[wsfii-discuss] WSFII registration system open

Sun Aug 21 09:42:29 UTC 2005

Rock! It's working. I'm seeing people registering in front of my very
eyes.

Please - Londoners, dont' forget to register your sofa networks!

Also - we are trialing a new experimental spare-room share system for
housing peple who have institutional support.. so if you want in an a new
Free Information Infrastructure that's set to take over from the
lucrative London hotel scene, do check this out!

------------

__homestay wsfii/localhost: call for bedrooms__

Kate Rich and Sneha Solanki (hostexe.org) are developing a social and
technical protocol for a distributed hotel system in London, whereby
local hosts will provide homestay accommodation to funded cultural
visitors, in exchange for cash.

We will be beta-testing the hotel during wsfii. While lobbey, breakfast
and concierge services will be centralised at Limehouse townhall, we are
looking to outsource bedroom locations anywhere around the east london
area. We are looking to accommodate 8 international guests for a 7 night
period; east london region preferred.

The distributed hotel idea is based on mutual-benefit economics, with the
intention to a) undercut standard overblown london hotel prices; b)
provide the delegates with a more integrated experience than an Ibis & c)
reroute cultural funding away from tourist/service sector by paying peer
hosts direct. The idea is to make a direct valuation of the altruistic
work of accommodating visitors, by supplying the private host with the
kind of economic credit that hotel systems generally receive.

Hosting period for wsfii is 26 September to 2 October. As this is a trial
run of the system, we will be offering hosts a token fee, around 100 GBP
per guest for the week: in future when the system's up & running we would
expect to fix a higher rate. We anticipate demand for visitor
accommodation in London to be ongoing.

The host can be either present or absent for the duration of the
homestay: hostexe & wsfii will act as guarantor for the security of your
premises/the reasonable behaviour of your guest.

If you would like to host a wsfii delegate for these 7 days in relative
comfort or interest, please contact us for more information. Precise host
criteria remain to be determined, but the system is intended for simple
sleeping & bathroom arrangements: you will not be expected to be
particularly entertaining or poach eggs. Sleeping facility doesnt
necessarily mean a spare room: good livingroom couches might work out
fine.

We will be in London August 20th-29th to do recon, and would like to meet
with potential hosts then.

contact:
kate at hostexe.org
sneha at hostexe.org

----------------