As I recently tried to define how Open Hospitality Network relates to Bonfire and Karrot projects, and struggled to do so, I’d like to open a discussion about it here.
Open Hospitality Network was started out of a necessity of a community of bicycle touring travelers whose 30 years old “home” platform went rogue. Together with other hospex communities (hospex = hospitality exchange, part of giving economy, supported by an online platform a community of travelers and those who want to host them) we aim to develop a protocol for a network of our communities.
Hospex is all about a dispersed community of solo travelers being hosted at remote to them places. They are like a modern day pilgrims on a network of st Jacob’s routes. They are outsiders to the local communities of their hosts and they travel outside of their own local communities.
Here, I’d like to explore a relationship between local communities, for which Bonfire is dedicated, and non-local communities, like hospex. Where do they overlap and where complement each other? How we can best support them with the software we write?
Also, can ValueFlow be used to describe both, local and non-local communities?
In terms of functionalities on a hospex platform, features for a traveller and a host are quite distinct. A host to participate in a community may not need anything more then a lightweight messaging client. Could “a hospex platform” participating in OHN be built as a plugin for Bonfire for hosts staying in their local communities and a separate app for travelers only? What if there was no local community on Bonfire near where a host leaves?
And now I’ll answer with some of my thoughts (part of) a question I’ve just posted… ;), but I wish it was not a general discussion only, I’d hope for some concrete advice/direction for valueFlow and Bonfire architecture.
I’d say that they complement each other by fulfilling different needs and desires that really every human being has, in slightly different proportions. One maximizes on curiosity the other on stability.
Both rely on trust, even though understood and managed very differently. Hospex communities are driven by openness whereas local communities seem to me to be more protective and closed for their members. A traveller is essentially a stranger who brings unfamiliar and new, an adventure, rather then well known and alike as in local communities which are looking for a „good fit” in new members and tend to be rather homogeneous. The former maximize on curiosity in short one-time connections and the latter on long term stability. Travellers are usually solo or very few people while local communities are crowded. Travellers communities are dynamic and in constant move while local communities stay in one place… I am not sure what structure to put on this.
In a bigger perspective, our civilization has grown and flourished on products, tools, information and knowledge transmitted by merchants in caravans on the Silk Road or sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. Up until we reached a point where everything is globally connected and we need to degrowth and deglobalize… but I guess it’s a matter of finding a balance again.
Actually Bonfire is not opinionated towards local or non-local communities, therefore I cannot really follow the rest of the assumptions, tough i’m curious what makes you think that is the case, and also why you tend to assume having 2 separated apps (one built for hosts and another for travellers) would be better than just one with different roles (just curious)
Also do you envision OHN as a platform? or are you thinking at OHN as a suite of different and somehow interconnected tools (like a chat + bullettin boards + forum ) ?
Yes, Valueflows can be used to track any kind of economic activities that happen within a network, it’s not bounded to some kind of phisycal space of some sort…