Hospitality exchange community considers moving to the fediverse ;)
lemmy.ml
I outlined the reasons in my into post Hello from hospitality exchange community devs! The idea is drafted here: Federated Platform · Discussion #3 · mariha/federated-trustroots · GitHub I’d like to discuss the idea and possibly get some help in the direction where to go next. In particular, I am not sure if ActivityPub is what we should use to implement our federation. We are not social media platforms.

Hospitality exchange community considers moving to the fediverse

At SocialHub and for the Fediverse there’s a very interesting development. A diverse group of technologists involved in community-based Hospitality exchange are considering to make their online platforms federated, or create federated alternatives to them. One reason to do so is they are fleeing commercialisation of platforms that were always meant to be open and welcoming to anyone (as happened before with CouchSurfing for instance).

Among interested people are folks that contributed to the following platforms:

It may be that federation support is added to the existing codebase, or that apps are first forked before doing so, or even rebuilt from the ground up.

Your Brainstorming Challenge

Here’s your brainstorming challenge: Inspire each other on the possibilities!

  • How may these platforms manifest themselves on the Fediverse?
  • What does federation add that allows stronger community and flourishing exchanges?
  • What new and exciting functionality can be offered?

Encourage you to think beyond just microblogging / Mastodon-like functionality. Inspire these fine people that are considering fedi as their new home, and help them in any way you can!

Greatly encourage anyone to join SocialHub community and deepen the discussion there too.

    • smallcirclesOPM
      1·
      4 years ago

      Thanks, yes. To be part of something meaningful. That is the key! We should not let ourselves to be led to what traditional social media offers, as it will limit our imagination. I tend to use the term ‘social networking’ instead of ‘social media’. The former encompasses the rich and intricate social fabric that exists in the real world, and for which we want tech to be supportive to it in an online context.

    • smallcirclesOPM
      2·
      4 years ago

      Yes indeed. Discovery (findability) is a very good point, and ease-of-participation. What’s interesting - and this is a pitfall most fedizens have - is that Fediverse goes way beyond Microblogging. Microblogging apps such as Pleroma and Mastodon were just the first application-type, and we are used to thinking of fedi as using an app with timelines to send messages back and forth. Fediverse however can interoperate deeply with any application-type.

      I a future more task-oriented fediverse, our fediverse clients bring all the features of various apps together in a single UI. The instead of posting with a #hostingexchange hashtag, you’d say “Let’s plan a vacation” and choose from a variety of community-provide services and do all the planning and reservations in your client.

      This hints at the real excitement of the Fediverse protocols. We only touched the tip of the iceberg with our current Microblogging-heavy focus.

      • jonuno
        2·
        4 years ago

        That is indeed an exciting future. I think there is a big opportunity to work with visual communication professionals to convey these concepts, transform them into images and hypothetical experiences - it is true like you said that we tend to think as fediverse as Mastodon, because that’s the image that we have, and we think in images and in reference of what we know already. I think the mental image I have of the fediverse is this image of multiple dots connected instead of all going into a central one, which shows what decentralised means but doesn’t portray the potential or stimulate imagination for applications

        • smallcirclesOPM
          2·
          4 years ago

          I have proposed to add a new section “Domains” to the SocialHub forum, so that people can collaborate on specific areas, do projects together and standardize in interoperability mechanisms. Besides Hospitality Exchange there is for instance Open Science as a field where there may be a lot of interest on the fedi.

  • smallcirclesOPM
    1·
    3 years ago

    WarmShowers

    Below is a summary of the important functionality of the WarmShowers platform, i.e. its core domain model.

    Hospitality Exchange

    Core domain: Allows Travellers to find and contact Hosts to arrange a Stay.

    WarmShowers Hospitality Exchange - core domain diagram

    Actors:

    • A Host is a Member that provides a place to stay

    • A Traveller is a Member that seeks a place to stay

    Ubiquitous language:

    • Host offers Accomodations to travellers

    • Host presents Host Profile to travellers

    • Host specifies Availability of accomodation

    • Hosts are displayed on a geographic Map

    • Traveller filters Hosts on Map by Search Criteria

    • Traveller searches Hosts by Search Criteria

    • Traveller bookmarks Host Profiles to return to later

    • Traveller contacts Host to plan their travel

    • Traveller arranges a Stay facilitated by a Host

    • Traveller might get Amenities provided by a Host

    Other subdomains:

    • Membership generic domain: Allows Members to register on the platform.
    • Social supporting domain: Allows Members to present themselves and provide feedback.
    • Messaging supporting domain: Allows Members to communicate in order to plan a stay.
    • Funding generic domain: Allows Members to donate to the project team.

    Notes:

    • A Community subdomain exists implicitly; all platform members together are the WarmShowers community.