CouchSurfing

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The CouchSurfing Project is a free international Internet-based hospitality service. As of September 2006, it had more than 120,000 members in 208 countries. From various indicators it can be estimated that many members were actively using the website, with 49% offering their couches to host travellers (with another 23% saying "maybe" and others who are travelling at the moment).^[1]

Members use the website, designed by founder Casey Fenton, to coordinate accommodations. It features extensive profiles, and uses an optional credit card verification system, a personal vouching system, and personal references to increase security and trust. There are many other features on the site, such as interest discussion groups, meeting functionality, live chat and more.

In June 2006 the project experienced a number of computer problems resulting in much of the database being lost.^[2] It was initially announced that the project was being ended; however, within days it was confirmed that the site would be rebuilt, and users were again able to login (but not yet access the site's full functions). "CouchSurfing 2.0" was announced on 3 July 2006, planned to be operational within 10 days.[3] As of July 7th 2006 couchsurfing.com is once again fully operational although some, mostly inactive profiles, group postings and personal messages seem to have been lost. Most functions and pages are unchanged (the biggest change is the way friend links are managed now) and the site is called "2.0" now because of a philosophical change, the site's motto is "Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time". In August a CS wiki was launched where everyone is invited to participate and make CouchSurfing better.

1 Organization
2 How it works
3 Criticisms
4 Temporary failure of the project
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Organization

The mission statement of CouchSurfing is Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time ^[4]. CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to create a better world, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world! ^[5]

In 1999 Casey Fenton registered couchsurfing.com with the intention to create CouchSurfing. The website was designed by and registered to Casey Fenton Consulting.^[6] In 2003 the non-profit company CouchSurfing International, Inc. was created by Casey Fenton, who was CEO and member of the board. The other three founders^[7] of CouchSurfing comprised the rest of the board.

CouchSurfing.org points to the same website as CouchSurfing.com, though there are some websites trying to use CouchSurfing's fame, such as couchsurfing.net and the German couchsurfing.de.

[edit] How it works

Membership in the organization is free and is obtained simply by registering on the website. The core activity of the organization is exchange of accommodation. Acting as a host, a member offers the possibility of accommodation at his or her leisure; it is not required, but obviously it is encouraged. Acting as a surfer (guest), a traveller may search for and request accommodation at his or her destination. Accommodation is entirely consensual between the host and surfer, and the duration, nature, and terms of the surfer's stay are generally worked out in advance to the convenience of both parties. It is also expected to be free; no monetary exchange takes place except under certain circumstances (e.g. the surfer may compensate the host for food).

There are three methods to ensure security and trust, which are all visible on member profiles for potential hosts and surfers to see prior to arranging anything with each other:

Personal references, which hosts and surfers could leave for each other at their option after having used the service.
An optional credit card verification system, which allowed members to "lock in" their name and address by making a credit card payment and entering a code that CouchSurfing mails to the billing address (this also allows CS to recuperate some costs by requiring a small donation for verification).
A personal vouching system, whereby a member that had been vouched for — originally starting with the founders of the site — might in turn vouch for any number of other members he or she knew or had met through CouchSurfing, and trusts.

Volunteers within the club often arrange meetings or camps which are events that last several days and bring people together.

Members who wish to volunteer for various tasks on the site and help spread the word about CouchSurfing in general may become ambassadors. Ambassadors must be verified and actively promote the CouchSurfing spirit among members and to the public. In addition to promoting use of the site, they greet new members, help with questions and other administrative tasks, and more, all on a volunteer basis.

[edit] Criticisms

There are occasionally members of CouchSurfing who attempt to use the site as if it were a dating service, a problem that the founder Casey Fenton acknowledges: "Based on what I've seen and heard, these people who come into CS and use it exclusively like a dating site are definitely harming the overall CS experience."^[8] This is a problem common to many large online communities with personal profiles. The other side of this argument is that limiting members' use of the site may be construed as censorship, an undesirable element for a free and open community such as CouchSurfing.

CouchSurfing's team of ambassadors had a talk in a closed group about how best to curtail such behavior without unduly censoring the use of the site, but this discussion cannot be seen by "normal" members of Couchsurfing.^{[citation needed]}

During the "temporary failure" described below, CouchSurfing was criticised for making errors in backing up and then just letting the project die. The decision seems to have been taken by one person only - founder Casey Fenton's initial announcement cited personal reasons and quoted guru Osho.^[1]

[edit] Temporary failure of the project

The CouchSurfing project was taken down temporarily due to a major database error on June 30, 2006.

An email sent by Fenton, to members of the project reported that a fatal database error had occurred - too much important data was lost to allow the project to continue in its current form.^[2] He decided to stop the project for personal reasons, but later changed his mind.

However, many members protested, offering assistance and donations,^{[citation needed]} and within days it was confirmed that the site would be rebuilt. "CouchSurfing 2.0" was announced on 3 July 2006, planned to be operational within 10 days.[9] As of July 7 the website was up again. Most of the profiles could be recovered, and CS claims that those that were lost were largely those of inactive members.

Immediately following the announcement of June 30, some websites started up in response, promoting attempts to help rebuild CouchSurfing; some sites request users to enter their CouchSurfing.com details. However, such sites were not officially endorsed, and members have been warned against giving their personal details to other sites.^[3] Discussion pages also appeared, including instructions on how to recover profiles from Google's cache,^[4] though in the end this was not necessary.

Hospitality Club (HC), the largest hospitality exchange site with whom CouchSurfing shares many members, set up a forum category called "CS Refugees" and a group called "CS Legacy" on its website to help any CouchSurfing members that were stranded on the road to contact their hosts/guests during this time. couchsurfing.info was set up to point to the CS Legacy group on Hospitality Club, and as of the 1st of October 2006 still does so.