AirBedandBreakfast has done a pretty impressive job of capitalizing on the inauguration. It's been surprising to see HomeAway, with its half a billion dollars of funding and existing marketshare in the vacation rentals space, completely miss the boat.

Corporate bureaucracy is a creative vacuum.

this is awesome. never knew there was a market for spaces under tables! i am completely inspired and have now decided to list the space under my desk. :)

what do ya'll think about couch surfing? http://www.couchsurfing.com/ "creating a better world, one couch at a time"

not entrepreneurial enough?

I used it to visit the south of japan and it was a really nice experience... I kind of like the more voluntary less commercial atmosphere of the community at couch surfing.

same here. the community is awesome. when we have couch surfers we lend them bikes and take them to local hacker spaces. it's a great way to meet interesting people.

the cs website is community driven in its infrastructure, too, not just web 2.0.

For what it's worth, I am looking for a place to stay and Youth Ball tickets... have parade tickets to trade.

As far as I know the youth ball tickets aren't available yet. The ticketing process for the balls is quite mysterious. I received an e-mail earlier from the Obama campaign to pre-order ball tickets but the youth ball wasn't listed. Currently I'm under the assumption that tickets will be at door, or available for purchase a day or two in advance.

Interesting... I suspect that some people have them based on Craigslist listings. I do wonder if it won't be open bar based on the $75 rather than $150 ticket price and the 18+ age requirement.

Did you end up buying tickets for one of the other balls?

Does anybody older than me remember if there was this much hoopla around the 2000 inauguration?

Many were upset over the whole "Supreme Court Election" thing, but once that debacle was over, it was business as usual.

There was not this much hoopla for the 2000 inauguration. This is likely due to the dragged out election ultimately stolen by the supreme court, and that it was yet another white guy assuming the role of the presidency.

This inauguration is historic for severeal reasons, the most obvious one being that it's the first time the United States has elected an African American. Second, it's hopefully a clean break from the devastation of the past eight years. Finally, this is the first election where the electorate has an intimate role with the election process whether it be through web 2.0, or unprecedented volunteer efforts. Because of this it's likely that millions of people feel as if they played a significant role in helping to elect Barack Obama.

The 2000 election was "stolen" by the Supreme Court? I don't usually expect conspiracy theory on Hacker News.