A familiar scene: The music is playing, but no one is dancing. Suddenly, one brave person steps onto the dance floor and gives it his all, inspiring others to join him. Another person joins in, the ice is broken, and as more bodies hit the dance floor, the party is well underway . We are a team and every single one of us contributes to the idea of a lively neighbourhood, inspiring more neighbours in turn. We’ll begin by telling you how the idea was born, then follow how the party took its course.
It’s 2013. Christian Vollmann has been living in his new home for some time and still doesn't know who his neighbours are. He takes heart and decides to simply ring his neighbours' doorbells. Who knows, maybe they’d also like to meet each other. As a busy entrepreneur, he had already heard about the idea of digital neighbourhood networking and was curious to see how his neighbours would react. “After all, wouldn’t it be nicer to know who shares the same street with me and my family?” he thinks to himself. So Christian starts knocking. 20 neighbours open their doors. The curious thing: none of them had expected to find their own neighbour standing across from them. Out of spontaneous coffee get-togethers, small-talk at the door, and swapped contact information, grew relationships that still thrive today.
19 out of the 20 neighbours give him phone numbers and e-mail addresses so that they can stay in touch. From this outpouring of support, Christian builds an open source platform for his street. Soon enough, around 100 neighbours have signed up. The idea of bringing neighbours closer together again and networking them sustainably is something he can't get out of his head.