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BeWelcome.org isn't new, but is a community where people can stay in each others' houses for free. It's like CouchSurfing, but with no membership fee. There's
by peterburkimsher 6y ago
BeWelcome.org isn't new, but is a community where people can stay in each others' houses for free.
It's like CouchSurfing, but with no membership fee. There's no obligation to host. I just joined BeWelcome in May, but the community is very active.
It's run by a non-profit "association" in France called BeVolunteer (same structure as Wikipedia/Wikimedia). I see potential to start other projects within BeVolunteer, say BeBook, BeChat, BeMail. The real-life and online community of BeWelcome would encourage me to build code that people actually want to use. The network effect of hospitality exchange is powerful, and the legal experience of BeVolunteer is reassuring. For now I'm just discussing this idea on the BeWelcome forums and here on HN, but I see precedent (Wikibooks, Wiktionary) if dynamic people want to get involved. There's no money in it, but there is great kindness, and well-connected members!