FreeRice

Infobox Website
name=FreeRice
logo=


caption=Typical screenshot of the game, showing how much rice has been donated
url=http://www.freerice.com/
commercial=No
type=Charity, click-to-donate site
current status=Active
owner= John Breen
author=John Breen

FreeRice is a charity website where users play a various educational multiple-choice games in order to raise money to fight world hunger. The games include chemistry (basic and intermediate), multiplication tables, English vocabulary (the game the site began with), English grammar, basic foreign language vocabulary for English speakers (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), geography (world capitals and country identification), and art.

ite operation

FreeRice began on October 7, 2007. It was created by John Breen, a computer programmer from Bloomington, Indiana, who also created thehungersite.com, therainforestsite.com and Poverty.com. Breen invented the site, and typed in all 10,000 definitions after watching his son study for the SAT. cite news|accessdate=2007-11-12|publisher=Washington Post|title=What's the Word? We Can Help Feed the Hungry|date=2007-11-04|author=Joe Heim|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR2007110102111.html] Currently, for every vocabulary answered correctly, twenty grains of rice are donated to impoverished areas of the world. It is considered an extremely remarkable event when entire school classes use the site for extended periods of time.

Game format

Visitors to the website are presented with a word and four definitions. If a user selects the correct definition, FreeRice.com donates 20 grains of rice through to the United Nations. Another word is then presented. Special graphics symbolizing 100 and 1,000 grains of rice are displayed on a graphical tally if the player's total reaches these numbers. Various landmarks are represented with different messages of encouragement such as: "You have donated 10,000 grains of rice. Wow! Now THAT is impressive!" After the 10,000th grain is donated, and after 20,000 grains, "You have donated 20,000 grains of rice. Wow! We're speechless!" After every ten thousand grains, the message "Wow! We're STILL speechless!" will appear. The last message of encouragement appears when you reach 100,000: "You have donated 100,000 grains of rice. May you have a lifetime of happiness..." and then the donation comes back at 0 grains.

In the English vocabulary subject area the difficulty of each displayed word is measured from 1 (easy) to 60 (very hard). The game begins with four introductory definitions to set an initial vocabulary level. From the fifth question onward, three consecutive correct responses raise the difficulty level by one. Every incorrect answer lowers the level by one. Users can play for as long as they wish. The game determines difficulty level dynamically by analyzing the results from all users' game play.

A speaker icon has been added to each definition to provide an audio pronunciation of the word.

ubjects

Although english vocabulary is the original and default subject, players may choose from different subjects; including mathematics, chemistry, geography, art, and foreign languages (French, Spanish, Italian and German). The maximimum level of difficulty varies between subjects based on the number of entries in the subject. Fact|date=October 2008

ustenance

In exchange for advertisements on the website, various sponsors donate the money necessary to pay for the rice and other costs to run FreeRice. The donations are distributed by the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), starting with Bangladesh in early 2008. By this time, the site's creator had given over $213,000 to the WFP which encourages people to visit FreeRice.com. [http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=148&Key=193 FreeRice in WFP's video log] (accessed on February 7, 2008).] On 20 November the WFP launched a campaign to 'feed a child for Thanksgiving'. [cite web|url=http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2695|title=Feed a child for Thanksgiving]

Effectiveness

One month after the inception of the viral marketing program, users had earned enough points for one billion grains of rice. The United Nation's World Food Programme stated that this amount could feed 50,000 people for one day. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7088447.stm|title=Web game provides rice for hungry|date=2007-11-10|publisher=BBC News] Thus, approximately 20,000 grains of rice provide enough caloric intake to sustain an adult for one day. Using this calculation, enough rice is donated to feed about 7,000 people daily.cite news|accessdate=2008-03-28|title=Total Donations By Date|url=http://freerice.com/totals.php] In its first six months of operation, FreeRice donated over 42 billion grains of rice.

Awards

Yahoo! Pick of the Year 2007 - Charity Category - Winner [http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/finds2007/charity/ Find of the Year 2007, Category Charity] (accessed on February 7, 2008).]

Berkman Award to Freerice.com creator -- John Breen was recognized with a Berkman Award for creating FreeRice.com on May 16, 2008, at the Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s tenth anniversary gala dinner, recipients of the Berkman Awards were chosen for their outstanding contributions to the Internet’s impact on society over the past decade.

Monthly Count

Milestones

* October 7, 2007 - FreeRice launches with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day
* November 10, 2007 - FreeRice breaks the one-day 100,000,000-grain milestone with 122,377,240 donated grains
* November 28, 2007 - With continued sponsor support, FreeRice doubles the number of grains donated for each correct definition from 10 to 20.
* December 17, 2007 - FreeRice breaks the one-day 300,000,000-grain milestone with 358,559,540 donated grains
* December 19, 2007 - 10 billion grains donated in total
* January 20, 2008 - 15 billion grains donated in total
* February 25, 2008 - 20 billion grains donated in total
* April 2, 2008 - 25 billion grains donated in total
* April 30, 2008 - 30 billion grains donated in total
* May 30, 2008 - 35 billion grains donated in total
* July 29, 2008 - 40 billion grains donated in total
* September 29, 2008 - 45 billion grains donated in total

References

External links

* [http://www.freerice.com/index.php FreeRice]
* [http://www.freerice.com/totals.php FreeRice Donation Totals]
* [http://www.wfp.org/how_to_help/Ways_to_Donate/freerice.asp?section=4 WFP on FreeRice]
* [http://www.thehungersite.com The Hunger Site]
* [http://www.poverty.com Poverty.com]
* [http://www.tektalk.cn Tektalk Magazine] A Chinese Online Magazine that donates rice to WFP for every visit
* [http://www.friendsofwfp.org Friends of the World Food Program]
* [http://dailycow.org/node/207 Is FreeRice a Scam?]