Trends and Attributes

If you have a idea that you want incorporated into Free Geek's long term plan, please look through these lists of trends and attributes to see how they may affect your idea.

External Trends

External trends are things that are happening outside of Free Geek that we think are likely to affect us in a significant way. When creating a goal page for Free Geek's Long Term Strategy Process, these will likely show up as opportunities or threats relating to the goal. Ideally items on this list are linked to pages that explain the item a bit more.

• ewaste legislation
• basel action network (BAN Pledge)
• change in tech:
  • desktop -> laptops
  • CRT -> LCD
  • Printers -> AllInOnes
  • PDAs and phones
  • wifi
• more corporate donations
• more free geeks. See Propagation
• more groups calling themselves Free Geek when they probably shouldn't. See Free Geek Certification
• more recycling competition
• continued growth
• flattening growth
• increasing cost of transportation
• more and better FS/OSS

Internal Attributes

Internal attributes are characteristics of Free Geek that we think may be significant when setting goals. When creating a goal page for Free Geek's Long Term Strategy Process, these will likely show up as strengths or weaknesses relating to the goal. Some items on this list may need explanation and if so they should be linked to pages that explain the item a bit more.

• messy (getting better?)
• increasing benefits for staff
• two strong programs
• constant flow of volunteers
• diverse income stream
• gobs of hardware
• crappy project management skills
• could be better at customer service:
  • store
  • receiving/donations
  • tech support
• volunteer management issues (good and bad)
• growth in paid staff
• FS/OSS community involvement
• solid core of volunteers