I went to a CouchSurfing potluck last night, it was fun.
Archive for the 'CouchSurfing' Category
This morning I woke up to find an email in my inbox telling me that my volunteer services are no longer required by CouchSurfing.
Apparently I have “fundamental differences in ideology and communication styles”. I’ve asked for clarification on that, fundamentally different from whom. I’m not holding my breath for an answer!
One thing was stated clearly in the email, CouchSurfing is not going open source. Not now, not any time soon. So at last the OpenCouchSurfing campaign has received one answer. That’s real progress I think.
Interesting times… 
At least three volunteer developers have resigned from the CouchSurfing Tech Team on account of the new NDA that all volunteers will be required to sign.
The new NDA includes a non-compete clause preventing volunteers from working with any other travel or social networks. It also requires that volunteers transfer their Intellectual Property rights to CouchSurfing International Inc.
I heard that somebody describe it perfectly, they said “it’s not volunteering, it’s slavery”.
CouchSurfing.com is back online after almost 20 hours of down time.
This downtime was especially frustrating for a number of reasons.
1) It was unannounced. Even on the public developers list, there was no forewarning of the upgrade. No doubt travellers were left stranded while the site was down for almost a full day.
2) It clearly wasn’t planned well enough. There are so many willing and skilled volunteers who could have helped with this upgrade, if it weren’t for CouchSurfing’s ludicrous NDA.
I warmly encourage you to take action now, join the campaign, sign the petition.
I’m delighted to announce the launch of The OpenCouchSurfing Campaign. I fully support the campaign, I believe that CouchSurfing very much needs to embrace openness and transparency. It’s been a week or so in the making, and today is the culmination of our preparations. The word is out. Vive la revolucion!
It has been an adventure. Thursday morning NOT_BILL (new window) and I hitched out of sunny little Nelson down to Christchurch. We stayed with the awesome THURSTY (new window) and then after a fairly wasted night, hit the road again bound for Dunedin where we caught up with VIAJEN (new window) and partied with the formidable Brett Herman (new window).
Then we drove down through Invercargill to Milford Sounds, camped, all three of us in a 1.5 man tent (oh that was fun, NOT) and then up to Queenstown to catch up with KERSEF (new window), JUKIEN (new window) and OmJoshuaOm (new window). We stayed in Queenstown for a night, then I hit the road back up to Christchurch.
A couple of very friendly German lads gave me a lift right to the very door of my home for the next 2 months. Gotta love hitching.
It’s raining today. Terrible business really. All grey and dark. The view from my newly formed outdoor office is not up to the usual standards. At this rate I’ll have to ask the weather man for my money back!
Bill working hard in the new office…
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