The Project

About GHOSTO

G.H.O.S.T.O.
Getting Habitable Occupancy from Spaces, Together, Obviously

The Origin Story

GHOSTO was born from a scheduling conflict.

Our founder sleeps until noon and works until 4am. He walks past an office building every day at 5pm and watches it empty out. 50,000 square feet of potential, going dark at 5:01pm, every single weekday, for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, there are people who need a desk at 8pm. Students who need a quiet room at midnight. Startups that can't afford $600/month for a conference room twice a week. Communities that need a meeting place but can't find one.

"Society called his schedule a problem. GHOSTO calls it a scheduling conflict — one that roughly 11 million buildings share."

One evening, he knocked on a door — at an unusual hour, in a creative spirit — and was greeted by the police. This was the founding trauma of GHOSTO's legal education program.

The next morning, he started building GHOSTO.

The Team

GHOSTO is currently a founding ghost and a growing community of contributors. We are:

  • Ghost Hunters — volunteers who research vacant buildings from public records
  • Web-Wraiths — developers building the platform
  • Necromancers — volunteer planners, architects, and lawyers helping reactivate buildings
  • Mediums — community moderators keeping the Séance civil
  • CANDLE-KEEPERS — donors who keep the lights on
  • BOOILDING — the house-shaped ghost mascot who works for free and has excellent plant-care credentials

We are looking for: one (1) lawyer who finds this funny, and one (1) city planner who has strong opinions about parking minimums.

Open Source

GHOSTO is 100% open source. Everything we build is public:

  • Code: MIT / AGPL license — anyone can fork it, build on it, run their own GHOSTO
  • Data: Open data where legally permissible — we believe vacancy data should be public
  • Design: Design system available for anyone building GHOSTO-affiliated projects
  • Content: CC BY-SA 4.0 — the manifesto is yours to share

If a VC ever tries to acquire GHOSTO, the community votes, and the answer will be "boo." (That's a no.)

Legal Framework

GHOSTO operates within strict legal guardrails:

  • Consent first: Every space is shared only with explicit owner consent. Written agreements where possible.
  • Public records only: We research owners via public county assessor and GIS data. We do not scrape private databases.
  • Friendly outreach: We contact owners by certified mail with a friendly letter. We do not cold-call.
  • No trespassing advocacy: We are the opposite of a squatting platform. The word "haunting" is always metaphorical.
  • Insurance guidance: We provide templates and point to resources. We are not an insurer.
  • Nonprofit structure: We are organized as a nonprofit. We do not take commissions or fees.

The Pilot Cities

GHOSTO is starting with two pilot cities:

Moscow, Idaho

Population ~25,000. Home to University of Idaho. Known for: the zoning map, the corner store that couldn't, and excellent access to public GIS data. The founding ghost's hometown.

Your City Here

The second pilot city will be chosen by the first Coven (local chapter) to reach 100 mapped spaces. Start a coven. Map your hood. The title is up for grabs.

Launch

October 31st. Obviously.

The launch will include:

  • Full interactive map with all pilot city spaces
  • Host listing form
  • Ghost report form
  • Full manifesto
  • GHOST LAW wiki with Zonely AI beta
  • The Midnight Open House — a legal, permission-granted event in Moscow, ID
  • A giant banner on a consenting building: "THIS BUILDING HAS UNFINISHED BUSINESS"

If you want to get involved before launch, email [email protected].