Future Features (2006-07-26)

From CouchsurfingPhoenix

Today we had a short workshop about Future feature, we needed to save time for some other workshops which could not be postponed.

Our attention focused on the CouchSurfing Trip Planner. It´s a huge project, with a goal, making the trip planning process easier. Casey illustrated to us his vision of the planner, and each workshop partecipant added his own ideas.

This is the Trip Planner process:

- You start the idea of a new trip

- Begin building the trip on the website. You add the city you want to visit, with the dates you´ll be there to your project.

- Once finished, you´ll have a plan with all places listed. Let´s find the host. For each place, you will be presented with a list of possible hosts. You can add your own search criteria, like miles, distance, interests, teach/learn/share and so on.

- The plan is complete. Now it is possible to mass email all the hosts you choose, requesting a couch. People requested for, can accept, decline or request more information. Once the host accepts your request, that place in your trip is locked. A reminder email will be sent to the host and to the surfer some days before the visit.

This process may seem a little too rigid, but in fact it´s very flexible. We discussed about the needing of making this trip planner more flexible. In fact will be possible to:

- Change your trip plan whenever you want.

- the system should allow a surfer to enter a broad date(Ex: Amstersam, Holland in a date between April and May". This will be altered when a host agrees on a specific date. We noted that requesting a couch with a broad range of days is 90% useless, unless a host can choose the best time.

- Decide to build your trip step by step, place by place, host by host. You are not required to finish building your trip before requesting couches. You can do it even after adding the first place to visit. In addition, you can decide not to mass mail all hosts together, even if this will save time, but send them a personalized message.

- Even if an host accepted your request, you can always change idea. Remember anyway that an host has to organize for your comind, it´s better you inform them of the change not the last day.

The trip plan will remain saved on your personal trip page if you want, and it will be helpful for example to write a journal of your trips.