[P2P-F] couchsurfing controversy update

[Michel Bauwens]

I can't remember who I asked to cover the couchsurfing story, and in fact,
the whole peer hospitality scene would warrant a series of articles, but
here is a first approach already on the blog later today, but thanks for
continuing to work on a more expanded and detailed article, or covering some
details of it:

via http://shareable.net/blog/the-rise-of-the-not-just-for-profit

On Couchsurfing becoming a B Corporation: the
controversy<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=19155>
Tags: [empty]
[image: photo of Michel Bauwens]
Michel Bauwens
2nd September 2011

Here is a first entry into the debate rocking the Couchsurfing community, via
Shareable <http://shareable.net/blog/the-rise-of-the-not-just-for-profit>:

Excerpted from *Malcolm Harris*:

*“Let’s imagine the standard start-up route and we’ll see the kind of
double-bind CouchSurfing is in. You start with a good idea, attract
high-value employees cheap with equity offers and big investment cheques,
you hit the Initial Public Offering (IPO) and everyone gets paid, then if
you’re lucky, a bigger company will try and buy you for even more money.
CouchSurfing wants to attract the high-level programming talent and
investment capital that comes with a good idea (and is necessary to
realizing that idea), but they don’t want to risk losing control of the
organization’s mission to shareholders. What’s an ethical start-up to do?*

*What CouchSurfing did is register as a “B corporation.” B (or Benefit)
Corporations compose a new class of US corporations, dedicated to social as
well as financial good. Five states have passed laws governing B corps, and
a bill is moving in California now. Although there are other benefits, the
biggest one seems to me described on the B Corp site: “As a B Corporation,
founders and other mission-driven shareholders can hold directors
accountable to consider the impact of operating and liquidity decisions not
only on shareholders, but on all stakeholders.” By building responsibility
and accountability mechanisms into the founding of the corporation, the B
Corp framework seems substantially different than the “corporate
responsibility” cons.*

*As part of the B incorporation, CouchSurfing accepted $7.6 million in
venture capital funding, something they never could have done previously as
a non-profit. Combined with the site’s already 3 million-large membership
base, the site seems ready to take it to the next level. However, the
directors maintain CouchSurfing will always be free for participants. Here’s
hoping the B Corporation framework helps them, and maybe provides a model
for start-ups facing the same conundrum.”*

*Robino on the Community conflict over the new status:*

*“Couchsurfing as I see it has almost nothing to do with this what you call
collaborative consumption Malcolm. It is about doing away with that model of
production and consumption. It is hospitality. It is allowing a stranger to
be your guest. It is l-i-f-e. It is sharing your life with someone for maybe
a day, maybe a couple of days, and sometimes even longer. For many of these
people, traveling is NOT a product, neither is hospitality, neither is
sharing. It is how we live.*

*That’s why there is no money involved, that’s why they like non-profit,
this is why many members inside the community are currently so upset.
Because we want to do it the other way: without the profit, without the
money. And because we know it can be done.*

*…*

*Couchsurfing though never wanted to make the step to transform the
organization into a democratically run organization, or to make the
source-code of the website available for people to hack on it. They said
they wanted it to become a charity (for tax-purposes) but never got that up
and running either, and after years of inaction and numerous expensive
retreats, decided to go for a “sell-out”, when their member-base was finally
big enough.*

*Around 90% of CS-members probably don’t really care about that. They just
want to have a good website to find hosts and guests, but the others (the
ones who speak up the most) do care about it. They are critical about their
data that has just been sold to a new corporation. Their data, their
profiles, their personal references, their personal information, their
friends that they once provided to a non-profit association and not to a
corporation with CEO’s and investors.*

*Having said all this, we’ll see where this goes, and how it will affect the
networks. For one, the success of Couchsurfing really depends on people like
me who are “active hosts” inside the big touristic cities. And with this
enormous growing member-base of Couchsurfing that we’ve seen for the past
years, it has become really hard for these hosts to keep up with the amount
of requests they get. And this announcement of Couchsurfing turning into a
profit-organization (why is that legally allowed anyway?) might be a final
drop for quite a few of them.”*


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