The idea behind 030.berlin
Berlin has changed.
When I grew up here in the 90s, the city was in upheaval: open, often chaotic and – at least in my eyes – full of positive energy. Berlin had just been reunited, old borders were disappearing, everything somehow seemed possible. Nobody knew exactly where things were heading, but you could feel it: something is happening here!
The internet back then
On top of that came the internet – young and barely regulated at the time: not perfectly organised, optimised or commercialised, but, just like Berlin, an open space for ideas and easy, uncomplicated exchange.
Today: an app for everything
Today Berlin is like the internet: more professional, more standardised, more closed off. For almost everything you need an app, an account, a group, a feed – and the permission of an algorithm to be noticed at all.
The experiment
I want to find out whether local, open communication still sparks interest today – completely without a profile, without an algorithm, without followers.
Out of that idea came 030.berlin: open communication for Berlin, and only for Berlin. From outside the city you can neither listen in nor take part. No sign-up, no extra device, no profiling: just open the page, listen, or say something yourself – in your own district or for all of Berlin (channel 9).
Where it comes in handy
It is especially handy before a concert, at the flea market, at a street festival – and anywhere you want to talk to people around you without having to join yet another platform and create a profile first. How it works in detail is explained under How it works; where the name comes from is told in the story behind 030.
Maybe modern communication needs a little less platform and a little more connection again.