[P2P-F] couchsurfing controversy update

[Michel Bauwens]

great, I have incorporated the material, thanks very much

On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 12:06 AM, robin <robokow at gmail.com> wrote:

> Cool.
> I would include these two links somewhere in the first sentence,
>
> Here is a first entry into the debate rocking the Couchsurfing
> community, via Shareable:
>
> Original pressrelease:
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/idUS184215+25-Aug-2011+BW20110825
>
> After going for-profit, CouchSurfing faces user revolt
>
> http://gigaom.com/2011/09/01/after-going-for-profit-couchsurfing-faces-user-revolt/
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 8:22 AM, Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > 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
> >
> > Tags: [empty]
> > Michel Bauwens
> > 2nd September 2011
> >
> > Here is a first entry into the debate rocking the Couchsurfing community,
> via Shareable:
> >
> > 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.”
> >
> > --
> > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  -
> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
> >
> > Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Life happens at the level of events, not of words
>



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