FreeIT - Stafford.

FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks for the add, I'm here to tell you about Free-IT, collecting redundant IT equipment and redistributing for free according to the needs of the community, through a team made up of voluntary IT, education, and community professionals.
This is a very new project, please contact the page if you have surplus equipment you wish to donate or if you can offer some time to help.

www.freeitstafford.org
https://www.facebook.com/FreeITstafford
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I donated a lot of my old kit last year to somewhere else, but if I have more I'll be in touch.

Does it matter how old? What it is? Or do you just take everything in the hope you can make useful things out of it?
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
My prior career was with Signposts doing exactly this, so it may be that you donated there? I was doing a lot of publicity for that project. Sadly Signposts closed and I've been twiddling my thumbs for 3 months wondering what the hell to do with my life. I got bored and then home schooling happened so I asked around a few friends to see what they had laying around, next thing I know I'm charging my phone 4 times a day, my house looks like PC world, and the interest is gradually creeping across the entire county.

I'll be employing the same disposal / refurbishment processes as I would have used before. One revenue stream (or at least a means to buy parts when there is no choice but to pay) is from the trade of precious metals, there is salvageable copper and gold in all devices which although not in great quantities individually, can soon add up to be enough for those elusive or expensive parts, I'm thinking to buy batteries, screens, that sort of thing. Ultimately in some small way a device which was going to head to the tip anyway can be made use of before it gets thrown away. Anything surplus will be separated by material and ethically disposed.
That is however a last resort, my aim is to make working use of as much as possible. Older laptops for example might not be capable of anything more intensive than Windows XP, but many will quite happily run Android, so that makes a working laptop with an operating system that kids are familiar with. This in turn is intended to give to younger ones, to perhaps free up a family laptop that is shared by many, and additionally wouldn't matter so much if it got damaged as it would the family laptop. Again, in some small way this aids the cause, nothing will be wasted.

Thanks for your support :)
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
I bring news of progress
1f642.png

...
There's a little fine tuning to carry out yet but our team at Gnosall Parish Council has been liaising with a local primary school (one of many to come) and we're in process of arranging distribution of the first stack of donations to go to them
1f642.png

We will let you all know as soon as that is finalised, we'll publicise the school name and echo any of their information posts and application procedures
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...
We've also been in talks with local businesses. One has offered to be a donation point, although there's some discussion still to be done, and another has offered to provide us with a heap of brand new replacement parts.
If you represent or know of a local firm who would like to be involved in some way, please drop us a line
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I know Stone Computers take back all the old kit from the college as part of the waste electrical agreement, guessing they sell it on again though?
 
Glam

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
tek-monkey said:
I know Stone Computers take back all the old kit from the college as part of the waste electrical agreement, guessing they sell it on again though?
Click to expand...
They have a massive EBay part. Make more money through that than the recycling bit.
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Stone group are here to profit from refurbishment.. I'm not :) There's in fact a team of 7 of us behind the scenes carrying out the tech work and the co-ordination with schools, none of us want paying :)
No disrespect intended towards Stone group, it's business I know, but my aim from the outset was to cater for those who have no money, and putting as little as a 1p price tag on any kit that goes out the door would defeat the "free IT" ethos :)
Even if I can raise a few quid from the scrap copper it will literally only be a few quid and that will go back into buying parts and consumables.
Somebody has suggested creating an Amazon wish list for spare parts but at the moment I only need quite niche items that really can only be found second hand, usually on fleabay. Plastic bezels, backlight inverters, that sort of thing.
That said, if anyone would like to contribute towards consumables, these are some of the things that I'm rapidly running out of...
-Isopropyl alcohol cleaner
-Antistatic foam cleaner
-Air duster
-Thermal paste
-Coin cell batteries
-USB Wi-Fi dongles
 
Glam

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
FreeITstafford said:
Stone group are here to profit from refurbishment.. I'm not :) There's in fact a team of 7 of us behind the scenes carrying out the tech work and the co-ordination with schools, none of us want paying :)
No disrespect intended towards Stone group, it's business I know, but my aim from the outset was to cater for those who have no money, and putting as little as a 1p price tag on any kit that goes out the door would defeat the "free IT" ethos :)
Even if I can raise a few quid from the scrap copper it will literally only be a few quid and that will go back into buying parts and consumables.
Somebody has suggested creating an Amazon wish list for spare parts but at the moment I only need quite niche items that really can only be found second hand, usually on fleabay. Plastic bezels, backlight inverters, that sort of thing.
That said, if anyone would like to contribute towards consumables, these are some of the things that I'm rapidly running out of...
-Isopropyl alcohol cleaner
-Antistatic foam cleaner
-Air duster
-Thermal paste
-Coin cell batteries
-USB Wi-Fi dongles
Click to expand...
Do you have a paypal account we could donate to?
Or is there any chance of using Amazon Smile, like I did for signposts?
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
No there's nothing like that yet, I'd imagine any immediate fund raising or financial affairs eg from cash donation, will be organised via Gnosall Parish, who are dealing with the majority of the admin work at the moment, my role as "freeIT" is delegating the tech side of things. We kind of roped each other into co-ordinating the two sides of the project as we'd all had the same idea but had different skill sets.
Although this all depends on the future of lockdowns, at some point demand will slow down and Gnosall Parish have many other things to do after that, whereas I don't, so I'll be picking up much of that admin work myself once there's a bit less flow and a bit more time to apply myself to that. Even after this particular project is over, my intent is for "freeIT" to continue on.
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Tech question if anyone's in the know..
Does this forum have an API which I can tap to post threads or replies? Eg if I wanted to address this thread to give regular updates, I'm looking at using something like IFTTT to pick up my facebook posts, so that I can echo onto my web page, mailing list, perhaps a twatter feed, and of course to here.
IFTTT does give access to some rudimentary web hooks if I can use those somehow with XenForo?
I note there is a REST API available for the XenForo installation but that's geared for the admin panel.

(edit) I've seen a few posts explaining how to integrate XenForo with IFTTT, by subscribing to a subforum to email me when new posts are available, then having IFTTT watch those mails for key words, that's grand for catching posts asking for information, which would make those a priority for me to deal with, but I'm looking to work in the other direction and not have to open each platform to copy/paste a generic progress update or the like
 
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FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Before a device is reallocated we like to be able to provide all of its original accessories to the end user, plus any nice additions like a padded case or wireless peripherals.
Can I ask you all to check your junk drawers for any laptop or tablet PC chargers, wall plugs, USB cables, weird adapters that never got used, earphones (preferably unused), etc that you might have surplus?
Similarly, we're modernising devices as best as possible but updating internal parts on tablet PC's requires specialist kit that we don't have. As such we're keen to accept your unused "SD" or "mini-SD" cards to offer as a rudimentary storage upgrade for less capable devices.
Those can be dropped to any of our donation points
1f642.png
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Very happy to now be working with Eccleshall Rugby Club Juniors, who are currently providing refurbished donations to Graham Balfour school.
They will be providing us with any devices which aren't immediately suitable for high school students, as we can repurpose those to be ideal for younger generations.
Please take a look at their appeal: https://eccleshallrufc.rfu.club/new...iqdW6LgQ6iCYC0KX06hqm9gfxN5mKMOpm8kJWWUMSy6MA
 
FreeITstafford

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
At the moment even having a working account would be a prize in itself. Twatter has locked me out because I can't confirm a mobile number. I have one, but it's linked to my personal Twatter.
Short of roping in a mate or the old dears, or bloody paying for an extra sim, is there a way around that anyone knows of?
I've tried one of those "disposable number" websites but they get blacklisted almost as soon as they appear
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
proactive said:
Though there may be the odd negative connotation using that...
Click to expand...
Well, yeah, but it might get more than just the two of us following it.

I'm actually quite attracted by the "unusual activity" warning when I look at it to see who has joined the exclusive club.

Unless we are the "unusual activity"...
 
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