Sid from Patang.org has a great new social software in place. And unlike the rest which use fluffly terms like networking, and community – this actually does something tangible.

It is a car pool for people who live in a geographical area. He says, and i quote:

The main aim of this website is to facilitate communication between those who wish to carpool voluntarily. The idea is simple. Create a central repository of all people wishing to carpool and let modern technology take care of the rest. This site is built using open-source tools and is completely free.

How the car pool works:

Users can either offer seats in their car or request seats in someone else’s. Trip sources and destinations can be set up using the map of Mumbai. Because a users location is based on their latitude and longitude (and not some arbitrary scheme like a street address or a pin code), the calculation of distances between people becomes very accurate. The system is thus able to not only match people going from one place to another but also to rank these trips based on how far the people in it are from each other.

In a world where fuel is not going to last for ever, a neat way of ensuring a certain amount of environmental responsibility. And, it is easy to do.