Newsletter

Dear members, volunteers and friends of BeWelcome!

Open and Transparent! On October 1st BeWelcome became the first non-profit travel/hospitality website based entirely on open-source software. This may not seem like a big deal to to many of us who just use BeWelcome as a great tool to build real-life relationships all over the world. However, releasing our source code on the GNU General Public Licence is in alignment with our principles AND has many important effects. First, it ensures that BeWelcome will be transparent and accountable to its members. Second, it can help us draw in creative developers looking to work with open source applications and interested in expanding our capabilities. And most importantly for travellers, it helps make our platform more stable and secure, so no down time when you're stuck, for example, in Bangkok or Florence and need a bed or local advice!

To find out more about this milestone in hospitality exchange, check out our press release which you can download here. Please forward this document to anyone who you think might be interested. Curious developers can access the BeWelcome code at dev.bewelcome.org

Meet in real life! Working for an innovative project is fun, but meeting the members is so much better! The first volunteer work meetings have already taken place - the last, a few days ago in Antwerp, Belgium - and local communities have begun to grow. You 'd like to hold a meeting? Use our BeWelcome forum at www.bewelcome.org/tb/forums.

New: view from inside! Do you want to know about the key volunteers behind the BeWelcome project ? Our communications specialist Valerie (anonymous valerii) finds out for you. Today: Claudia Pfeiffer and Frank van den Block at Interviews

New posters and flyers! First drafts for posters and a BeWelcome flyer are online! Check them at our download area at www.bevolunteer.org. Have your own idea? Send it to us and the community will decide if it will officially represent the project...

Paying our bills. BeVolunteer as a non-profit organisation and BeWelcome as its main project are based on volunteer work. Thanks to that we have very few expenses. The little expenses we have (such as server rent) need to be paid, however. Our new donation site allows you to support us financially if you can and want. We would appreciate it a lot!

That much for now, there are so many other things we could write about but the best might be if you have a look around, visit the forum (especially if you are a volunteer already), but most importantly give us feedback. Tell us what you like and what you don't; tell us about your experiences with BeWelcome, your adventures, your hopes. We are curious about YOU, our members.

Our dreams are ambitious, but our creativity is up to the challenge!

Best wishes!

Links: Suggestions? Send us your feedback! Read more about BeWelcome and BeVolunteer in our wiki library your profil

This newsletter was compiled by Valerie and Florian (PR Team). If you'd like to help with the newsletter or other outreach projects, please contact one of us!