SERVAS Online Status

Publiziert am 1. Juli 2019 von Walter Dieringer

Overview

Servas Online started in the autumn 2016. Until 2019 more than 50 countries were maintaining their member data in Servas Online, for example (see https://servas.org/de/node/5851 ): 

Argentina (278), Australia (697), Austria (260)
Belgium (401), Brazil (154), Britain (801), Bulgaria (26)
Canada (423), China (27), Croatia (17), ?Czech Republic (133)
Denmark (378)
France (2.324)
Germany (1.830)
Hungary (138)
India (174), Indonesia (33), Ireland (72), Israel (167), ?Italy (1416)
Japan (218)
Latvia (10), Luxemburg (19)
Mexico (79)
Netherlands (273), New Zealand (298), ?Norway (118)
?Poland (140), ?Portugal (52)
Romania (25), ?Russia (100)
Slovakia (35), South Africa (66), ?South Korea (184), Spain (737), Sweden (363), Switzerland (278)
Taiwan (126), Thailand (38), ?Turkey (220)
USA (1700)

However, some „big“ member countries are still missing in SERVAS Online (e.g. Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia).

Pros of SERVAS Online

1.    All members

  • are able to search for hosts online, using manifold search criteria
  • may send messages and friendship requests to other SERVAS members 
  • may edit and print their Letter of Introduction 
  • may use the help pages available in different languages:

2.    Country administrators

  • can produce a PDF host list in SERVAS Online and upload it onto Dolphin
  • can use the button „Export results“ to get a nearly complete export of their country’s data. This feature can be used to monitor from time to time whether entries have been changed, or to identify erroneous entries.

3.    Data security

  • data is stored only if it is necessary for the aims of our association (to find hosts). This corresponds to data austerity (Datensparsamkeit in German language)
  • SERVAS Online does not store any sensitive data in terms of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (no data about health, labour union, religion, sexual orientation).
  • According non-sensitive personal data nor the social security number neither the full date of birth is stored. SERVAS Online only contains the YEAR of birth, name, addresses and profession in this data category.
  • data transfer to https://servas.org is encrypted by HTTPS using a certificate officially signed by GeoTrust :
         

Issues of SERVAS Online

1.    Issues regarding one’s own data

  • Languages:
    • language levels revert(ed) to basic on certain circumstances. This bug was not yet solved in 2017.
    • Languages cannot be rearranged in „My Profile“ (although it is very easy to reselect the languages)
  • the section „Letter of Introduction“ is only available in „My Profile“, if you are assigned the role „Traveller“ (in addition to the role „Host“). Please contact your country administrator, if you do not see the section „Letter of Introduction“. 
    ==> in my opinion EVERY member (regardless of the roles) should be able to edit the section „Letter of Introduction“
  • solved 2018-01:  many of our members got the error message “Save previous block and edit it“ and did not get rid of it. Obviously, they clicked on “Edit” in a second block without having pressed “Update …” before. ==> this error message was rephrased in January 2018 by „You are currently editing another section of your profile. Please save it by clicking on the green update button before you can edit this one“: 

2.    Issues when searching for hosts

Issues regarding search queries:

  • search criteria „Select a country“ offers no way to know beforehand whether a desired country is already in SERVAS Online ==> I suggest to add the number of hosts to every line of countries, e.g. 
        
  • search criteria „Able to Host“ currently does not work, e.g. a search for Danish hosts who can accommodate 1 person yields 79. A search for hosts  who can accommodate 1 woman yields 13. P/persons/people intuitively include F/women as well as M/men and C/children. Therefore  looking for 1F, I would expect to find also all members hosting 1 or more P – what currently is NOT the case
  • there is no search history. You have to select your search criteria (especially the country  field) EVERY TIME you do a re-search. However, a traveller is very likely searching many times for hosts in the same country, therefore the country field could show up the value selected during the last search.

Issues regarding search results:

  • In the search result it is not clear whether you found a single member or a couple. When travelling alone this may be negligible, but when I travel with my wife we prefer to visit couples. There should be a clearly visible indicator if there is a second SERVAS member in a household!
  • When searching for members, the lines „Number of persons able to host“ and „Day Host“ should be adjacent/close together in the hosting information (so that erroneous hosting information can easily be detected, with „Day Host: No“ but missing entry in „Number of persons able to host“)
  • guarding the profile of a host found, there is no possibility to show up the location of this host in a map
  • „Print List“ of selected hosts: attribute DH (day host) wasn’t printed in Dec 2017 

Other issues:

  •  error „Unable to send e-mail. Contact the site administrator if the problem persists“ = „Die E-Mail konnte nicht versendet werden. Treten Sie bitte mit dem Website-Betreiber in Verbindung falls das Problem erneut auftritt“ when sending messages to members without email for notifications (2018-12-02), although there is a standard visible email address available!

3.    Issues for country administrators

The issues are order by urgency:

  • monitoring: we can’t see neither the last login of a member nor the date of the last update of a member’s data 
  • placement on the map is by default in the „center“ of something
    e.g. the center of a maybe really vast „servas region“,
    in the center of a whole country (as it is the case with Spain),
    or even worse world’s (0,0) „zero point“ near Ghana (longitude zero on the equator),
    or often also on road 3900 between Kansas City and Dallas in USA!
    ==> the default placement should be the center of the town of a member! 
  • PDF host list:
    • list of abbreviations is missing
    • „VAC:“ is by mistake always printed (in every member’s entry)
    • my Skype account „Dieringer63“ is printed in the host list without context (the reader does not know, what the isolated text „Dieringer63“ should mean …)
    • solved 2018-02-09: producing a PDF host list by using https://servas.org > Configuration > People > Members list (https://servas.org/de/admin/people/members-list/at), the last view pages were missing. I had to add them manually before uploading our host list onto key dolphin. This bug is not yet solved.
  • editing: solved 2018-04: administrators are now able to modify languages, „live with“, „placement on the map“ of the members; solved later on in 2018: „Email for servas notifications“. Country administrators currently cannot interactively modify only the photo of members
  • default settings:
    • „Country“ could be predefined for country administrators
    • „Currency“ of membership and eStamp could be derived from the country
    • „Role“ of new members could be „Traveller“ and/or „Host“ by default

4.   Issues in English translations

  • „Family welcome: No“ and „Youth welcome: No“ sound harsh and insulting to families and young travellers. SERVAS Austria recommends „suitable for families“ and „suitable for young travellers“
  • solved 2018 in German translation only: „geeignet für Familien“, „geeignet für Jugendliche“

5.    Issues in German translation

  • Gendering: button „Als Freund hinzufügen“ ==> „Als Freund/in hinzufügen“ or „Als Freund(in) hinzufügen“
  • Printing a list of found members: the button at the top says „Alles ersetzen“ which means „Replace everything“ – it should be „Alle auswählen“ („Select all“)

Data migration methods in 2017

There were different ways to put the host data of a country into Servas Online:

  1. Migration from Dolphin to Servas Online: Some SERVAS countries that had their data in the „Dolphin“ system before used Janek’s Dolphin exports to Excel and Bernard’s import of this Excel sheet into Servas Online. Many thanks to Janek and Bernard for their work and help! (this method was used by Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland and others)
  2. Sample Excel sheet: Another possibility is to complete a sample Excel sheet with about 70 columns and to give it to Bernard for the import into Servas Online (as done by SERVAS Slovakia)
  3. Online: The host data can be filled in interactively by a country administrator using „Add an application“. I would recommend this method to SERVAS countries with few members. Last but not least, the data can be filled in interactively by the members themselves.

In any case, it is still necessary that the individual members modify their level of knowledge of languages and their placement on the map, because this could not be done automatically in 2017.

Veröffentlicht unter Reports in English, SERVAS Online | Verschlagwortet mit | Ein Kommentar

Swiss Servas Hosts With A Lot To Say

Publiziert am 6. Juni 2019 von Walter Dieringer

** von Renee Chinquapin **

I once again biked about Switzerland, this time staying with 12 Servas hosts, mostly for two nights each, in the cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Bern and Schwyz. Instead of commenting on the natural beauty and serenity of Switzerland, I focus in this report on what sort of exchanges I had with my generous, considerate hosts, most all of whom are retired, children long out of the house. Almost all are in long-term marriages and are all extremely active, with grandchildren, travel, volunteer work, gardening, living rich, full lives.

If Servas is indeed about exchanging views and experiences, mostly in an intercultural context, then I did manage to share my thoughts about the political situation in the USA and Austria with my Swiss hosts, who seemed to know absolutely nothing about Austria. 

But otherwise I would say that our exchange involved them speaking and me listening. I give this some thought and came up with the following possible explanations. These were all highly intelligent, socially engaged, well-traveled, idealistic people. Thought they spend a lot of time involved with others, rarely do they get a chance to freely speak at length to a genuinely interested listener like me (it was my profession, to listen to clients who came to my psychology practice). They seemed to love being heard, their thoughts and feelings being respected — I didn’t challenge them or disagree; how often does that happen? Thus, our exchange was genuine and balance — they actively spoke, I actively, respectfully listened, asking evocative questions. 

But it also occurs to me that nowadays we elders are no longer the font of wisdom . . . Googleis. No one asks us questions if they can get the/an answer online. So our natural role as elders — carriers of experience and collective wisdom — has been usurped by a search machine. 

Thus I believe that it is no coincidence that my hosts had a tremendous need to speak and be listened to. After all we’ve spent our lives reflecting and learning, it is only natural we wish to pass this on to others as long as we can.

Renee

Veröffentlicht unter Reports in English, Westeuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar

Buchvorstellung in Hamburg Mai 2019

Publiziert am 4. Mai 2019 von Lorenz Glatz

Servas-Freundinnen im Hamburg haben uns, Hedwig und Lorenz, eingeladen, das Buch über die Servas-„Reisen zu verlorenen Nachbarn. Die Juden von Wiesmath“ an zwei Abenden vorzustellen. Das Interesse der Teilnehmer und die Gepräche mit ihnen waren sehr berührend, und unsere Betreuung durch Elke und Henry, die uns beherbergten, Conny, die Präsidentin von Servas Deutschland und Christa, die uns die für uns Landratten ja ungewöhnliche Stadt zeigten, war ein Verwöhnprogramm. Wir bedanken uns auch herzlich für die langen, freundlichen und bereichernden Unterhaltungen.


Christa, Elke, Lorenz, Conny und Hedwig

Veröffentlicht unter Berichte nach Ländern, Friede/Peace, Westeuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar

Mexiko – Österreich – Deutschland: mehr als 20 Jahre (Servas-)Freundschaft

Publiziert am 3. Mai 2019 von Walter Dieringer

** von Dorothea **

Raúl war in den 80er-Jahren in seiner Servas-Gastgeberliste von Italien auf die Möglichkeit für Freiwilligenarbeit in AGAPE gestossen (eine Seminareinrichtung für alle Altersgruppen und Religionen, organisiert von der protestantischen Valdenserkirche, in den Bergen westlich von Turin).

Doro fand Agape in den 90er-Jahren, ebenfalls durch Informationen in einer Servas-Liste.

Christina kam durch ihre Kirche nach Agape.

Im Sommer 1996 trafen alle drei dort als Freiwillige aufeinander , hatten unheimlich viel Spass bei der Arbeit und wurden gute Freunde. Im Laufe der Jahre verlor man sich etwas aus den Augen – bis Christina vor drei Jahren mit ihrer Familie aus Norddeutschland nach Wien übersiedelte, und Raúl dieses Jahr beschloss, seine vielen Freunde in Europa wieder einmal zu besuchen.

1996
2019
Christinas Familie und Raúl in Wien
Raúls Familie in Mexico
Raúl und Doro auf Entdeckungsfahrt im nördlichen Slowenien

Veröffentlicht unter Berichte nach Ländern, Lateinamerika, Westeuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar

Porto and Lisbon

Publiziert am 3. Mai 2019 von Walter Dieringer
Portugese Road Sign

** von René Chinquapin **

I’d visited Porto and Lisbon once before, in 1967, during the Salazar dictatorship. Like Ireland back then, I found Portugal mired in the past, its people despairing and poverty-stricken.

          In the Fall of 2018 I visited once again.

          I began by contacting Servas Hosts in Lisbon, to little avail. It seems that Air B&B has dislodged Servas for many hosts, for life in Portugal is still hard and the Portuguese need the extra income AirBnB affords. Visiting Portugal is affordable for us, but through the introduction of the Euro life tehre has become horrifically expensive for the Portuguese themselves whose salaries have lagged way behind. One Lisbon Servas hostess tried to fit me in between paying guests but it didn’t work out. Another Servas fellow kept juggling me from one date to another. Most did not respond at all.

          I eventually ended up renting an Air BnB room where it turned out I could not sleep at all for all the noise in the street below. Not only was there much shouting and yelling in the streets below, but the garbage and recycling was crashingly collected  four times every night, one for paper, one for bottles, etc. I then spent the following three weeks dealing with the bedbugs I picked up in what I can only call a disorderly, dingy, cold, down-and-out fourth-floor walkup apartment with exposed electrical switch boxes.         

          I did spend three nights with that Servas guy juggling Air BnB visitors. I also had to sleep on his lumpy, short couch in his disorderly, dirty living room, often overwhelmed by his huge, extremely friendly dog; forget comfort, forget privacy. I had to share the impossibly tiny, disorganized kitchen with his renters and the terrace was screaming loud with dozens and dozens of screeching songbirds and their poop. It was a mess, to say the least.

          My host’s life was so full that the little time he spent with me I had to share him with innumerable WhatsApp friends and admirers. He was a great guy, whom I liked and respected, and he kindly invited me to come and stay with him again. But he also warned me to write many months in advance so that he could somehow squeeze me in.

          Outside Lisbon I had better luck. I stayed with three lovely Servas hostesses west of town who do not receive so many requests. Each of them was single and struggling, financially and with family difficulties. One’s house was being painted — all the furniture was heaped in a corner of the living room. They appreciated my company and support, two of them remaining in contact with me by email afterwards — the human contact was satisfying, as is usually the case with Servas. And I got to see how, behind a facade of modernity and functionality, most Portuguese continue to live hard, hard lives, radically different from life in cushy Austria.

          It was the same story in Porto, where only one of the hosts I contacted responded. She wrote back that she was so overwhelmed that I could only stay one night and that she had only assented to my visit because I had written that I am a cat person.

          Basically, it seems, visiting Porto with Servas is pretty much out of the question.

          In Porto as in Lisbon, I ended up renting an Air BnB room pretty far out of town where a few surprises awaited me. I learned upon arrival that the host was not staying there during my stay at all and had given one of his legal clients permission to use his bedroom. Not the host but a neighbor opened the place up for me and showed me my room. That night a total stranger slept in the room next to me. Next day, the apartment door lock broke. For the entire stay I had to leave the apartment door unlocked when I went out to explore town.

          Paying for an Air BnB alternative to staying with a Servas host can be, in Lisbon and Porto, well, challenging. Even staying with Servas hosts can be difficult as well, despite their best intentions and efforts. Life is hard there.

          With much effort and travail I did get to visit these two wonderful cities; I did get to enjoy great museums; I did get to spend a warm, late-fall afternoon listening to the waves beat on the beach. I don’t regret my visits, but I returned to Vienna exhausted and glad to still still during the Winter.

          Something that I’d like to share with readers of this piece is that Portugal has lost not only its far-flung empire since I was there last, it has lost its industry and agriculture as well, leaving it nearly entirely dependent on tourism. The central areas of Porto and Lisbon were simply mobbed with French, Italian, German and British tourists. Streets too were full of whizzing tuk-tuks, tiny open taxis resembling what one sees in Asia — one nearly ran me over.

Portugese Church

          Portugal now resembles what Florence, Paris and Amsterdam have been these fifty years, namely, such strong tourist magnets that during the tourist season, masses of tourists, not locals, throng the downtowns of these cities. The plus side of all this is all the Portuguese I spoke with spoke English well, better than the Italians and French.

          The big downside for me, this time, anyway, is that seemed to me that  these tourists seemed to have no interest in relating to other tourists. We were all on parallel tracks, so to speak, each seeking the same experiences promised in every guidebook. I felt quite lonely in the crowds of gawking tourists, mostly couples there for few days of romance.

          Should you wish to visit Porto and or Lisbon, I sorrowfully suggest that you do not do so with Servas, nor with an affordable AirBnB room, but that you pay whatever it takes to stay in a perhaps sterile but comfortable, clean, vermin-free, secure hotel room or more expensive AirBnB. Moreover, I would book a long time in advance.

          Porto and Lisbon are wonderful cities with a great deal to offer. The Portuguese are great folks, well-informed, generous and open-minded. The problem visiting their country is that you will surely find yourself elbowed everywhere by eager, less-than-friendly fellow tourists there a few days to consume the Portugal Experience.

Veröffentlicht unter Reports in English, Westeuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar

SERVAS Online Tipps und Meetings

Publiziert am 28. April 2019 von Walter Dieringer

Ein guter Einstieg in die Welt von SERVAS Online sind 

Restriktionen von SERVAS Online: siehe Beitrag SERVAS Online Status

Mit SERVAS Online werden einige gewohnte Elemente bei SERVAS Österreich hinfällig:

  • Fragebogen für neue hosts
  • Fragebogen für Änderungen in der host list
  • herbstliche Hostlistenaktualisierung
  • Letter of Introduction im .odt-, .docx-, .doc-Format 

In Österreich fanden folgende Meetings zum Thema SERVAS Online statt:

  • Linz: Am Gründberghof am 23. November 2017.
  • Wien in Mnozils Gaststätte am 2. Dezember 2017:

Cecilia, Doro, Eva, Walter, Margarete, Martin, Britta, Priska, Carola, Angelika

  • Wien in Mnozils Gaststätte am 28. April 2019:
    Vorher: FRUST

    Nachher: ERFOLG!

    Anwesend waren (im Foto von links nach rechts): Barbara, Susanne, Walter, Renate & Frank, Michaela, Heide. Nicht im Bild: Doro, Heidi, Renee

 

Veröffentlicht unter SERVAS Online | Schreib einen Kommentar

Brunnenpassage 7.4.19

Publiziert am 24. April 2019 von Lorenz Glatz

Diesmal waren wir 8 Servasse beim Picknick in der Brunnenpassage.
Neben Organisatorischem wie Pickerl-, Visitenkarten-, Jahresbeitragweitergabe tauschten wir Neuigkeiten, Reiseberichte und Lebensgeschichten aus. Zu viert gingen wir dann noch in den Schwarzenbergpark. Der Servas-Treffpunkt am Brunnenmarkt jeden ersten Sonntag im Monat bewährt sich. Für das Foto haben wir uns einige Freundinnen geholt, nicht nur um den Altersdurchschnitt zu reduzieren, sondern auch um uns zu internationalisieren.  
Veröffentlicht unter Berichte nach Ländern, Österreich | Schreib einen Kommentar

Alpe Adria Sept. 2019

Publiziert am 31. März 2019 von Walter Dieringer

Einladung, nähere Infos, Preis, ProgrammAnmeldung
Bitte ausdrucken, ausfüllen und an alpeadria2019@email.cz schicken (bis spätestens 31.5.2019)

Veröffentlicht unter Alpe-Adria-Treffen, Osteuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar

Suzanne und Steve: Ausflug mit Gästen

Publiziert am 26. März 2019 von Lorenz Glatz

von Dorothea

Veröffentlicht unter Berichte nach Ländern, Nordamerika, Österreich | Schreib einen Kommentar

Servas Spain annual assembly ….. in SALAMANCA Thursday 5 April until Sunday 7 April

Publiziert am 14. März 2019 von Lorenz Glatz

Dear Servas Friends:
We have still 25 single rooms available. COME AND MEET US¡
(ask me about the existing free places in cars from Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante’s Servas members )

FRIDAY – SPECIAL WORKING TECHNIQUES GROUPS used to help implementing SICOGA MOTIONS.

SEE PROGAM and how to inscribe yourself (sorry only in Spanish – although the link to reservations is EASY to follow and fill):

SEE working groups instructions (sorry only in Spanish):

Warm regards,

Jorge González – Servas Alicante – Vicepresidente de Servas España

Administrador de Servas Online para España

Facebook: Servas Spain Facebook: Servas Youth Spain

www.servas.es
www.servas.org/es
wasap: +34628178638 Skype: estherjorgealex2

Veröffentlicht unter Berichte nach Ländern, Europa, Südeuropa | Schreib einen Kommentar