[I've copied this from my blog, here] So, a couple of months after resigning from CouchSurfing.com I’m ready to announce I’ve started my own project that I’m calling “share the love” (it’s a working name, but I like it so far).I like what BeWelcome.org is working on, but I figured that I had some ideas I wanted to try out that would mesh better in its own system.Here are a few of them:
- Network driven searching (people who are friends, or friends of friends show up in search results first).
- “Couchme” reserve couchsurfing (Ask someone to come stay on your couch).
- Tagging (more on this later).
I’m predicting critics will say that it will be difficult to compete with Couchsurfing.com because it has critical mass. That’s not really how I’m measuring success in this case; since my goal if more for people to download the software and run their own hospitality exchange networks. I’m planning some webservices-foo so that networks will be able to exchange information and search across each-others user base. Having a distributed system might help reduce some of big-brother problems I have with Couchsurfing.com (or about any other social network). You can check out the project here: Share the love.
Morgan,
every project or effort which promotes understanding and hospitality between individuals or communities should be considered a great effort. Sometimes, however, things move faster if you share the work, the motivation, the network with people who head in the same direction.
I want to invite you to not only have a closer look at BeWelcome and how it works, read the many documents we provide under http://www.bevolunteer.org, especially the BeVolunteer concept.
We are at a stage where many things can be realised, many ideas implemented. Your are more than welcome to share your ideas with us – if you want.
Contact me for any questions or suggestions you have.
All the best,
Florian
I forgot: BeWelcome works under a GPL – open source policy. This is the least we want to offer our volunteer specialists!
Florian,
Thanks for the offer. I like what BeWelcome has to offer, and you’ll see the occasional patch from me.
I’ve updated why I’m working on Share the Love (now Crash at mine) here:
http://mtocker.livejournal.com/28700.html