Editing Rural: background, past and future (section)

== Rural hospex timeline ==

Rural Hospex started when [http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/xnothingxheldxbackx Taylor] was looking at a map of Australia in May 2007 and planning how to hitch-hike around. He realized that outside of the major urban centers there was very few rural hosts...but that there were still lots of people between. So then he started thinking about a way to network all the people in rural areas together, for people who would rather travel rural areas than urban areas. He first posted about in the following threads: [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=4410&post=213208#gpid213208 Nomadic Ambassador Forum ] [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=1668&post=214144#gpid214144 Ambassador Private Group] (private, sorry)and in the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=429&post=260874#gpid260874 Brainstorm Group]. More discussion points were created in the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=5084&post=487964 Australian CS Organization] [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=5084&post=554395 1] [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=5084&post=568316 2] and the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=567836#gpid567836 Ambassador Public Group] before the with the wiki page being first created on December 18th, 2007 [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=5084&post=585865].

With the creation of the wiki page he then tried to raise support for Rural CS by posting in the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=623&post=635071 WWOOF'ers Groups], [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=622&post=668971#gpid668971 WWOOF Group] and the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=24&post=668980#gpid668980 Alternative ways of Living & Consuming Group].

Eventually he realized that if he wanted the project to go ahead he would have to start it himself. On Feb 29, 2008 he created the [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=9949 Rural Couchsurfing Group]. Through discussions in the group Taylor met [http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=1C55KUU Baptou] and asked him if he was interested in working on the project together. They worked together to develop the wiki, created a poll and tried to get the project off the ground. Taylor was able to make contact with some members of the [[Leadership Team]] (then the title for the people who ran Couchsurfing). Discussions about possible including a way to search for rural couches directly in the couchsurf ensued, lasting from April until August. It was fraught with misunderstandings, lack of communication and mis-communication on the part of the 'Leadership Team'. At one point they were told it was a 'high priority' only for that to be a mis-understanding as well. Baptou and Taylor met at Clement's apartment in Grenoble, France to work on the project together. Finally it came through that the LT was on a completely different wavelength and then things started to move slowly again. Rural CS was brought up at the French Ambassador meeting that year so France Rural started to gather momentum then. The google maps were first started in January 2009 and slowly built from there. The Rural CS 'Team' Group was created on Mar 17, 2009 to try to bring people together interested on the project.