Galway based social networking site Kotalk has been nominated for Best Social Networking and community website in this year's Golden Spider awards. Founded by Mike Russen and Maire Daly, Kotalk has been quietly gathering a following. It began as a response to the boom and bust, with Máire desperate to de-clutter her house.

"There were very few car boot sales and the Irish equivalent of Americas Craig's list just didn't seem to cover Galway. I had started a group on Facebook and I was regularly using freecycle sites too. I figured there were plenty of other people like me who had houses full of stuff and nowhere to get rid of them, so I had started a little group on Facebook at first.

"Mike, my neighbour, watched amused as I hooked up with his wife Giselle and we plotted our de-clutter. We went off to a car boot sale early one morning in the pouring rain and I think that's where Mike got the idea," she says.

Mike asked Maire if she wanted to put all the energy she had been putting into her car boot projects into a site.

"Right now the site is still small, however folk have been joining up from outside Galway too. We have various groups and blogs going like 'Fifty things to do in Galway for free' and 'Pimp my junk' as well as the 'Car boot group'.

"I insisted on a classifieds section of course and I'm down to a couple of bags and some books, so it's actually working. Some folk who we've met through the site have even gone on to organise a local car boot sale!" she says.

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