TownSync Daily

Your Town’s Central Park – Connect in Person

Feb 8, 2009 TownSync

Walking through the park today I passed an area with tables for people to play chess. At three consecutive tables there were men with chess boards set up waiting for someone to join them. They weren’t waiting for anyone in particular, just someone willing to sit down and join them for an afternoon chess match. As people walked by, the men sitting at the tables would gesture with a hand and a friendly smile as if to say, “Care to join?” At first I asked myself why they wouldn’t just play each other. Then I thought it might be a way to give themselves a challenge by playing unknown competition. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a way for them to meet new people with a common passion. Playing random people in the park not only allowed them to play a game they loved, but offered an easy way to meet new people with a similar love of chess.

There is something lost with interactions online because the encounter is not face to face. There are sites that allow us to have conversations or find new connections, but the best sites are those that connect the online world with the real world. Our goal for TownSync is to improve offline relations in your town by creating an online hub that connects local people and allows them to share with each other. Granted, TownSync will not be an online chess game where two people from a local area can play each other, but it will be a place for people to set up these sort of face to face encounters online. TownSync will be the central park for your town, offering open tables for two strangers to connect over something they love.