Random Postcards from Around the World: Postcrossing!

I love it when a fun idea actually works and is free to boot!

An email from Brenda, an enthusiastic member, alerted me to the Postcrossing.com web site and I must admit I was a bit skeptical at first. Postcrossing is a free project for folks who want to collect and exchange (paper, not electronic) postcards. Just how well could something like this work and is it really free?

Okay, it's not completely free, if you want a card -- you have to send one, so you do have the cost of purchasing and mailing a postcard from your corner of the world. But it's easy and lots of fun!

The idea is simple.

• Register at the Postcrossing.com web site and request up to five addresses.
• Send the cards with a unique "number code" that is assigned to each card.
• When the recipient receives your postcard, they register it on Postcrossing, at which time your name is then put on the list and given out in turn to the next person requesting addresses.
• And so it goes, send a card, get a card, register it, request another address.

Of course I decided to try it out. I registered and sent a card to Finland, several weeks later my mailbox had a card from Lisbon, Portugal! That's the fun part, getting cards from such random places. I'm also in for another round and have sent cards to Finland, Spain, Thailand, England and Estonia. Now I'm watching the mailbox to see what countries show up next.

I've been amazed at how computer-friendly the web site is to use, how quickly emails are received and the stats available. After logging in, you can view a history map of where your cards have traveled, the folks you've corresponded with, the time it took for the cards to be sent and registered, as well as participate in very active forums.

With over 25,000 users registered from 144 countries, the Postcrossing project has been responsible for over 500,000 thousands cards sent, received and registered. And that number doesn't count the cards not sent through the system, but through the forums or sent directly to those who have sent you a card.

The Beginning
The site was launched on July 14, 2005 and founder Paulo Magalhães says it started very small. Starting out was mostly word of mouth, but there was some attention from the media, then all of a sudden it was hit with big wave of people joining. Paulo relates that when BBC did a review of Postcrossing, the site was still in a server in his coat closet at home! It was really a "garage project" and it's hard for him to believe how large Postcrossing has grown. Today, on average, one postcard per minute is received somewhere due to Postcrossing.

I asked Paulo what gave him the idea for the project. He said it was simple, he loved to receive mail, especially postcards. Since he was tired of getting junk mail he thought it would be nice to receive postcards from someone random and he was willing to send cards, if he also received them. It took him a while to develop the program, since he was also juggling his time with finishing school, but after six months it was a go.

Paulo is able to keep the service free for users by running his own server and doing the coding himself. Although there are some costs involved, those are covered by donations and a few advertisements on the web site.

Ages of Users?
The policy is anyone can participate, no matter what age. Paulo said "My policy in Postcrossing is the one I believe is the correct for any online web site: parents are responsible for their kids online browsing. That said, I believe Postcrossing is safe for children to join and there are a few which participate, commonly with the help of their parents." In fact many school classes (especially English and geography classes) have joined with the teachers helping students join the web site to receive and send postcards from all over the world.

Paulo says users come from all ages, "from the 60-70 year old grandmother to the American soldier in the middle east. If I had to point to a trend, I would say there is two big groups: the young who are looking for friends abroad and to find more about other countries, and users who are retired or close to retiring, those who would like to have traveled more during their lives."

What's in the future?
The site is being remodeled, although it's going slowly at the present time since Paulo also holds down a full time job. The new version will have an easier platform for new features, as the initial site was designed to be small and just grew too much and too fast.

Another goal -- Paulo would also like to have users in all countries of the world!