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"After finding success revolutionizing restaurant reservations, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton has taken up a new challenge: to bring neighbors closer together through hyperlocal sharing.\nTempleton's new startup, OhSoWe, quietly launched earlier this month.  At its core, it's an online community platform for neighborhoods to network and communicate online. Instead of providing local news (like AOL's Patch), OhSoWe provides a website for posting items to share or starting a local discussion.\nTempleton told Mashable that a big part of the problem he sees is with the unused hammer, lawnmower or shovel simply collecting dust in the shed. Most tools only get used for a few minutes per year; why not make it easier to share or lend those items to neighbors? Why aren't neighbors sharing and lending their stuff more often?\nOhSoWe is an attempt to solve that problem. It has three key sections for connecting with the people who live closest: Neighbors, Communication and Shareables.  Neighbors is simply a list of people who live near you. OhSoWe takes verifying a person's address seriously; you have to either use a credit card or a postcard to verify your address.  Communication is a public message board for your \"Neighborstead\" (OhSoWe's term for its hyperlocal groups).  Shareables is like a local Craigslist where you can offer items to lend or sell. You can also offer your skills (e.g. plumbing, web design, etc.) to your neighbors.\nTempleton envisions a future where neighbors organize group garage sales and lending exchanges through OhSoWe.  It has a long road ahead through convincing neighborhoods to join and share their garden tools. The startup is currently self-funded by Templeton and co-founder Arun Sivashankaran.\n\n\n\n\nLead courtesy of Flickr, Zouny"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/05/30/ohsowe/>