The Freeconomy Community gets people exchanging skills - simply for the love of sharing!

Freeconomy is about sharing the skills you’ve learnt and learning those you haven’t. By mapping other members who are within 10 miles it makes it easy for members to locate one another in their communities and means that people develop new relationships with people who live near them. It has over 5,000 members and there are over 1,000 vetted skills and over 700 types of tools on the site. No money changes hands for this skills exchange as people share simply for the love of it!

We asked Mark Boyle, who set up Freeconomy, to tell us a bit about himself:

“My passion in life is to use the power of sharing to simultaneously re-build local communities AND reduce waste. After completing a Degree in Business and spending 6 years in the organic food industry, I decided to follow my dream and vision. So in the middle of last year I sold my beloved houseboat to finance the setting up of ‘The Freeconomy Community’, a new project whose raison d’etre is to take the problems the world faces today and turn them into opportunities. With over 6,400 members and hundreds joining every week, this thankfully seems to have taken over my life!”

The Freeconomy Community won the People’s Choice Award in the 2008 UK Catalyst Awards. Find out about the 2009 UK Catalyst Awards.