The Warm Showers Community: " For Road-Weary Cyclists, a Room, a Couch, Maybe Even a Meal."

Who wouldn't want to host these upstanding citizens? (Tournai, Belgium in 2004)

Boy, did we need this (or something like it) in the Czech Republic in 2006.

Warm Showers

The Warm Showers Community is a free worldwide hospitality exchange for touring cyclists. People who are willing to host touring cyclists sign up and provide their contact information, and may occasionally have someone stay with them and share great stories and a drink. All members agree to host others either now or in the future, but for some members hosting may be in years or even decades in their future.

The mainstream media coverage has commenced.

For Road-Weary Cyclists, a Room, a Couch, Maybe Even a Meal, by Katie Kramon (New York Times)

 ... Warm Showers started small in 1993, but its website now lists 39,000 hosts and 89,000 bicycle tourers — people who hit the road for extended long-distance trips — in 175 countries. It is built, the website says, “on 100 percent reciprocal hospitality.” Hosts offer what they can: a couch, a room, or a place outside to pitch a tent, and sometimes meals, too. They receive no benefit other than the chance to make new friends and hear stories of the road. And unlike the for-profit Airbnb, Warm Showers is run by volunteers.

A wonderful ideal, indeed.

“In our society right now, we don’t know our neighbors, and we aren’t looking out for each other,” he said. “Warm Showers reminds me of something I loved as a child: trust, and taking care of each other, and stopping by the side of the road to help someone in trouble. That’s the kind of world I want to live in.”

Airbnb: But of course hotels are opposed to inexpensive rooms in desirable locations.

Some cities are cracking down on the sharing economy.

One that isn't should come as no surprise.

Not all city authorities are reacting to Airbnb so negatively. In February Amsterdam became the first city to pass an "Airbnb-friendly law", when new legislation was created – with the sharing economy in mind – that permits residents to rent out their homes for up to two months of the year to up to four people at a time.

For our next two holiday trips, we've already booked four Airbnb stays in three countries. We're also considering renovating one of our rooms to share with others; there are a couple of listings in New Albany already.

Airbnb's legal troubles: what are the issues?, by Will Coldwell (Guardian)

As Airbnb finds itself under growing attack from city authorities around the world – this week receiving a €30,000 fine in Barcelona – we look at the controversy surrounding the holiday rental site

Russell Brand: "I felt how plausible and beautiful The Revolution could be".

The video (above) and a follow-up in The Guardian, below.

Russell Brand: we deserve more from our democratic system

Following his appearance on Newsnight, the comedian explains why he believes there are alternatives to our current regime

... It's easy to attack me, I'm a right twerp, I'm a junkie and a cheeky monkey, I accept it, but that doesn't detract from the incontrovertible fact that we are living in a time of huge economic disparity and confronting ecological disaster. This disparity has always been, in cultures since expired, a warning sign of end of days. In Rome, Egypt and Easter Island the incubated ruling elites, who had forgotten that we are one interconnected people, destroyed their societies by not sharing. That is what's happening now, regardless of what you think of my hair or me using long words, the facts are the facts and the problem is the problem. Don't be distracted. I think these columnist fellas who give me aggro for not devising a solution or for using long words are just being territorial. When they say "long words" they mean "their words" like I'm a monkey who got in their Mum's dressing up box or a hooligan in policeman's helmet.

Airbnb and the "sharing economy."

I had no idea the air mattresses were to be taken literally. We used Airbnb in 2010, several friends have done so since, and there have been good experiences all around. Perhaps the next step for the 1117 East Spring Street Neighborhood Association is to get on the list?

Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’, by Thomas L. Friedman (NYT)

IT all started with air mattresses ...

... On July 12, (Brian) Chesky told me, “Tonight we have 140,000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms. Hilton has around 600,000 rooms. We will get up to 200,000 people per night by peak this summer.”