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Not every app has to be decentralized/federated. Is it worth to put the effort in a niche sucha as hospitality exchange? Maybe a centralized platform in the hands of a non-profit organization is "good enough"?
The effort: some extra development, administration of an instance, users/members have to choose an instance.
The benefits:
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Decentralization allows for specialization and so greater diversity of platforms, both technical and social.
For example there is a FB group for women only (Host a sister) which has more members then any other existing hospex platform, which tend to be very male dominated. -
Historically, we've seen issues with governance, power dynamics and ownership over and over again in this domain. Afaik, this is why BeWelcome was started by a group of Hospitality Club volunteers, why Trustroots was started by BW volunteers, this is what happened with CouchSurfing and WarmShowers recently (I was a contributor to WS android app and co-authored a message here https://warmshowers.bike) and as to me what is happening right now in Trustroots (see the discussion and the comment here).
The main thing is that whenever it happens, while a single user can easily move from an old platform to the new one (even if it was just a new instance of the same software), the community as a whole is trapped, it stays where it was and it takes years to rebuild it, and a hospex platform as any social platform does not makes sense unless there are enough people there. -
There are already many hospex platforms anyways, most of them are suffering from having too few users/members, interconnecting them with a common communication protocol would be benefitial for everyone.
I have a quick question regarding where to go for housing? aka How does OHN fits in different economy models?
It's not that quick question because there is no quick answer. You gave not enough context... and this may be not the best place to ask what you need, I'll try to answer it though.
There are a few hospitality exchange communities/platforms out there, they are part of gift economy and they are all about helping people connect in offline world, with other people, places and nature, hospitality is an excuse in a way: trustroots.org, BeWelcome.org, WelcomeToMyGarden.org, servas, some more focused like sleepy.bike and many facebook groups, like Host A Sister, some projects for people escaling the war in Ukraine,... our project aims to connect them. Help is welcome!
There are some "money economy" options like AirBnB and alike. They maximize on profit for the service. I am not good at them.
There are also some networks/platforms that aim to achieve something in between, like FairBnB.coop, and probably many individual home owners trapped in the mainstream, who try to advertise themselves in the internet as they can. I'd use Google to find them.
Hope it helps. Cheers!
Ah, I forgot about volunteersBase.com workAway.info, auPairWorld etc. that fall into barter economy category, where some work is expected in exchange for housing.