Newsletter

Bonjour %anonymous%, voici des nouvelles fraîches !

Nouvelles de l’équipe des développeurs volontaires

Trois nouvelles versions du logiciel ont été publiées depuis le début de l’année, qui ont permis d’améliorer à chaque fois l’utilisation de BeWelcome. Une grosse amélioration est la possibilité d’établir des liens entre les groupes liés. Ça veut dire que si vous êtes par exemple membre du groupe Paris, vous pouvez le lier à un autre groupe dont vous êtes membre, comme le groupe pour la France. Utilisez cette fonction intelligemment, et si vous avez un doute, n’hésitez pas à contacter les personnes qui administrent votre groupe. Un autre changement concerne la question de la vie privée, qui est très importante voire sensible pour beaucoup d’entre nous. Vous pouvez désormais décider du niveau de visibilité de ce que vous postez sur les forums de BeWelcome. Par défaut, toutes vos contributions resteront au sein du groupe où elles auront été postées et ne seront visibles que des membres de BeWelcome connectés. C’est seulement si vous le choisissez qu’un autre niveau de visibilité sera adopté

Pas mal de gens ont demandé à l’équipe des développeurs de fournir un planning des prochains changements qui seront apportés au site, dans le but de savoir quand seront mises en place les améliorations dont il est question sur le forum. La bonne nouvelle, c’est que l’équipe est en train de se donner à fond sur certaines des fonctionnalités les plus attendues et demandées. En revanche, il y en a d’autres pour lesquelles il faudra être un peu plus patient…

• Dans la prochaine version du logiciel, l’accent sera mis sur les langues. Nous ajouterons les langues des signes et faciliterons la gestion des fonctions linguistiques (par exemple pour trouver une langue que vous parlez mais n’écrivez pas).
• Ensuite, l’attention sera portée sur certains problèmes concernant de localisation, ce qui permettra d’améliorer la fonction de recherche géographique et de lancer un outil pour les Activités.
• Des améliorations à long terme sont aussi prévues pour moderniser le site de fond en comble, en le faisant migrer vers une nouvelle plateforme. Cette plateforme permettra de faciliter le travail des développeurs qui pourront travailler plus rapidement sur le site.

Non-conférence : pour faire émerger des idées géniales

There is a saying in the business world that the best ideas emerge during an informal coffee break. Following on from this logic, "unconferences" were developed as participant-driven meetings that avoid the worst aspects of a conventional conferences such as high fees, sponsored presentations and top-down organization. At a unconference, the agenda is typically created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can claim time and a space, and thereby such meetings often feature open discussions rather than having a single speaker at the front of the room giving a talk. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference)

BeWelcome adopted this concept at the very start of its existence and held its first unconference in January 2007. A series of BeWelcome unconferences are planned for 2013 to drive forward important improvements for the BeWelcome community and discuss its future.

Between Friday, March 1st and March 3rd, an unconference was kindly and generously hosted by the BeWelcome member guaka in Brussels. The participants discussed member safety, the BeWelcome groups and forum structure and the decision making process within BeWelcome. The Meeting Minutes are available on the BeWelcome wiki.

The next unconference will take place from April 6th to April 7th in Bamberg, Germany. More details can be found on the wiki page about the 2nd Unconference 2013 and you can also sign up for the unconference there.

If you are interested in hosting a BeWelcome Unconference, please post your ideas in the respective forum thread.

Decision making on BeWelcome: Add your voice and cast your democratic vote!

BeWelcome is set up as a democratic hospitality network. This means we want to give members an opportunity to democratically decide future developments and fundamental changes. The current decision making process on BeWelcome, while an important step in this direction, created some confusion and frustration because it is very difficult to put into practice. Therefore, a new suggestion for a decision making and suggestion process which includes a much clearer process, time frames, responsibilities and tools has been put forward for discussion. Importantly, it is a process that enables the community to select and rank solutions to inform BeWelcome's developmental priorities.

Please add your comments about this suggested process on the wiki page or post them in the dedicated forum thread. Additionally, please feel free to propose alternative suggestions for a decision making process in the forum thread. If there is no general agreement in the forum, it is likely that all BeWelcome members will be invited to vote among alternative suggestions.

Successful Donation Campaign: Thank you!

We have recently removed the donation bar from the front page of BeWelcome. This is good rather than bad news, because it means we have reached our yearly donation goal of 1,260 Euros for running the BeWelcome website.

Thank you all for all your generous donations! Your continuous support makes it possible for us to run BeWelcome without any need for external funding or advertisements.

If you would like to know more about how the donations are used, please visit our Finances page.

Volunteer Code of Conduct

BeWelcome is a volunteer-run website. Nobody at any level is being paid for their work, with volunteers spending much (if not all) of their spare time helping this community grow and connect. Whether it is programming, translating, organizing meetings, discussing the features and future of BeWelcome on the forums and helping other members, volunteers are central to this community!

To keep things civilized, polite and constructive, we have now introduced a "Volunteer Code of Conduct" which is a set of guidelines to aid volunteers in their interactions both with each other and with our members. These are not rules or reasons to dismiss a volunteer for poor performance but constructive guidance to enable volunteers to find solutions. If members have an issue with a volunteer, they can contact the respective team coordinators or the Board of Directors.

BeVolunteer has a new home

BeWelcome is run by a non-profit organization called BeVolunteer, which in the past, was a concept difficult to understand, given that information about BeVolunteer could only be found on the BeWelcome wiki. We are happy to announce that everything you always wanted to know about BeVolunteer can now be found at www.bevolunteer.org.

Get active and update your profile

• Update your profile: Give other members the chance to get a first impression of yourself by adding a profile picture and fleshing out your profile.
• Invite friends to BeWelcome
• Join or start a BeWelcome group: If no group for your region or interests exists, you can create your own and invite others to join.
• Spread the word: We have some active members spreading the word in social networks. If you want to join and promote BeWelcome among your contacts and also get updates about the website, you can follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Use BeWelcome actively for great times, travel and wonderful hospitality experiences.