of the business and not airey-fairy possibilities.

New Zealand’s The Channel is mainly advertorial – that is companies pay the publisher for stories written about their offerings. And all three other titles often run sign-posted advertising supplements – they also pad out local coverage with overseas stories of variable worth. Otherwise the publications are news-oriented.

You need to show the publishers of these titles you are a bone-fide computer industry person to get a subscription to the print publications, but all four run free access web sites.

Australian Reseller News

Computer Reseller News (Australia)

New Zealand Reseller News

The Channel (New Zealand)

Despite the global financial meltdown and widespread lay-offs, Australia still faces serious skills shortages. The obvious answer is to drag in workers with the right qualifications and experience from overseas.

It’s not hard to attract skilled people to Australia; from many places overseas it can almost look like a Shangri-la. However, the bureaucratic hoops are daunting and, technology skills requirements are a fast moving target so in many cases, by the time applications are processed, employers demands have changed. Read the rest of this entry »

By Bill Bennett

Australian and New Zealand employers are out of touch with reality according to a research carried out by Hudson, a recruitment company.

Those aren’t the words Hudson uses, but it’s what the company means. In Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn, Hudson says; “Employers consistently think their employees’ sentiment is twice as good as it is in reality”.

“In every aspect of current workplace sentiment, whether job satisfaction, motivation, morale, perceived stress levels or job security employers are clearly unaware of their employees’ frame of mind.”

Mark Steyn, CEO Hudson A/NZ.

Read the rest of this entry »

Google’s plan to steal author copyright is the flip side of New Zealand’s asymmetric copyright regime.

The Stuff.co.nz website has a story this morning saying New Zealand authors are angry about Google’s plans to scan and digitise their books.

This is perfectly understandable- as the author of a popular book I understand why they are upset. It seems odd the New Zealand government, like so many others, is happy to bend our laws and traditions to give extraordinary levels of copyright protection to the huge movie industry corporations, but is unwilling to stand up to Google when it wants to strip the rights of local copyright holders.

Could it possibly have anything to do with the local authors not being able to finance teams of expensive lawyers and political lobbyists?

Here’s the current state of play:

• A child in New Zealand downloads a movie from a huge multinational reducing its profits by a tiny amount – perhaps there’ll be one less caviar egg on the table at the next Hollywood indulge-fest. The child will lose its internet connection, pay a huge fine and could face a criminal record.
• A huge multinational can steal intellectual property from a New Zealand author, wiping out their livelihood and reducing our cultural treasures – Maori have a good name for it Taonga.

Does this add up? There’s something asymmetric going on here.

Authors are knowledge workers and deserve your support. You can read more here:

NZ authors protest Google book plan – technology | Stuff.co.nz.
The Great Google Book Grab
Google steals taonga, rips off law commissioners
New Zealand Society of Authors

Incidentally, if you’re an author with a taste for technology, you might like to include your name on the New Zealand media people on Twitter list.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Five things New Zealand’s copyright law rewrite must cover (arstechnica.com)