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Danielle Batist is an experienced freelance journalist, founder of Journopreneur and co-founder of the Constructive Journalism Project. She lived and worked all around the globe and covered global and local stories of poverty, exclusion and injustice. Increasingly, she moved beyond ‘problem-reporting’ to include stories about the solutions she found. She witnessed the birth of the new nation of South Sudan and interviewed the Dalai Lama. She reported for Al Jazeera, BBC and the Guardian and regularly advises independent media organisations on innovation and sustainability. She loves bringing stories to the world and finding the appropriate platforms to do so. The transformation of traditional media fascinates rather than scares her. While both the medium and the message are changing, she believes the need for good storytelling remains.
From Airbnb To Fairbnb
When I read this personal account written by a "reluctant Airbnb host" in Los Angeles in the Guardian yesterday, I was reminded of a Dutch initiative I came across the other day: Fairbnb. They are a community of activists, coders, researchers and designers who want to put the “share” back into the sharing economy. “We want to offer a community-centred alternative that prioritises people over profit and facilitates authentic, sustainable and intimate travel experiences”, they say in their manifesto.
Like Los Angeles, Amsterdam is one of many cities plagued by the "Airbnb effect". This visualisation shows just how Airbnb - and mostly commercially let places - exploded in the city. More and more initiatives pop up to try and showcase the problems, like Insideairbnb.com, a site that scrapes data from Airbnb to show how much of the listings are actually owned by property developers rather than individuals renting out their spare rooms.
Like many, I love the principle idea behind Airbnb and I have had great experiences staying with people I'd otherwise never have met. But that is no longer the full story of Airbnb: beyond the "win-win" situations it created, there are now people - and communities - losing out too. Yesterday’s article highlights the need for push back once again.
