couchsurfing

It always makes me happy to hear from Joe.  He wrote something new: How mobile phones can replace a broken economy: The Mobile Manifesto:

When we talk about trouble with the economy, we’ve been overlooking an astounding opportunity. Something new is possible for the first time in thousands of years. If you care about the planet, if you care about your kids, if you care about other people, this is something to pay attention to.

While we continue to argue about capitalism and socialism, for the first time a third option is really possible.

Together, Joe Edelman and I were the dynamic duo of the CouchSurfing Collective in New Zealand. Joe came with fantastic ideas, that were unfortunately not realized in Nelson. Fortunately he also improved the infrastructure of CS in such a profound way that his work there is probably the main reason that the website is still up.

I have been a contributor on Wikitravel for a long time now. I was not too worried when Wikitravel was bought by Internet Brands (which has already shown interest in buying CouchSurfing). But I have been annoyed by the lack of database dumps at Wikitravel for a long time now.

Yesterday I started reading Barabasi's "Linked: The New Science of Networks". It's inspiring, in many ways. It makes me realize how different my life is, compared to most nodes in the social network of human connections. I have many connections, but compared to most people, most of my links are weak. I met so many people in so many places, mostly for very brief periods - i.e. a ride in their car, staying one night at someone's home.