Hosp.Ex Ne>t - past & future... (HospitalityGuide.net - Site / Forum)
posted by 'lex
, 05.05.2008, 20:38
(edited by 'lex on 06.05.2008, 14:04)
There is currently the discussion that HospEx Ne>t could work together with OpenCouchSurfing... here are some thoughts about this issue on this from my side... I wrote a few more lines about this and wrote about the idea about Hosp.Ex Ne>t in general, maybe interesting......
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Hello,
sorry, it took a while as I was quite busy and did only react on daily things. Today, I have some time and a thought about this.
Callum, thanks for your thoughts and insight which I highly appreciated while reading the postings you make as well here in this issue.
It is true I do post HospitalityGuide (HospEx Ne>t), lately, in a dogmatic and also self-ironic way. It might come trough the fact that I am a bit tired of going in on every argument and proving the fact that the page does make sense. It might also result (unintendedly) through the general fashion posts on OCS are recently conducted (my perception). Belief me, I would love to promote HospEx Ne>t in the way I did with my post that questioned a bit the whole idea behind the concept at all. Maybe it is worth to write again a couple of more words about this and things I think that might be connected to this...
Social categorization (/social identity), prejudice, conflicts and the role of a common goal are the main thoughts that I have when it comes when we talk about hospitality exchange and the novel aims behind this. However, also when we talk about the HC and BW, CS and OCS and all the other conflicts that are related to this. People shared a common goal, worked together, the goal was lost and conflicts arose. Now, it is mostly driven by prejudice and mistrust. Nevertheless, I am sure that all of you might work together again towards a common goal. Even though there is quite a emotional level involved in this whole conflict (people feel betrayed). Sure, there is also a flip side of the coin, but this addresses largely things like ingroup favoring and motivation.
Regarding the level, but also see the discussions and disputes that are happening in a much wider context, they are nonessential. This feels a bit like the battle that is happing right now, even though not as significant, between Clinton and Obama, but happily we do have no McCain in this game. I would find it a pity if the democrats will lose their actually secure ticket because of this battle. I do not know if it is a good comparison, but do you get the point I want to make?
I think, all of use here – including you guys, but also Veit, Casey, Jimmy, Matthew, Valmi, Bret (and the other people that seem not to be open at all) and all the other hospitality exchange members – have more in common than a much larger rest out there. There are many people out there that do not know about the idea. And yes, people do make mistakes and they should acknowledged them (what does not happen in every climate).
Out there, there are many people that abuse this system of trust. The abuse right now are only the start and I am sure, that those will further increase together with the fame and spread of the networks. At the same time, there will also enter real commercial and profit driven players the market. CouchSurfing starts to create a million in income, I do wonder what somebody with this amount as a start off and more professional experience can do. It is arguable, if this would beneficial or harmful for the exchange idea behind it. I guess, when you see the additionally human connections and inter-human experiences that are created as a central point, this would be beneficial. However, when you see the idea of sharing, what every member does, also on the level of the organizational structure, as an example for an alternative to our current society, than this might be harmful.
I do think that it is possible to count the existing networks, their founders with their first ideas, visions and commitment and the majority of its current members that got infected by this idea as one of the first ones to the latter. Therefore, I do find it sometimes quite sorrowful about the issues we do talk about and we accuse. Sure, many issues have to be pointed out and it has to be talked about. But I do belief that this might be possible in a much more constructive way.
Right now the discussions have mostly the notions of a “we” vs. “them”, a “we” are better than “they” are (I love the Robbert's cave experiment, the randomly assigned boys that shouted to each other and the possibility to reduce this again, and all the studies that came thereafter and that showed the same). Statistics suggest that trust levels decreases as the community grows. Nevertheless, this might be a problem of all (fast growing) networks. But is this a real problem? It might be good to bundle our resources here in order to find the reasons and come to solutions. Right now, it has the strong notion of CouchSurfing mismanagement as the source (and the “we do it better”). Sure, they might have reacted in not the best way, made mistakes, but arguable they have no other chance then to react when put at the pillory in this way. Which in turn moves the spiral further...
Towards a common ans shared goal. I do think this has to happen without the destructive “we vs. them” notion as I think that there is not possible to accomplish much more with that. There is much that gets lost in an atmosphere of prejudice and blame, people do not want to listen. In the research field about the spread of ideas and knowledge is commonly agreed that they do spread in most cases much better within groups. The through OCS created “we vs. them” does have a negative effect, it even wides the gap, even though the initial idea was to show that the initiative came from within the community. The SHE conference sounds promising, but do you think somebody else then the people in favor will come there? Do you think under the current circumstances would a normal, but also self-critical, discussion be possible?
HospEx Ne>t ideal would be to propose, next to the networks overview and news, the position that we work all work towards a common and shared goal, the idea of hospitality exchange. A through all networks shared and common goal does diminish the differences, the “we vs. them” and makes it difficult to argue against evaluations of the networks and there out resulting ideas and suggestions.
I do not want propose HospEx Ne>t in a dogmatic way and I do hope my thoughts gave a bit more insight to this. Some people might agree with this view point, other might find it bullshit. However, for the above reasons, I do not want to just give it up or integrate it into OCS (what the actual proposal comes down on). I do think that quite some of this essence can be lost through this. With the same thoughts I do accompany Kaspers words, words that have a touch of 'take it or leave it, we (I?) gonna make it here myself anyway (as I like it)'. In my eyes this is a sign that not much of the basic idea is understood and I also do sense other competitive notions. Nevertheless, I do acknowledged that I do not have the time and passion (anymore), but also not the skills promote this vision further. I do not much care about status and power in the long run, however, I am happy when my ideas (especially this on) do live on (as everybody is about his ideas). Therefore, I do have no problem to give it completely out of my hands, but in a way that those key thoughts remain and, eventually, will be developed further.
I do think that here are quite some people that do care about hospitality exchange and do have the time, passion and skills to combine the efforts towards such a common goal. I do think that when some people of those will start, the others will follow. Some people from the group here have already since quite a while access to the Wiki and to the server, I do not have a problem to give the access to more (as long as it is balanced). Further, I would not have any problems in passing the whole project on when the core ideas will be preserved. However, I am less over enthusiastic and became a bit pragmatic during the last years, therefore, I prefer to see actions by others first before I start to move as most of the times people do not make much out of their intentions.
What do you guys think does make sense and how to realize this best?
Best regards,
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