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Gift Economies

Really, Really Free Markets, Free Stores and others

A gift economy is one where goods and services are given away for free without expectation for compensation. By definition, compensation should not exist; however, some who participate in gift economies may expect compensation through some kind of reciprocal exchange. Others simply want the idea of giving to spread. Some gift economies require that if you take something from the pool then you leave something for someone else. This way the gift has a feed-forward effect. (Geocaching is a well-known example)

Gift economies have been created for a variety of reasons including anti-consumerist idealism, anti-currency philosophies, and "green," save-the-earth movements. And some people just enjoy giving to others.

A number of gift economies are described on ActuallyFree.info. The classified ads page lists sites like Craigslist.org. These sites offer free classified ads services online. They often have a category for free stuff where people post ads to give away items for free. The reuse and sharing sites page lists websites similar to Freecycle.org. Freecycle.org is a network of Yahoo! groups where people give and get items in order to avoid letting those items end up in a landfill. The free software page lists software that have been created by programmers simply to help others. The software was given a specific license that leaves it open for other programmers who want to improve it and pass it along. The Creative Commons is essentially a gift economy applied to education and intellectual property.

A couple of free gift economies which are growing in popularity are "Really, Really Free Markets" and "Free Stores". These are market places where the items and services are given away for free. They are sometimes privately funded, hobbies and/or events to promote gift economy ideas and community unity.

Gift Economies Directory

• Really, Really Free Markets
• Free Stores
• Feed-Forward Gift Economies, like geocaching (trading with style)
• Online Gift Economies
  

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