2007 13
Couchsurfing: share your couch, roam the world
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
Nina who works with me pointed out this site called Couchsurfing. Its like a Fon but of couches. With Fon you share a little WiFi out of your window with those who pass by and then they share with you when you go by their home. With Couchsurfing it gets more intimate. You share your couch with those who pass by and they share their couch with you when you travel. Even though I am not sure I am ready to share my couch(es) with those who pass by my home I loved the idea.
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cvander on September 13, 2007 ·
I’ve been using Hospitaly Club and Couchsurfing for almost 3 years now. Not just the idea is great, but it really helps to discover the world in the eyes of travelers.. I hosted more than 50 strangers that became good friends and now, their doors are open for a visit..
I could use a couch in Madrid in case that you’re up for the experience, hehehe.
Take care.
Lars on September 13, 2007 ·
So why not check out Couchsurfing.com ? It is not so much about free couches to sleep on, as sharing peoples daily life and get to know “friends you havent met yet”.
I am a dedicated couchsurfer AND share my internet with FON. I would love to see these two comanies co-operate somehow. There are almoust 300.000 members of Couchsrufing.com. We all have internet and in most cases broadband.
It is not so difficult to do the math on this one is it ?
Friendly
Lars
PS And yes,, we would love to host you on your travels. Instead of boring hotels.
David Stone on September 15, 2007 ·
I’m slowly logging offices in a wiki on a similar idea, but around ‘working’ (initial blog post here, but basically:
If you have space that others could work from (home office / office) and are happy for it to be used by others, why not? Benefits include:
* business networking
* social networking (yes, in the real world…)
* cheap (free) work space
* marketing your skills (by demonstration, not shouting about them!)
… and in return I’d recommend buying a round of coffee/beer/wine, or helping out if your specialties match – and it’s good fun. I think it works really well with any company that models itself on the ‘knowledge worker’ model.
Long term, I like to be able to visit Spain, France, etc and know I can “book” a desk for a day, for free, within a cool company, and meet some interesting people.
Rebeca on September 26, 2007 ·
Great idea! In Spain, there’s a town in the province of Madrid, Getafe, that has a similar program: the citizens can interchange their knowledge, theaching what they already know to somebody who can teach them what they need to know.
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Nikolaj on September 13, 2007 ·
also heard about that. there’s another similar and popular service – hospitalityclub.org. So actually if you travel and don’t have money but somehow will manage to get internet access (of course from FON 🙂 you won’t sleep on the street in any city on Earth. And that’s everything for free!
Add here car pooling services and Botellones and you see that you can travel, and have a lot of fun almost for nothing! 8)