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Why is Laneo “Free” - 16 Aug 2007

I just came back from an hour long trail run and while I was out there, I ran into a friend who during our conversation asked me “Andrew, why did you choose to make joining Laneo a Free membership?”

So I came home and looked up the dictionary definition of “free” and here’s what I found:
a) “not subject to or constrained by engagements and obligations”
b) “using or expending something without restraint”
c) “so as to become available for a particular purpose”

When I decided to make Laneo memberships free, there were two opposite perspectives that I was battling. In today’s capitalist society, anything that is free is considered to be “bad” or “poor quality” or not really worth pursuing. Yet “why” should helping clean up our outdoors cost those who want to do it. There’s a lot of debate today on the subject of free in “business models”, “culture price” and “community expenses”. Some even argue that “price” is the only barrier to wastefulness, but I think it’s a lot simpler than everyone’s making it out to be.

Remember when you were a child and everything seemed so accessible? You went outside and you could basically go anywhere and do anything, for nothing. You could climb a tree, jump in a lake or run through a cornfield. Money was not an issue. It’s only when you grew up and society caught up with you that things started to cost money.

Today as adults, especially in big corporations, we turn everything into money. Products, services, people’s time and expertise, production, overhead, – it all has money attached to it. But things like family, friends, quality of your life, quality of your environment – no one can assign a monetary value to those things. They are beyond any price anyone could assign to them.

I made Laneo memberships free, so that the model could “free up” restrictions and fuel opportunities because I believe our environment is beyond price. If we destroy it, no amount of money we collect and leave to our kids, will ever enable them restore it.

Posted by: andrew
Tags: society, community