Community Profile
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(Redirected from CommunityCouch)
This article is being updated to comply with the latest "group and forum" developments.
Definition
A CommunityProfile is an alternative functionality on the BeWelcome website which allows for community-level membership profiles for certain groups of people (or communities).
The Problem
As it stands now, BeWelcome profiles generally are individualistic endeavors. It provides individuals (and occasionally groups of 2-4 people) with a space to use in order to engage in what the website has to offer – namely surfing couches and networking between couch surfers. However, the system as it currently stands is restrictive in that it lacks a functionality specifically designed for groups of people and communities. This is especially important in communities that would benefit from or prefer a more communal way of interacting (this may include but is not limited to communities that are non-western, rural, poorer, and/or non-white which are all under-represented in the BeWelcome community). In sum, the problem as it stands it to make BeWelcome an experience that is more ‘usable’ to under-represented groups and cultures.
Suggested Solution: CommunityProfile
Community Profile
This community profile would represent groups of people in communities who would want to join and make better use of BW.
It should always be kept in mind that the "community profile" must not overlap the domain of utility of a "group".
Definition of group: Groups are made up by people that gather spontaneously around a subject in order to share a common interest, they obviously can discuss about in a forum-like way.
- below is a proposition - Sitarane
Definition of a community profile: A profile that represent a group of people that can be administrated in a way similar to that of a member. It needs every person from the group to be more or less permanently resident of the same geographical spot.
Who is supposed to use this Tool?
Nothing better than a couple of examples to settle a concept.
Target communities
- Social Movements
- villages interested in cultural exchange
- Any collective grouping oriented towards collective ways of organising
- sports teams interested in exchange or common tournaments
- music groups / orchestras / choirs interested in common concerts or activities with other groups
- art clubs (photography etc.) intersted in common happenings, exhibitions, photoshoots
- school groups / classes intersted in exchanges
- I don't see one example that would not be addressed to by a group tool. But I can think of "communities" for whom the group tool would be inadequate, and the simple profile as well: Couples (see below...), shared flats (see below), squats, rural hippie communes, 3rd world village with just one public computer (if such a thing exists...) - Sitarane 19:00, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
Communities that have expressed interest in the Tool
- Abahlali baseMjondolo, a shackdweller's movement in South Africa with over 30 affiliated communities.
Non-Target communities
- couples or communities with less than 5 members (to be discussed)
- communities without a common location (no community profile for 'amnesty international', but possibly for 'amnesty international - Aachen)
Design / Content of a Community Profile
modifications of profiles are needed in comparison to individual profile:
- different colour from individual profile to make the distinction clear to everyone
- label / text bar ‘this is a community profile’
- no ‘profession’
- instead of ‘Special Relations’ ‘Partner Communities’ // but how do we display friends of communties? -comments?
- link to Community members' individual profiles
- Upload Logo possibility
- Community Description Type of Community. This field would explain what type of community this is. It could be a group of people in a local neighborhood, a rural village, an ashram, a choir or sports team etc.
- 'What are we interested in’
- online exchange
- hosting – travelling
- real life meeting
- common activities
- Contact information for the community’s representative who is there to enable communication between potential guests and the community as a whole. This representative could either be a member of the community or, in cases where the community does not have access to the internet, could be someone outside of the community but connected to, respected and trusted by the people in the community. Contact information ‘fields’ should include:
- Representative’s Name
- Rep’s association with the community
- Rep’s Email and phone number (seen only by admin)
- Rep’s address (for admin)
- Language spoken by the Rep.
- Most importantly, there should be a clear separation between the information about the community and the Representative’s contact information.
- The Representative must have his own profile on BW, which should be connected to the Community profile.
- Comment: since the rep has a profile, these informations don't have to be included in the Community profile. The only not mandatory data is phone number. It can't be done mandatory, but we should try to have it, since will be very useful in case of problem. Pietshah 21:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
- Community Location would be the general location of the Community. It may or may not be a different location than the Rep’s. Most importantly, there should be the possibitlity to hide the exact address so as to prevent people from just showing up.
- There should be a section in which the languages, spoken by assigned members of the community, are displayed. If memberA is fluent in German and memberB just intermediate, the highest level of the language skills should be imported.
- Gallery Section and Photos in the Profile (as in normal profiles)
- Other fields should include:
- Information about the community (history, culture and other general information about the community).
- Community’s details
- Cultural sensitivities
- Community’s philosophy
- Things to do in the community (volunteering, working, fun, sights, etc)
- Teach, learn, share.
- this might be included as a wiki Page forwarded with "additional Information, in order not to overload the community profile
- “Accommodation Information” section should be entirely different from the one for individual profiles. This should include fields such as:
- Accommodation Available (with a dropdown menu with a range of dates)
- Type of travellers allowed
- Preferred gender
- Accommodation details
- Rules of hosting and how to act in the community
- Meals included? (some communities would provide meals for free or for a cost). Alternatively, must the traveller bring his/her own food?
- Requested length of stay (min stay and max stay)
- Is there a required contribution?
- If so, what type of contribution? (Financial, volunteer work, gift, etc)
- If the contribution is financial, what is the requested ‘donation’ amount?
- If a gift is requested, there should be an explanation of how gift-giving may work in the cultural context of the community.
- If the contribution is volunteering/working, then what type of work is it?
- Where will the contribution go? (Will it go towards a nonprofit organization that works within the community, to the community as a whole, to a local government fund, or to a specific community project, etc).
- It should also be made clear that Travellers are not ‘paying’ any individual for hosting. The requirement for free accomodation still stands. The payment (donation) is an option specifically for communities where food is automatically provided (either as a cultural requirement or because there are no shops in the community). In these types of communities (especially poor ones), hosting may be impossible or an undue resource strain on. Therefore, no one should be making a profit out of hosting; Instead the community (especially a poor one) should use this option as a way to provide cultural exchange without them suffering any excessive strain that comes with hosting a traveller.
- If so, what type of contribution? (Financial, volunteer work, gift, etc)
access of Community Profiles
Since BeWelcome does not have details of all the members of a Community Profile, it makes sense to grant those profile limited access only to protect other members' privacy
- all profiles are visible but no messages to individual profiles can be sent, only to other community profiles (individual profiles CAN send messages to Community Profiles but not the other way round, but don t forget to allow the Community Proile to reply to messages)
- Community Profile do not have writing access to the Forum
- I would suggest to allow Community Profile to write any individual profile who has already written them (in order to allow future contacts. This may require a "warning"/notification when a member writes a Community Profile). Pietshah 21:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
- Note: this restriction could use aspects of the restricted access that is already given to not-yet-accepted members. Pietshah 21:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Signup process for Community Profile
- Application process (outline of the community should be evaluated by a volunteer as well as the expectations this community has;) This is not primarily in order to 'control' this tool, but in order to find out about the needs of people wanting to use it; this part will have to be well organized, possibly with the Acceptation and Support team.
- Or open. Applying for something is humiliating in certain cultures (I'm thinking about punks right now)
- one representative for every entity who is liable and responsible for everything done in the name of this entity and one substitute
- one person for registration, one person for contact (can be identical, both have to have individual BW profiles)
- every representative NEEDs to have an individual profile linked to the community
- if community profile is not desired any more, it can be deleted
Guidelines for interested Communities
- Warning: Be careful not to share personal data that you do not want to share with the public and especially no data on third parties (members of your profile) without their content
- profile picture of the community
- describe the community
- outline what exchanges you are interested in
- keep the profile up to date
- voluntary: letter of recommendation from a local NGO etc.
- verification through volunteers OR through snail mail
- ways of verification will be displayed on the profile
Criteria for Community Profiles
- terms of use have to be followed
- physical vicinity of the members of a community profile
Searching for a Community
- The Membersearch function on BW would need to be revised so as to create a separate “Community Search”.
- Community Profiles should be searchable by “Type of profile”, location, etc.
Can individuals within the community have profiles?
- Individuals who are a part of the community should be connected to the profile. Displayed as members of the community.
- This should be allowed if approved by the Community Representative or Contact.
Selection of Representative of Community
- Option A: Despite the constraint on Community access to internet in the developing countries, nevertheless there should be proportion of Individual members of Community (calculated from the size of the community) represented who would validate/confirm their representative.
- Option B: The Representative gets verified by a volunteer/traveller passing by the community.
Administration of 'Representative Responsibility'
- There should be a two representatives for each community to make sure that when one representative is not available, the back-up representative could assume administrative responsibilities such as online communication with potential BW-Members.
- A Community accommodation request should be forwarded automatically to all registered members of the community so that they are informed and my intervene.
Friends of Communities
- Individuals who have stayed with a Community can become friends with the community if approved by the Community Rep.
- Communities should be able to network and become friends with other Communities. (Partner Community)
- Hmm... communities can have friends, but normal members can't ? See Friends network.
