The recovery of CouchSurfing and the birth of version 2.0

There's a remarkable group here at the CouchSurfing Collective in Montreal and we were just really getting started when the crash happened on June 27th. That night felt like a vigil in the hospital waiting room as we watched the prognosis get worse and worse. The database was in the intensive care unit with some of the best doctors in the world, but by the next afternoon it seemed clear that we could not recover the data from the damage of the perfect storm.

Founder and creator, Casey Fenton announced on June 29, 2006 that CouchSurfing as we knew it was gone.

Emails flooded in: shock, sadness, gratitude, offers of support. The Collective created a message board with " refugee camps" for stranded surfers and hosts, communications from the core team, and a CSC blog. The global community responded and members from around the world rushed in to share their thoughts, comments and support.

Dedicated members created support websites such as CouchSufing-Phoenix, SaveCouchSurfing and CS2 in record time. The Collective was in crisis mode and couldn't keep up with all the remote help, but they offered amazing support to a community who needed them.

Casey took a step back, took a deep breath, and recognized the truth of the situation. The members were saying loud and clear: CouchSurfing is more than just the data. The data was dead, but the people, the true heart of the project, were still very much alive

The CSC and Casey announced we would rebuild! We saw an opportunity how can CouchSurfing not only come back, but come back better? The answer came right from the community. Overwhelmingly people said two things:

• CouchSurfing is more than the couches; it has changed my life and can make the world better.

• I want to help bring it back and participate in the project's future.

This became the CS v.2.0 mission: " Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time"

The recovery and rebuilding effort began with enthusiasm and passion. Help arrived in all directions: food drops, fly-ins, donations, and hugs. The CSC became a bustling work headquarters with members showing up out of the blue to get down to business. It was time to get the website re-launched and decentralize at the same time. Hours of programming and content writing resulted in not only a transitional website being built, but the CouchSurfing Version 2.0 launch in 4 days, 6 earlier than predicted.