http://www.opencouchsurfing.org The campaign for a truly open CouchSurfing organisation Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:53:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I just read midsch's posting about his helplessness in the hospitality exchange scene... He described the different situations quite good. However, my view on it and the possibilities connected to it are not as dark than his are... It does not matter if CouchSurfing, HospitalityClub, GlobalFreeLoaders, BeWelcome... hospitality exchange pages have ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/11/10/drupal-communities-meet-real-life/ If I read the 2008 CouchSurfing Inc finances (citation) correctly, CS Inc is on track for income in excess of $600'000 USD this year. Contributed support for 1 Jan - 31 Mar is listed as $155,616.73. Web/ Internet/ Host Fees - $ 2,960.59 Telephone & telecommunications - $ 2,208.03 Equip rental & maintenance ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/30/cs-inc-600k-revenue-in-2008/ Short and cynical comments on some could-be-existing networks: * Caseysurfing.com - Easygoing consumerfriendly network run by a bunchfull of burning men buddies with no strategy for the future at all. As they eat up an amazing amount of donations and the market for virtual social networks collapses with the international cashflow ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/25/quo-vadis-hospex/ Future of Hospex in Couple Wang’s eys What would you like to see the future of Hospitality Exchange Network ? Scenerio 1. CS have a lion’s share,say take 70% market BW,HC,GF,SERVAS,www.huzhuyou.com and others have the rest 30% CS do what ever they want members without verifed and donation can’t a. see the whole group members,(you want to ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/24/future-of-hospex-in-couple-wang%e2%80%99s-eys/ With CS getting more mainstream day by day, the culture of hosting might also be changing. Christopher Culver raises this interesting issue on the hitchhiking forum on Couchsurfing. "Does anyone else get the impression that the CS hosting community is becoming less friendly to hitchhikers? I was shocked when two ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/22/the-couchsurfing-culture-of-party-hosting/ Have you always wanted to be a "Ambassador Management Coordinator" or "Safety Systems Coordinator" for CouchSurfing? Now you can! CS published their "career openings", or "couchsurfing careers". Since these openings are not even linked from anywhere on the CS-website yet, you might stand a fairly good chance (it got posted!) ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/15/a-couchsurfing-career-life-with-benefits-that-money-cant-buy/ There is a hidden feature in CS, about what few people know. No official documentation, except this page: http://wiki.couchsurfing.com/en/Stealth When a member get "stealthed" he can't be found with the CouchSearch but just trough friend links or group links. If he writes a message, it goes nowehere and it's never received by its recipient. Sometimes ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/04/hidden-cs-features-stealthing-members/ Pickwick raises some interesting questions and answers them: With hesitation I take on the task of writing a summary with my view on legal and financial issues, because I'd rather do something more pleasant on this public holiday in Germany. I'll try to be brief, and I won't bother with lots ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/03/legal-and-financial-status-pickwicks-questions/ "I live at the CouchSurfing Base Camp with 14 other people in the heart of downtown Berkeley. It's close to lot's of great food, shopping, entertainment, and student life. I'm still just learning about Berkeley myself. Base Camp is busy day and night as the home and office for much ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/10/01/couchsurfing-base-camp/ A lot of the stuff BW is based on (money, texts, layout - see above) was taken away from HC and HC volunteers who worked on it for a long time without their permission. We will try to bring this stuff home and reunite the community. Since BW advertises having ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/09/28/project-reuniting-the-community/ This blog is mostly run by BW-lovers with a clear agenda (make CS and HC look bad so their "oh-so-moral" alternative looks attractive). For all others, who still have a somewhat open mind and don't fall so easily for Kasper & Co's constant propaganda, here a link to our side ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/09/26/wwwbewelcomeinfo-the-real-background/ Good news for all CouchSurfing volunteers who signed the non-disclosure agreement: the California Supreme Court rejects noncompete clauses.  Since it seems as if the organization has moved on to San Francisco it would be even harder to enforce anyone breaking the non-compete clause, although Matt Whatley seems to have been ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/08/09/california-supreme-court-rejects-noncompete-clauses/ No more extremes? CS updated their reference system, following examples by other hospitality networks. This is not the only change that had been implemented during the latest Alaska CS collective. In fact, a whole lot of bugs have been tackled [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ]. Weird though that, ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/08/06/exit-extremely-positive/ Trent Collins writes in the brainstorm group link Hi Guys, The tech team migrated the messages off of the main server in the last few days to lighten the load further and so that glitch may have been part of that migration. I've just got back online after a few days holiday ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/07/03/disinformation-by-the-middle-man/ What is important spin or real communication ? You decide link MANDIE M We have had some unexpected time pressures on communications team this week, which involves the tech team news release and a press release being launched about CouchSurfing surpassing 1 million positive experiences, which are currently taking priority. This safety news item ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/07/02/priorities-of-the-communication-team/ I was just reading about BlueHat and snyder The Blue Hat program, which opened communications between Microsoft developers and outside security researchers. Previously, Microsoft was loath to share technical information with those outside of its Redmond, Wash., headquarters. BlueHat is an internal Microsoft event, where Microsoft employees and executives learn from top ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/30/bluehat-if-microsoft-can-change-can/ Virtual Communities with virtual badges . It sounds like the game of army which kids play . "We are the general's (LT) you are the soldiers(ambassadors) you need to protect the our turf (the world)." Ambassadors are CouchSurfing members who have applied for a special role within our community. The role of the ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/24/gods-in-the-vitrual-world-losers-in-the-real-world/ The Crossman game on the brainstorm group Patrick Ralph Crossman April 22nd, 2008 I just want to let you know that I have just made a substantial and detailed post in the global ambassador group (which includes the LT) in an effort to start a discussion on the member and volunteer issues ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/23/the-games-people-play-the-crossman-game-telephonypassing-the-buckstalling/ Our Alaska mirror blog has ruffled some feathers. Somebody changed the CouchSurfing blog feed. Instead of the whole post being included in the feed, now only the excerpt is included. So anyone reading the blog in a feed reader has been highly inconvenienced. I'll bet some clever bod thought this would ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/19/dictatorship-0-pirates-1/ As per my proposal I've installed a blog which syndicates content from the Alaska collective blog but allows comments. www.OpenCouchSurfing.org/alaska I've installed the WP-SpamFree plugin for WordPress and set very loose spam restrictions. Only posts with 4 or more links should be held for moderation. Otherwise, all comments that meet the WP-SpamFree ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/16/alaska-mirror-blog-is-live/ Scheduled downtime policy * <1 minute: Nothing else is required. * 1-4 minutes: Requires a "don't panic" email to key volunteers through the emergency response channel notifying what is going on. * 5-29 minutes: Requires at least 12 hours notice to the Tech Team, the Communications Team ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/12/couchsurfing-scheduled-downtime-policy/ Why would CS need someone able "to raise funds of more than $100.000"? Why was Matthew looking for someone with "demonstrated success in negotiating and managing corporate sponsorships" to participate with the collective in Alaska? The person who got the job, the new Fundraising Guru, wants "to engineer and implement a ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/10/managing-corporate-sponsorships/ "I hear servers and domain names are really expensive to maintain, and that some of the ones working on it, especially the full-time employees, are really hard-working, so deserve to be on a payroll. That fact is hard to disagree.. But at the same time, i wasn't happy to hear ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/10/2008-q1-finances/ This weekend the BeVolunteer General Assembly took place in Essen, Germany. Congratulations to the BV volunteers for their diligent efforts toward establishing the principles of openness, fairness and democracy in the hospitality community. The minutes of the Assembly are available here. Special congratulations to Thomas Goorden for his election to the ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/08/democracy-in-action/ Ever wondered what the ambassadors are upto? Making the world a better place? Yeah!! They are busy creating A Casey day oops i mean International Couchsurfing Day This is the brainchild of DJ AJAM from Manchester, United Kingdom They first planned to hold it on 2nd March which happened to be Caseys birthday. But ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/07/international-casey-day/ You can see Alaska Collective blog here and subscribe to the feed here. Unfortunately, comments are not allowed on the blog. To be more precise, you must be logged in to comment. But registration of new users is not allowed. So in effect, only those with permission can comment. Let's hope ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/06/02/alaska-blog-comments-not-allowed/ MANDIE M May 24th, 2008 - 5:17 am on this thread The blog is on its way. This is my second day at the Collective and I have to admit that I dropped the ball on getting the blog set up before my arrival. MANDIE M posts again on May 28th, 2008 - ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/05/31/communications-deception-or-concealment/ MOCK--TURTLE (Permalink) Finally: there was a post on the OpenCouchSurfing blog about CS Zones in the Collective report. OCS said they were giving the "real" facts about CS Zones - they actually got their facts completely wrong (in my opinion, anyway ;) ). The facts The groups CS Zone Managers on couchsurfing The ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/05/29/the-stalled-couchsurfing-zone-project/ People ask, how can they support OpenCouchSurfing? Likewise, I often meet people who support the ideals, but also want to support CouchSurfing. They might have paid for verification. They don't totally agree with the way CouchSurfing is run, but they want to support the organisation anyway. My idea is to offer ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/05/24/money-talks-creating-funds/ To be honest, the list of CSCT achievements confused the hell out of me. Instead of a report on which objectives were achieved through which actions, it's a huge list of "stuff that we've done". How does all this relate to any kind of overall plan? Was there even a ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/05/08/impressions-of-the-cs-thailand-achievements/ Snezana (Zhana) Vrangalova says she had the approval of a "CS administrators." to spam? all the groups on couchsurfing with her survey on couchsurfing, safety, and sexuality. Does the approval of one person make it right ? Also do you consider this spam ? is an inappropriate attempt to use email, ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/05/03/approval-to-spam/ Just to satisfy my curiosity; did any of the regular readers/posters of OCS receive this mysterious 'quarterly questionnaire' about CS QoS? Not trying to prove a conspiracy (yet, lol), but since no information about this is given on CS, it would be interesting to reconstruct the user pool it was ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/28/cs-quarterly-questionnaire/ Trust metrics are techniques for predicting how much a certain user can be trusted by the other users.CouchSurfing doesn't really have a prediction mechanism, but trust values are registered for every friendship link. I never thought the denominators for the trust value made a lot of sense for the friendship links ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/23/trust-decreasing-among-couchsurfers/ dawg, Argument By Selective Reading: making it seem as if the weakest of an opponent's arguments was the best he had. Suppose the opponent gave a strong argument X and also a weaker argument Y. Simply rebut Y and then say the opponent has made a weak case. This is a relative of ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/23/salary/ For those who read French, there's an interesting thread in the CS Group France, started by BINARY, who gives reasons for giving up his ambassador flag. I think it's good there are discussions in languages other than English.  Especially in France, where the existence of an official organization related (or not?) ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/22/why-im-leaving-the-organisation-of-city-ambassadors-in-france/ Happy birthday. Almost exactly a year ago, the OCS initiative was started. Initially, our hope was to entice the LT with concrete ideas and campaigns, to get them to address the various serious issues we had discovered at the heart of CS. Not much has changed however and most of the ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/17/happy-birthday/ She's the one that moves me! She is the one that takes me where I want to be! SHE found a church to share thoughts on sustainable hospitality exchange. The space SHE found is just awesome, it provides over 100 chairs, 7 tables, space for plenary sessions, space for workshops, ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/16/she-location/ http://www.couchsurfing.com/group_read.html?gid=7219&post=892839 http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/11/growing-ambassador-discontent/ Ermonnezza writes Interesting... a more obvious attempt to cover one's *ss would be hard to conceive. http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/07/couchsurfingcom-removed-from-archiveorg/ hi guys, there is this bad guy bouncing around our couches and taking things with him that doesn t belong to him.he is leaving behind empty pockets and broken hearts. I have researched his way around Europe and he has been doing this on CS since spring 2006. I will write ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/07/the-bad-guy-on-our-couches/ "Blocked Site Error. http://couchsurfing.com/ is not available in the Wayback Machine." http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/07/cs-blocked-on-archive-org/ Yeah! What about a conference on hospitality exchange, could we bring that about? A conference to share our experiences as volunteers, facilitators, organizers, hosts and guests? Let's say a conference where we can create new concepts of sustainable hospitality exchange (SHE) and to discuss how hospitality networks currently interact with ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/03/she-conference/ I was wondering whether anyone would think it a good idea to start a survey / series of surveys on aspect(s) of Couchsurfing.com. Surveymonkey and other websites offer easy-enough tools for that; it may be a constructive effort that we can make quite easily. Since my personal biggest frustration with CS ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/04/02/a-survey/ The following sounds familiar? It should, it's the couchsurfing leadership style! Take responsability (either assertively or, using the other CS-keyword, aggressively) Make promises. The less tangible or the more gratuitous, the better Silence the criticism when you don't live up to your promise (by adapting the ground rules; by moving the criticism; by ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/26/abandon-ship/ Following the recent idea to create elected ambassadors and my post about channelling our energy, I have an idea. I think the concept of elections are very powerful. While not a perfect mechanism, it is a good one. So I'm bouncing ideas around trying to figure out how we could ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/26/couchsurfing-member-council/ This site has become very active. There are a lot of people spending time and energy here. I would like to propose that we begin to channel that energy into proactive, positive action. I think the first step is to identify areas or projects which can make a positive difference to ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/26/channeling-our-energy/ I've been reading a (one-sided) article on Scientology. It struck me that there are some similarities between the methods employed by L Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, and Casey Fenton, co-founder of CouchSurfing. This might sound a little far fetched. I'd urge you to read the article and consider the ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/23/parrallels-between-couchsurfing-and-scientology/ Most readers here know that the famous MDST (Member Dementing & Sensorship Team) deletes threads for "security reasons". No, there are no security problems at CS. Never heard about thieves, molesters and similar stuff. Of course it's a stupid way to "clean" the community, but at least it helps to ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/21/security-through-lies/ I think there are quite a number of people that will agree with me that the way threads and posts are deleted from various CS groups, security is not increased in any way and in fact: it may have the opposite effect. Deleting posts from troublesome members or even about dangerous ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/20/a-simple-way-to-undo-censorship-and-thread-deletions-on-cs/ This document is created because the discussion about the relation between HospExchNetw and the real-live comes more and more into the focus. The question "So how can we reach the 5 billion people that have no computer?" rose in a discussion on the BeWelcome Forum and a post on the ... http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2008/03/16/hospitality-exchange-communities-and-real-life-campaings/