Don't Be A Stranger

Ever felt alone in a big city? Ever wished your neighbors weren't such unknowns? Now Paris is using the Internet to inject small-town intimacy back into urban anonymity.

Just two months old, Peuplade (peuplade.fr) enables users to find like-minded Parisians in their own neighborhood, or even their own building, to schedule a range of activities, including after-work drinks, jogging groups and block parties. Already some 40,000 people have signed up and participated in more than 1,100 events around town. A rollout in other French cities is planned soon.

Beyond recreation and socializing, the site also promotes exchanging small services like babysitting and visiting isolated senior citizens. "In Paris, we don't have the habit of really knowing our neighbors," explains one of Peuplade's founders, Nathan Stern, a sociologist by training. "Our website is about establishing community interaction not based on looks, background or politics, but by virtue of being nearby."

These days, it's an Internet connection, rather than fences, that makes good neighbors.