News: restructuring, translations and feedback

Dear Caroster users,

We hope you had a great summer! Back after the summer break, but what's been going on at Caroster? We've been hard at work, and we're delighted to announce that Caroster Beta 6 is now available!

Our goal remains the same: to improve your user experience while contributing to the decarbonization of mobility. Thank you for your feedback, which enables us to develop and think about new features to meet your needs. Here's what's happened recently and what's coming up:

What's new?

🌍 Translation into German and Dutch: Thanks to the help of our contributors, Caroster is now available in two new languages. This allows us to further expand the community and make carpooling more accessible around the world!

📜 Carpooler's Charter: We have set up a charter that clarifies the commitments of drivers and passengers to ensure a respectful and pleasant carpooling experience. You can find it here: Charte du Covoitureur (FR).

💬 Feedbacks in real time: Feel free to give us your suggestions for improvements here: Caroster evolution: your suggestions. We've created statuses so you can track how your feedback is being taken into account. They are invaluable to us in improving Caroster and developing the features that matter most to you.

👋 Welcome to Mathilde: We are delighted to welcome Mathilde Draps as Product Manager. She will focus her efforts on the development of Caroster, always with the aim of best meeting your needs.

⬇️ Find out more in the team word

Currently under development 

🌐 Tolgee for better translation management: We're testing this tool to make it even easier to translate the application into new languages, and to make it easier for our community to suggest new translations. This will make Caroster more accessible internationally.

🔄 Preparing the redesign of Caroster's website: We are starting to prepare the complete redesign of the website. This project, scheduled for the end of 2024, aims to better promote Caroster's added value and its various use cases by adding a blog. It will also incorporate a simpler translation structure.

Thanks

• Many thanks to our contributors who made Caroster's translation possible:

  • German: @ben-biber (link: https://github.com/ben-biber)

  • Dutch: @Vistaus (link: https://github.com/Vistaus)

  • You can also view the Codeberg translations here: https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/caroster/web-app/.

• Thanks to all the contributors who have made this new version possible:

  • Tim Izzo, Octree (link: https://5ika.ch)

  • Simon Mulquin, Octree @smulquin (link: https://git.octree.ch/smulquin)

A word from the team

Our aim is to be as close as possible to you, and that means being transparent about our choices. Here's a second attempt with this post from Caroster's product managers, Xavier von Aarburg and Mathilde Draps.

Dear users, this beta 6 release is a new milestone for us. Thanks to external contributions, we're expanding our community with the addition of new languages, making Caroster accessible to an even wider audience. This effort is fully in line with our mission: to promote more sustainable and collaborative mobility through car sharing, while supporting the evolution of the digital commons.

One example is the Tolgee translation tool, which we are currently testing. It facilitates the contribution of new translations, paving the way for international expansion and greater user participation.

Caroster Plus seems to be winning you over with its more secure management of carpooling connections and a dedicated administrator role, particularly suited to large events. We are currently working on improving this version to enhance moderation of our community's events.

Caroster Plus is currently replacing the waiting list system in Caroster Basic with a system that alerts you by e-mail when a ride is available near your departure point. Depending on the size of the event, some people may want to stay on the waiting list system in Caroster Plus. That's why we're exploring a range of solutions to guarantee efficient connections tailored to every need.

We're also redesigning the Caroster website to make it clearer, more relevant and more in tune with your expectations. We want the project and its added value to be even more understandable, and we also want the site to become a place for information on carpooling and the decarbonization of mobility, with the addition of a blog.

Every year, during Octree week, we take the time to reflect in depth on the direction we want Caroster to take. This period of reflection, enriched by outside viewpoints, enables us to refine our long-term vision and strategy. This week took place from Monday September 30 to Friday October 4, 2024. We were able to exchange ideas together and come up with ways of improving Caroster for the future.

Time to put things straight, and we look forward to sharing more with you!

Xavier von Aarburg & Mathilde Draps - Caroster Product Managers

We were there

We've had the pleasure of participating in several recent events:

• Residency of thevirtual assembly with the Swiss from September 16 to 20.

• Numérique en commun in Chambéry, September 25 and 26.

• A workshop organized by the Modus Foundation on carpooling in Geneva on September 17, 2024.

• Mobility afterwork organized by the Modus Foundation on the theme of "Is the bicycle an effective tool for the massification of modal shift?" on September 18, 2024 at the Musée Rath.

• Participation in a workshop on cross-border mobility at the 1st Cross-border Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) on Tuesday October 8, 2024.

Useful links

🔗 Calculate your carbon footprint for your events: Are you organizing or going to a festival, concert or match? Estimate your carbon impact here: CO2 Footprint.

We hope you enjoy these updates, and look forward to hearing from you with any suggestions you may have. Thank you for being part of the Caroster community!

See you soon.

- The Caroster team