Hi All,
I started out with the questions about Couch Surfing, and now I know! This summer I was both a host and a surfer and it was a great experience. There were tonnes of adventures to be had that were not in the tour books and that I could only have had by meeting and staying with locals.
One thing to note was that in some cities (and I assume at certain times of the year) it is very difficult to find active hosts who are not already swamped with surfers. I asked more than 30 possible hosts in Rome and wasn't able to find an opening there (asking as much as 2 months to 2 days ahead of time.) Perhaps it was just bad timing, but more likely it was just that the city was just really over run with travellers.
I encourage anyone who is interested to check it out and get involved.

Allyssa