Street Surfing

The statements and opinions on this page are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of CouchSurfing International.

Random Actioneers will be using worldparty to spread Random Acts of Kindness (RAoKs) in general, rather than (like CouchSurfing) hosting and surfing in particular. We hope that worldparty and the Random Actioneers will have a very fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship with CouchSurfing.

Random Action is about using twitter-based mobile technology and messaging, schedule and location information, and a community of trust (based on fnetd) to facilitate acts of kindness and senseless beauty with strangers: taking a stranger out for a five-minute cup of coffee and then passing them off to someone else; just a few words exchanged on a street corner; a high five while someone is walking past; a brief tour of your workplace; a wink or a free drink in a bar; an anonymous gift left for someone on arrival in your country; etc.

At the worldparty site, actioneers will be able to register as performers, as recipients, or as organizers of random acts. Each month there will be a new "featured" act of kindness, marketed to millions worldwide. A pool of "action artists" will work with the programmers and marketers involved to choose the random acts, to build the coordination technology, and to involve the masses of people.

1 Some of our actions
2 Mottoes
3 Next Steps
4 Support
5 See also
6 Random Acts and Marketing
7 Other attempts at RAoK communities
8 Original Announcement (June 2006)

Some of our actions

talking with homeless people
setting up treasure hunts for strangers
various friendly flashmobs
flash counseling
dynamic carpooling
tool sharing
visiting the elderly
distributing farm produce
shoveling snow for strangers
picking up garbage when you go for a walk
pulling weeds from public gardens and people's boulevards and front gardens
smile and say 'good morning' to strangers as you pass
trimming overgrown shrubs for people who need it
invite strangers in for a meal
water someone's flowers or plants for them
place a flower in someone's bird bath
look for 4 leaf clovers as you walk. When you find one, give it to the next person you pass, or someone who could use a day brightener
leave spare change where children will find it in a playground
write an "inspiration sentence" on a piece of paper and give it to someone, smiling
setting up Geocaching small treasures, but easy to find as well, ok?

Mottoes

Random Action: Complete Strangers are Conspiring on Your Behalf.
Welcome to StreetSurfing: the network that connects you with strangers on the street to do beautiful things.

Next Steps

a basic architecture for the raokserver open source project which will run the site
gathering "action artists" interested in working with the programmers
gathering a group to think about marketing
gathering programmers: we want to have *lots* of people helping on the programming side, all the way through.
early marketing:
- is this "secret agent" or "spy mission" stuff, or "random acts of kindness"?
- a short video explaining the concept
- a comic strip or storyboard?

Support

Joe
Guaka^CS
phauly^CS
Luna1
amylin
Raminta
Navinkurian2002
Digs
Tiara - beautiful idea
Dani! (i do this now, it's a way of life =)
Diane (I also do this now, as a way of life =)
chmac^CS
add your name if you support the creation of this new online community

Random Acts and Marketing

Other attempts at RAoK communities

Original Announcement (June 2006)

This is an opportunity to take CouchSurfing to the streets! Until now, we have been focused on longer-term interactions--taking someone in, showing them around. But what if we could facilitate quicker things: taking a stranger out for a five-minute cup of coffee and then passing them off to someone else; just a few words exchanged on a street corner; a high five while someone is walking past; a brief tour of your workplace; a wink or a free drink in a bar; an anonymous gift left for someone on arrival in your country; etc.

We can use the maps and landmarks from travel guidebooks to mix up the worlds of locals, college students, and travelers, breaking down the barriers that keep us in our own scenes. We can plan rendezvous with complete strangers in public squares and places. Rewrite the social map!

article history edit