MiLA brings together people from the neighbourhood who share common interests or needs. The platform allows residents to book spaces for meetings or events or find offers in the neighbourhood, thereby meeting new people.
In the pilot phase, the measure consists of three pillars: room usage ('renting'), a lending pool ('borrowing') and offers ('trying out').
1. Room usage ('renting')
Residents can find information about publicly accessible outdoor spaces and rooms and book them via the platform, e.g. for neighbourhood meetings and parties, courses and training, recreational groups, small concerts and other cultural events, exchange markets, etc.
In the future, other rooms in the neighbourhoods that are vacant outside business hours will also be identified, such as schools. These rooms can also be used for non-commercial purposes.
2. Lending pool ('borrowing')
Potsdam has 19 neighbourhood and community houses (NBH) that are funded by the city. These are community centres and meeting places that are social and cultural hubs for the city and its districts. They are places where responsible participation, civic self-help, communal information exchange and community-building activities are promoted. Many of these activities require tools or infrastructure that the houses provide. However, many of these items remain unused most of the time in storage rooms. It would be helpful to know what is already available and who can borrow it and for how long.
In the Smart City participation formats with stakeholders from the city community, there was repeated demand for a lending option – the MiLA platform makes this possible. NBH will form publicly accessible 'lending stations', where people can borrow and lend tools, event equipment, cargo bikes, professional catering supplies, seating furniture, etc. A central digital 'lending pool' will also be available in the form of a website or app with an associated database, where NBH and associations can register their equipment. This will make it possible to make equipment accessible and usable for everyone.
3. Offers ('trying out')
Residents can find information about various offers in the neighbourhood, such as urban gardening, creative courses or sports opportunities.
Contact AG Smart City: AG-Smart-City@rathaus.potsdam.de
