http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/ [Hosp.Ex Ne>t] Forum en Reply from helenaaa, 05.02.2009, 20:16:

Same problem. I am from Estonia and will be visiting Amsterdam in July. Is there someone who would like to host two young musicians for few nights in the beginning of July? (:

e-mail: hellukas10@hotmail.com]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=425 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:16:07 GMT Post by 'lex, 05.05.2008, 20:38:

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......


___
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,]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=418 Mon, 05 May 2008 20:38:50 GMT Post by paulle, 28.04.2008, 16:29:

Hello,

I am pretty new to this whole thing and have not tried it out, yet. I just wondered if you know what sort of people is using the networks? It does make the impression to me that there are travelers using the networks, but that there are also many local people using the networks (for what ever reasons). It seems as they try find people to hang out with or to make (new) friends. I did sign up for the first (on CouchSurfing) and do find the invitations to the local meetings quite annoying. Maybe it is just me. Do you know if all the networks are the same or are there differences?

Thank you very much for your responses.

Best wishes,
Paul]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=417 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:29:42 GMT Post by 'lex, 06.04.2008, 12:14:

BeWelcome starts slowly to take off... at least that is what Alexa data can suggest [1]. CouchSurfing leaves HospitalityClub already since a year behind, but slowly, you can see the activity of BeWelcome. Not in terms of Reach or Rank, but in terms of Page Views (Modus: 3 months, Page Views). It seems as there is a strong core community that produces many many page views... One could imply that it becomes worth to visit the BW page more frequent. I guess that many people from HC emigrated first to CS, but now there is also a significant shift of active people (from HC and CS) to BeWelcome... HC reaches still a lot of people (stable Rank and Reach), but it has definitely lost huge parts of its community...

Source: [1] alexa.com/....]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=416 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:14:20 GMT Post by 'lex, 25.03.2008, 17:33:

Hi all,

OKIJIBAWA summarized the past CS Newsletter and asked in the CouchSurfing Communication Groups what the Collective in Thailand actually achived, as there wasn't anything in the newsletter... a good question, nobody really knows, do you know?

» I am sorry to be harsh but this is becoming comical.
» Congratulations on the professional and well written Newsletters! However,
» I am sorry to point out that they contain very little information of what
» the collective has accomplished considering the time, money and resources
» used. Not to even point out that a full 1/4 of the newsletters aren’t even
» about the Thai Collective (but the Alaska Collective?) and the first
» newsletter really is only a re-hash of the participants at the collective
» and is essentially about the same as the original Thai collective
» announcement itself. So that is ˝ of the newsletters that clearly provide
» nothing new.
»
» 1. Where is the useful information of what happened at the collective?
» 2. Is this “no information” policy an “official” policy because it
» does seem like it is being done on purpose as some sort of
» coordinated effort to keep everone in the dark?
» 3. Where is the accountability of what and how the resources of this
» member supported webpage are used to feul a year round “full-time nomadic
» headquarters” (is this a joke or is CS serious about spending resources on
» support of a year round moving caravan of volunteers instead of utilizing
» more remote teams/communication or even setting up a small cost
» efficient central office somewhere)?
» 4. Really, are we just supposed to eventually loose interest from this
» information vacuum and just stop caring?
»
» Again, sorry to be harsh but this is making less and less sense with each
» newsletter.
»
» from Thailand Collective Newsletter - Issue #1 CONTENT: basically
» only introduced the participants, and NO information
»
» from Thailand Collective Newsletter - Issue #2 CONTENT: basically
» discussed the move to Pai, departure of Dodie, new arrivals, and
» introduction to new expert team groups/links, and yet these links really
» have little content and mostly are conduits to simply make requests for
» more volunteers. You can’t just ask people to volunteer to … “volunteer”,
» but you need to provide solid foundation of the cause and the meaning and
» goals of the volunteer effort.
»
» from Thailand Collective Newsletter - Issue #3 CONTENT: highlight
» of NVC, tech team info, newsletters translated (just PR because they don’t
» contain info on the collective) however … “With only six weeks left at this
» Collective, all participants are focused …..and we can’t wait to let you
» know what has been achieved in our update next month!"
»
» from Thailand Collective Newsletter - Issue #4 CONTENT: NO CONTENT,
» as promised previously in Issue #3 except more promises of information to
» come and worse announcing the next collective, … ”We’ll have another
» edition of the Collective News in early April that highlights the many ways
» CouchSurfing has changed and improved as a result of the efforts of the
» expert teams formed at this Collective. .... CouchSurfing Collective isn’t
» just a one-time special event; it’s our veritable full-time nomadic
» headquarters.”
»
» Source]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=415 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:33:29 GMT Post by 'lex, 25.03.2008, 17:14:

Does anyone know what si going on with HospitalityClub? Not much going on, no news since ages... Did the captain leave the sinking boat?]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=414 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:14:15 GMT Post by 'lex, 25.03.2008, 17:02:

CouchSurfing offers various collective volunteer opportunities via idealist.org. Positions include Fundraising Coordinator, Community Communications Team Member, User Experience Research Coordinator, House Manager and House Chef. Even though you might not be interested or do not have time to volunteer, they are still quite interesting to read through as they tell quite a lot about CouchSurfings current state and future way...]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=413 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:02:33 GMT Reply from admin, 24.03.2008, 20:02:

» Categories - Wishes, Ideas?
»
» So far..
»
» Help & Questions
» Tips & Information
» Brainstorm - New Features & Strategy
» Tracker & Watch - What's new, what's going on?!
» Hospitality Events: Meetings, Parties & Camps
» Experiences, Anecdotes & Funny Misunderstandings
» HospitalityGuide.net - Site / Forum

I added a [private]-tag to the above categories and added exactly same categories once more, visible and accessible for everybody (and not only registered/logged in users).

Any more categorie wishes and ideas?]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=411 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:02:38 GMT Reply from admin, 24.03.2008, 19:35:

see: forum public, archive visible for registered users]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=410 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:35:00 GMT Post by 'lex, 23.03.2008, 23:47:

Still, actually more and more, I do think that a page like Hosp.Ex Ne>t is needed. I still think there is a common goal: hospitality exchange. Pages like for instance opencouchsurfing.org divide the whole crowed into two parts, we and them, but this is contra productive as neither of the two sides listen to the other one. An atmosphere of mistrust and hostility is created, quite a lot of energy just disappears in the sludge. Nevertheless, people get motivated through this, a big plus what they do have, people active and speak up. Something Hospe.Ex Ne>t does not manage. Actually, why not?]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=408 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:47:04 GMT Reply from 'lex, 23.03.2008, 21:12:

I added random pictures tagged with 'HospitalityClub' and 'CouchSurfing' from flickr.com to the home page. This make the page a bit more lively and people can get a first impression.]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=407 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:12:03 GMT Reply from 'lex, 21.03.2008, 11:43:

I add the possibility to add experiences to networks directly (one click away) from the network detail page (see e.g. CouchSurfing) and the other networks page. Further, I opened the wiki for anonymous edits again.]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=406 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:43:27 GMT Post by 'lex, 20.03.2008, 16:11:

I updated hospitalityguide.net in the last couples of days. I added some blogs feeds from other hospitality exchange related pages and integrated the wiki again. Hopefully, I will have some time in the next days to open up the forum (finally!) and include the translations of the page. Help is more than welcome.]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=405 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:11:59 GMT Reply from narnua, 25.07.2007, 20:13:

» wiki page:
» http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/wiki/index.php?title=Magazine
»
» Hi mates,
» just want to brainstorm some ideas with you guys... hopefully all people
» getting involved in this project are going to sign up for that forum here.
»
» With whom we could work together? HC, CS, BW, GF, ...
» In what periode we are going to release magazines? 1 month, 3 months 6
» months?
» How many poeple are we? SOmeone gets really time to work on stuff?
»
» I would like to help with coordination and layout. As you see my english
» suxx so maybe it s a bad idea for me to write articles...
»
» Hope someone catches up with ideas...

Hi,

let me know if you need some "insider scoops" about life at collectives (well workwise, what was accomplished and not and how it all played out in the end...) or upload some of the info I still have floating around in my brain from browsing the CS groups over the past year (just saying, abuse me ;)

Anu]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=399 Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:13:57 GMT Reply from thorgal67, 06.07.2007, 10:41:

Maybe a suggestion :

you could have one page called "features" where you have the different Hosp.ex communities one next to the other (horizontally) and a list of features vertically.

By putting a cross (x) or a radio-button you could then indicate whether that feature is available or not. This is something that can be done in an objective fashion.

Or if there are features that are better in one website than in the other, you could also work with a star system :

1 star = feature is available, but poorly executed
2 stars = feature is available, satisfactory
3 stars = feature is available, excellent

What do you think? The question remains : how will you attribute the stars? will you ask readers of this forum to vote? is this forum representative and not extremely negative towards one community?

As I said, quite a challenge]]> http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/forum/forum_entry.php?id=397 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:41:11 GMT