Permeate. Stolidity. Manse. Churl. If you know what those words mean, you could be helping the United Nations end world hunger.

No, they’re not on some standardized test that UNICEF and Greenpeace members have to take. They’re part of a game – specifically, the vocabulary knowledge game at FreeRice.com, a philanthropic Web site run by the United Nations.

The idea driving FreeRice is surprisingly one of the most hated concepts on the Internet: advertising. This makes it free for anyone to play and ‘donate’ money, and pretty cheap for the United Nations to maintain as well.

But first, the game itself. It’s addictive. Really addictive, even if you hate the English language. You can’t win or lose, but for some reason, it’s still easy to lose yourself for hours.

It works like this: You are presented with one word and four possible one- to two-word definitions for it. If you select the correct definition (the definitions for the first four words of this article, by the way are: ‘spread through,’ ‘impassiveness,’ ‘residence’ and ‘boor,’ in that order), you move on to the next word and 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations to be distributed to those in need. If you get it wrong, you move to the next word, but no donation is made.

Now the astute reader at this point is wondering where those 10 grains came from and is probably questioning the usefulness of a paltry 10-grain donation. Just wait, my friend – I’m getting to that.

Back to the advertising I mentioned before. Internet ads generate money through page views and ‘click-throughs.’ Every time a page is loaded with an ad on it, that generates money, and every time it is clicked on, it makes more money. On FreeRice.com, every successive word loads a new page, meaning the ad makes more money. As you choose correct definitions, you see different ads (they are subtle, often Apple, Time Life and Office Depot ads), which makes more money for the Web site, which in turn pays for the rice.

The rice – as a side note – appears satisfyingly in a bowl to the left of your game every time you get a question correct.

So, through the power of outsourcing this to the Internet crowd (Click here to view the article), FreeRice.com is getting a ton of clicks, a ton of ad revenue and a ton of rice for the impoverished. Everyone wins! Is it cheating the system? Yes. Is it totally worth it? Also yes.

FreeRice.com is the perfect model for how online philanthropies and actual fundraisers should work. It’s fun, educational and somehow manages to not be painful. It’s free, and it benefits all of those involved.

AJ Chavar is editor in chief of The Daily Orange and is so sorry to Andy that he still doesn’t respect deadlines. Also, one time he found $10. Email him at ajchavar@syr.edu.

Published on November 13, 2007 at 12:00 pm