CouchSurfing forgets about Iceland

In February, The CouchSurfing Project commemorated its one-millionth member by introducing a brand new logo:

"The result of hundreds of submissions, several rounds of design and evaluation, combined with the efforts of our in-house design team, the logo redesign project has been a long time in the making. We've taken our time to gather feedback and incorporate the wishes of CouchSurfers around the world."

Apparently these wishes did not include many Icelanders, as Couchsurfing's cartoon globe logo conveniently eradicates the entire 39,600 square mile nation from its version of the planet! This slight is particularly egregious as Couchsurfing owes its very own existence to Iceland. Casey Fenton -- the creator of the social-networking/international hospitality website -- explained this revelation to Good Magazine:

"Fenton, then 22, ...found a cheap last-minute ticket to Iceland. The flight left in four days. Fenton didn't know a soul in Reykjavik. "I tried to imagine myself there," he said. "What am I going to do in Iceland? I pictured myself walking down freezing streets, alone. I didn't want the empty feeling of staying in a hotel or hostel, but I was a shy person and I didn't know how to connect with people." So he did what any reasonably competent, ethically flexible programmer might do: he hacked into the University of Iceland student directory and spammed 1,500 students. "Basically I said, 'I'm coming on Friday. I want to see the real Iceland. Will you show me your country?'" He received more than 50 replies. Fenton spent one of the best weekends of his life gallivanting through Reykjavik, sleeping in someone's garage, staying up late into the half-light of the arctic night, and making friends that he has kept to this day."

Not long after, the site was born. So there. If there was no Iceland, there would've been no Couchsurfing. A little orange blot could've sufficed.

Apple forgets about Iceland

(top - Apple WWDC 2008, bottom - 2009 iPhone 3.0 announcement)

Last year, at the 2008 Apple WWDC conference, Apple announced its list of iPhone carriers by country. They flashed the world map. The US was featured, of course, in its bright red glory as were the big European nations. However, there appeared to be an omission. Jonas Moody on the Iceland Review snarked, "not only did Iceland not make the list, apparently Apple’s grand plan involves eradicating the country from the face of the Earth…after the launch of the new 3G iPhone there will be nothing but the deep, blue sea between the West coast of Norway and the East coast of Canada." No ifs, ands or buts, Apple forgot about Iceland.


But the saga continues. A year later, after all that Iceland has been through with an economy in collapse, mass protests, the fall of a government, the first LGBT prime minister in the world, Fox News declaring them a dangerous destination(!) ... Iceland remained forgotten once again to the software giant. At a recent preview of the iPhone 3.0 software, the infamous Iceland-less map was shown again, according to The Inquirer, a European site for computer hardware news, at least one Icelander was teed off: "a really tasteless move," said Baldvin Mar Smárason, "People in Iceland are really insulted."

Due to this blatant omitting of Iceland by one of the world's largest corporations, so begins Forgot About Iceland, a blog about the world's selective memory when it comes to that quirky little island up in the North Atlantic.