LIVE: Alaska Collective Q&A
Alaska Collective Questions and Answers
Here is the place to find the answers to your questions about the current Collective being held in Alaska!
Please check out the list of questions and answers below to see if yours has already been addressed. If not, please use the form at the bottom of this page to send us your question and we will respond to you as quickly as we can.
Please check this page for regular updates to the questions submitted!
For problems with your account or general questions unrelated to the Alaska Collective, please Contact Us on this other page.
(Last updated: 20 June 2008)
Questions
General
Communications
Participation
Technology
Answers:
General
What's a Collective?
CouchSurfing Collectives (CSC) are held in order to bring participants together to improve the CouchSurfing website and grow our community. Participants enjoy an exotic and fun environment, as well as free meals and accommodation. They are invited in order to contribute towards improving the CouchSurfing experience for everyone. The Alaska Collective is CouchSurfing's 6th Collective.
When is the Alaska Collective?
The Collective will take place from 15 May 2008 to 22 August 2008.
Returning participants from the Thailand Collective are arriving on different dates between 15 May and 1 June, with all other participants arriving around 1 June 2008. You can see the exact dates that participants are arriving here.
Where is the Alaska Collective?
This Collective is being held in Homer, Alaska, USA.
Why hold the Collective in Alaska?
Alaska is a return to CouchSurfing's roots. Co-founder, Casey Fenton, lived in Alaska during CouchSurfing's birth, and many of the first community members live there. Alaska welcomes CS with strong community support, resources we know well so that we can maximize productivity, and a stunning natural landscape to attract the most talented participants. We recognize that Collective participants need recreation as fuel for the amazing things they'll be doing as dedicated participants. Alaska enables participants to be inspired and productive.
What's the Mission of the Alaska Collective?
During the Thailand Collective, we invited several participants to coordinate teams of remote volunteers, build these teams and make them sustainable. These teams of volunteers run many of the day-to-day operations of CouchSurfing. In Alaska, some of these team coordinators will return, and each returning team will have it's own mission. We will also invite new participants to build new sustainable teams. The Collective allows these new and existing teams to work together in person full-time over a four month period.
How often are Collectives held and when is the next one?
There is no set policy on how often a CouchSurfing Collective is held.
Each Collective is planned on an individual basis based upon our
needs at that time. There is currently no date set for the next
Collective, however we will be updating our CouchSurfing Collectives page when information about the next Collective is available.
Will the Alaska Collective be celebrating International CS Day on June 12 in Homer?
Yes!
We are planning on taking off to the snow in the evening - we will
arrive at Turningpass at around 6pm - all members, family and friends
are welcome to join us for a gigantic Alaskan snowball fight!
Details of the event can be found here: http://www.couchsurfing.com/meetings.html?mid=12763
Communications
Where are the priorities for the Collective posted?
The priorities for the Alaska Collective have been posted on the blog.
Where can members provide ideas for the Collective?
Any
member who applies and is accepted as a member of a specific volunteer
expert team will be able to lend their ideas and expertise towards that
team.
Why can't members leave comments on the Collective blog?
The blog has been set up as a broadcast channel and as such, we have
set it up that comments cannot be made on blog posts.
We
understand the desire for people to have input and provide feedback to
the work of the Collective. However it is felt that the time taken to
manage these blog comments effectively will make it difficult for the
Member Communication members to move forward on the projects they need
to complete at the Alaska Collective.
We are committed to getting answers for members, so if you
have a question about the Collective, then feel free to submit a
question through this page. The Member Communication members at the Collective will
be managing this page and getting answers to the questions you might
have about the work of the Collective.
How will we know what is being worked on at this Collective?
To keep members connected
with what is happening at the Collective, a Collective blog will be
updated by the Member Communications team members at the Collective,
the House Manager, and any other Collective participants that want to
contribute to entries. This is an informal communication channel,
aiming to give people a view of life at the Collective and to help keep
our remote volunteers "in touch" with the work of the volunteers at the
Collective.
You can view our Collective blog at http://blog.couchsurfing.com
We are still
finalizing the way in which we will communicate our progress against
the objectives that each team will be working on. Once this method is
finalized, information on our progress will be available from the
Alaska Collective page.
Participation
What are the roles to be filled at the Alaska Collective?
The Collective house will have as many as 20 long-term participants
living and participating together for the four month duration of our
stay in Alaska. Below is a brief descriptions of the teams and roles
at the Alaska Collective.
Collective Management:
-
Collective Management (2 positions):
Responsible
for ensuring that each expert team completes its stated objectives.
Assigns tasks to, evaluates performance of, and collects reports from
expert team coordinators. Ensures communication with the Leadership
Team and coordination with other expert teams not present at the
Collective. Ensure that needed supplies, equipment, and infrastructure
are available.
Attends
to the needs of Collective participants by maintaining healthy living
and volunteer spaces, and providing opportunities for recreation.
Enforces the house rules and mediates and resolves disputes.
Expert Team Coordination:
-
Finance & Legal:
Coordinates team to create financial documents, provide financial &
budgeting expertise, create legal documents, provide legal expertise,
and anticipates financial and legal needs.
-
Project Management:
Coordinates team to provide project management expertise and monitor all current and proposed projects.
-
Volunteer Coordination (2 positions):
Coordinates team to recruit, motivate, and match volunteers with the appropriate expert teams and projects.
-
Member Communications (2 positions):
Coordinates team to create communication channels with members through our website.
-
User Experience Design:
Coordinates team to create designs, graphics, layouts, wireframes and navigation to ensure great user experiences.
-
User Experience Research:
Coordinates
team to provide research and data analysis of the user experience and
to quantify our success in achieving our vision and mission.
-
Identity:
Coordinates team to ensure the all website content, communications, and initiatives are consistent with our identity.
-
Technology:
Coordinates team to provide website programming, and server and database administration.
-
Member Disputes & Safety:
Coordinates team to help members resolve disputes and provide for member safety.
-
Fund-Raising & Grants:
Coordinates team to develop and implement member supported fund-raising techniques and apply for grants.
Technology Team:
-
Developers, Database & System Administration (7 positions)
Works with the Technology Team Coordinator to provide website programming, and server and database administration.
Collective House Support:
-
Chef / House Assistant:
Prepares
all meals for participants and purchases groceries and supplies related
to meals. Provides assistance to House Manager.
-
Short-term Volunteers (1 per week):
Each short-term volunteer assists the House Manager and Chef as
needed. Short-term volunteers also apply with their own mission for
what they can accomplish during their one to two week stay.
Who are the participants filling these roles at the Alaska Collective?
To see the complete list of all the participants at the Alaska
Collective, including their arrival date and their hopes for their time
at the Collective click here.
How come some participants have different roles from the last Collective?
Cameron, Co-Collective Manager and Laura Gamse, House Manager are two
returning participants from the Thailand Collective. In Thailand, they
were focused on building our new Events and Outreach Team, and
succeeded in getting this team at a sustainable point where it can now
operate remotely.
Cameron showed tremendous leadership at the Thailand Collective and due
to the heavy workload of the Collective Manager role, was asked if he
were able to return to volunteer in capacity of Co-Collective Manager.
Laura applied for the House Manager role, and was successful in gaining
the position after going through our recruitment process.
Both are still working for the Events and Outreach Team, but their work
on this team will not be their focus during the Alaska Collective.
Will participant food, housing or travel be paid for by CouchSurfing?
CouchSurfing will provide all participants with housing and meals. Local travel and some recreation opportunities will also be provided. Long-distance travel compensation will be provided to returning participants from the Thailand Collective to reward them for their continued dedication. The House Manger will also receive long-distance travel compensation due to the larger burden of that role.
What if I just want to visit the Alaska Collective?
In order to maintain a productive and comfortable living space for
participants, the Collective house will not be open to unannounced
visitors. We have reserved space for several short-term participants
who will be pre-approved based on their applications. Other
CouchSurfing Members who are visiting or who live in Alaska will have
an opportunity to join participants for meals or off-hours recreation
activities. Walk in visitors are not possible, therefore all visitors
must contact the House Manager before arrival.
Do Collective participants have special visas?
CouchSurfing will counsel each non-US participant on which visa option is the best for them based on advice from our legal team. We will ensure that each participant is set to go with the visas they need.
How can I apply to join the Alaska Collective?
All positions at the Collective have now been filled. CouchSurfing has selected a small number of highly skilled members who were able to stay in Alaska for at least three months and make a long-term commitment extending beyond the Collective itself. We have also selected several short-term participants who will support the House Manager for one to two weeks each.
I can't attend the Collective, but I still want to help. What should I do?
The on-site participants at the Alaska Collective will be coordinating remote volunteers. If you have strong professional experience and a passion for your profession, please apply as a remote team member. You may also contact the participant listed who represents the team you wish to apply for.
Technology
Why does downtime seem to increase during collectives? It isn't all us, but some of it is. Since we work remotely most of the time, the tech team is reluctant to commit large code changes until they are all together under one roof. This is done at the collectives, and sometimes results in the need to take servers offline temporarily. New code can also cause new problems, which we fix as soon as they come up!
We are also having some issues with server load, which means that when many people are logged in and loading pages at once, we get site down messages. We are working on upgrading everything over the summer.
Right now we are creating redundant DB setups to avoid downtimes
(single points of failure), moving several functions to their own
servers (scalability), and setting up a better system of communication
for planned downtime.
We are working on our notification system to all members. Here is a breakdown of current scheduled downtime notification procedures:
Downtime:
-
<1 minute: Nothing required.
-
1-4 minutes: Requires a "don't panic" email to key volunteers through
the emergency response channel notifying what is going on.
-
5-29 minutes: Requires at least 12 hours notice to the Tech Team, the Communications Team and the emergency response channel.
-
30-59 minutes: Requires at least one week notice to the Leadership
Team (LT) & the Communications Team. A 12 hour notice should be
given to the Tech Team and emergency response channel.
-
60-240 minutes: Require at least one week notice to the LT for approval. Communicate the same as 30-60 mins.
-
>240 minutes: To be avoided at all cost. Break downtime into 240 minute increments separated by at least 1 week.
More sophisticated notification methods are being discussed that will hopefully keep everyone informed ahead of time when possible.
Can you explain how CS hosting works? Couchsurfing.com is hosted on 20 rented servers.
We rent for several reasons. Given Moore's Law (speed of computers double every 18 months), our
hardware would quickly become outdated if we committed to the full
price of purchase. Instead of paying out big cash to own the servers,
it is more economically feasible to lease them from a webhost on a
monthly basis. Included in our agreement with them is upgrading of
systems as certain components become outdated.
We currently have a sysadmin team of volunteers that works in
conjunction with the paid webhost company to keep the servers running.
How can I learn more? Where can I ask questions?
If you have any questions about or related to the Collective or the work being completed, please submit your them using the link at the top of this page. We will be adding answers to this Q&A page regularly to make sure members have the answers to their questions about this current Collective. Please check back here for updates!
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