Couchsurfing!
My wife loves to travel. When not actually traveling she enjoys reading about travel. So of course was I intrigued when she said "This is a cool website." Travel and technology! The site in question is Couchsurfing.com which in their own words is
CouchSurfing.com helps you make connections worldwide. You can use the network to meet people and then go and surf other members' couches! When you surf a couch, you are a guest at someone's house. They will provide you with some sort of accommodation, a penthouse apartment or maybe a back yard to pitch your tent in. Stays can be as short as a cup of coffee, a night or two, or even a few months or more. When you offer your couch, you have complete control of who visits. The possibilities are endless and completely up to you.
I liked this from a tech perspective because it demonstrates the power of social networks. Is it the way to plan a family vacation? No. But it feels a niche and it allows for a social network around common interest to evolve. With over 43,000 couchsurfers and over 17,000 successful surfs it would seem that this type of social network does interest people. In my book I like - better to be a couchsurfer than a couch potatoe!
Wow... that is a very cool idea. I think it will work really well with young people. The same crowd who would go backpacking across europe could also plan their trip around a network like this.
Posted by: PY | December 28, 2005 at 10:27 AM
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Posted by: Peter | August 13, 2006 at 02:21 AM