# Philosophy & Design

You can also click on this [*<mark style="color:purple;">Iink</mark>*](https://www.space-exchange.xyz/getstarted) for better readability.

**One sentence:&#x20;**<mark style="color:purple;">**Building tools that can help people live a quality life at a low cost**</mark>**.**&#x20;

There are two components to this web app. **Member** and **Community**

As a user, you could **create a new exchange post** on the header and post information about your room for other people to view.

However, merely posting your post is not enough. For other people to view your post, you need to belong to at least one community. If you click the **Community** tab on the header, under the **Manage Communities** section, you will see a button saying **create a new community.** You can create a new community by clicking the button and filling out the form. After you create the community, you can click on the **Members tab** under the community profile and add members to the community. Additionally, you can also **join an existing community** by **giving your username** to one of the community admin and asking them to add you to the community.

In fact, this web app is designed for **established IRL (In Real Life) communities** (e.g. DAOs, Co-living Spaces, people who formed a community by living together in a desert place for 3 months, etc.)

Since the people within the community sometimes want to travel to other places ranging from a few days to a couple of months, it creates two needs: **1) a vacant place needing to be rented out**, and **2) a place for the person to stay at the travel destination.** Both needs can be resolved quickly by sharing your space information within your community.

Different from Airbnb or Couchsurfing where they try to connect with strangers, this web app is designed for **"Acquaintance Community".** For example, people who participated in a co-living space (whether that person is actually living there or participated in an event hosted by the space) are acquaintances to each other within the community. At most, the degree of connection would not exceed 2.

Exchange your place with other people in your community can have a lot of perks. The obvious thing is that since it's an acquaintance community, it eliminates the need to background check the person renting your room. The cost of renting or sharing a place is also greatly reduced. For big cities like NYC, you're more likely to get a place with a lower-than-market rate. After all, you're doing a favor to your friend, or your friend's friend. What's more valuable here is the network. If it's a co-living community, you're also more likely to get more local interaction and feel much better hanging out with actual people than just being a tourist.

If you find the place you want to rent within the community through the members' post. You are **encouraged to contact the person directly** by clicking on their profile page. There should be a list of social media contact methods that person has. If you're already a friend, great, just send the person a message. If you're not a friend yet but you belong to the same community, just send a friend invitation, and let the conversation begin. Since this web app is still at its early stage, there are other more convenient features yet to be built. For any questions, please contact me at: <lucy1049684100@gmail.com>
