Kings of the Hill

Kings of the Hill, originally uploaded by mattthew.

This is just a silly photo of me and some other CouchSurfing Collective participants at the top of a hill. This was taken at the trip to Cable Bay a couple weeks ago. Sadly, my camera is no longer working, so I can only post old pictures - hopefully I can get it repaired while I'm here.

Center left is Joe, one of the CouchSurfing software developers. He's quite a deep thinker with very strong opinions that always challenge us. Joe is ascetic compared to most people in the house. This morning during coffee chat (though he doesn't drink the stuff), he brought up the very good point that the Collective is much like a hostel. It has its own sub-culture, and that makes it hard to take part in the culture of the country its lodgers are within.

Joe and I have been debating a rewards system for the website. My model (based on the work of many others) gives rewards for hours of participation. Under that model, we at the Collective would be deserving of some awards. But Joe points out that volunteering is not creating "intercultural understanding" directly. We're only facilitating others to do that. So we need to reward those members who are not necessarily volunteering, but fulfilling the CS mission directly. Right now, the only way we have to do that is by counting number of surfs and hostings. But we need a way to identify the experts at connecting people and cultures. Great food for thought.

Center right is Leo, one of the founders of CouchSurfing. I'm just beginning to understand Leo. He's very emotionally expressive and visionary, whereas I'm much more reserved and logical. In meetings with Leo, it's a challenge to stay focused because he's always thinking big and far-out ideas. He always surprises me with his honesty and directness. He's like a big kid sometimes. It's a fun contrast to my personality.

On the far right is Casey, creator of CouchSurfing. Last night after work, we all went out to a local bar in a finest party mode. During one moment of perfection in revelry with some of the most wonderful people from around the world, I reminded Casey, "You know you're responsible for all this?" He sloughed the notion off saying, "You mean the molecules in the air?" This is typical Casey. He hates to be made responsible for CouchSurfing.

No doubt, CouchSurfing and the Collective are the result of hundreds of people's brilliance, dedication, and generosity. CouchSurfing's aim is to be a completely decentralized network of people, not a pyramid with Casey on top. Casey loves the opportunities CS opens for him, but his goal for the past three years has been to remove himself from the center of attention and responsibility.

Casey is also a determinist. He believes that the laws of physics direct each atom along it's course, even the ones that make up our brains and therefor our thoughts and actions. The universe in every moment proceeds along a single course of causality. So he's almost serious when he implies that he's no more responsible for CouchSurfing at this moment than he is for the molecules in the air at this moment. His philosophical arguments are compelling. Yet, even if a mere chain of universal causality led him to create CouchSurfing, that same chain filled his character with the compassionate mischief that is the core of the network.