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:: Agree that the contents are highly subjective. However, the sound of "it is growing, we see our community growing bigger and bigger" is coming exclusively from within a group of young internet junkies, which certainly is not a mainstream group. I guess that groups always claim that they are becoming stronger, especially if they are factually a small minority. Agree that on 789 you will meet the top of the pops of motivated young webbound hitchhikers; after all 789 is an internet initiative, and promoted exclusively within internet networks. The online hospitality exchange networks have a high reach among low budget travellers and the internet is available all over those days. But is this going to change the scene? After seven years of thumbing, 56,000 kms, I would not be too sure of that.
:: What is so interesting or exiting about technological features as phones and computers; it reflects a digi-life, what is the meaning of that? The little screens take the attention away from the real life.. .. Most people who hitchhike, do it during a certain period within their lives; somewhere it starts, somewhere it ends. On average people do not hitchhike more than a couple of years, so I guess, usually between 18 and 25 years old. There is a kind of age restriction for hitchhiking, although this is not extremely strict, since individuals can see for themselves the span of time during which they still feel like it. Same applies to people on 789, but as said, such a small group has no significance in a broader view. Theorem: only a really small percentage of people who hitchhike and are active within hospitality exchange organisations likes to acknowledge the fact that their way of travelling is bound to be a marginal way of travelling. In other words: we see what we would like, hope or desire to see, in this case that hitchhiking is doing really well. Hitchwiki is not bringing a large scale revival of hitchhiking, however it can help, and more 789, in providing a warm nest, where hitchhikers can exchange their opinions, or cuddle all night on a beach near Odessa!
:: Individuals cannot change the society, while the character of society and politics highly determine the face and presence of hitchhiking as a way to deplace oneself.
:: Quote "huge potential in this sense"; what is huge then; the potential of letting a community of hitchhikers grow based on Hitchwiki and a couple of other websites is not that big at all. Rather a return of hitchhiking would depend on economic incentives, or changes in the basic structure of our society. The significance of Hitchwiki or Casa Robino is nill from a broad perspective. Twenty active hitchhikers in the Netherlands, as an example, resulting a.o. from Hitchwiki does not at all imply a sudden revival of hitchhiking. Remember that still 10 out of 16 million people primarily travel by car; also I do some 20-30% of my yearly distance in the car registered in my name.