Christchurch Rebuild: A way of keeping in touch

Having a sponsor who understands and is committed to the digital world and the connections it can offer would be an obvious a fit.

When it comes to information communication technology, the cultural sector is leading the way with a new Christchurch initiative exemplifying how Kiwi innovation can create inspiring new ways to digitally connect a city.

Designed by the exhibitions division of the Gibson Group, TouchCity allows people to explore the past, present and future of their city on massive touchscreen walls.

"Basically it is a data visualisation software platform that allows both tourists and locals to navigate through a 3D-like landscape of a city at the touch of a finger," says Brett Tompkins, Exhibitions Producer of Gibson Group.

The technology originated from a project the company did for the city of Copenhagen (see picture) and they are currently building a version for the city of El Paso in Texas. There are versions in development for other international sites, but what really excites Gibson Group is the opportunity to install one closer to home.

"It would be great to continue to innovate with the platform and develop new capabilities specific to the rebuild of Christchurch" says Tompkins.

The interactive platform is scaleable and mobile, with content able to be constantly updated and connected citywide to community projects and current events; it seems to tick many of the boxes for a city in transition. There has been interest from both local and central government, along with several city councillors and local cultural and tourism organisations.

So what does it look like and what can it do?

What strikes you first is it's not a website. Instead the user encounters what Gibson Group call a "City Scape", made up of thousands of historical and contemporary images harvested from local and national digital archives.

Each image and its metadata are stored in a database and rendered real time into a graphical interface of the digital city that users can navigate and explore with their fingers.

The result is a spectacular visual experience that links time, place, people, events and themes together into a visual amalgam, based on their location in the city.

Users can then open each image and discover layers of information and associated image albums.

It is socially interactive too. Cameras and pop-up keyboards allow users to contribute their own stories, including uploading their own images to the digital city. They can take a snapshot of themselves inserted into the city and instantly share it to social network sites or email as a digital postcard. These sorts of features are popular with tourists as it allows websites and messages from the digital city to be incorporated into digital postcards and emailed around the world.

Tourism and city organisations can communicate civic issues and promote current events through the platform too. Images, animations and widgets can all be linked to third party websites, such as christchurch.com and bethere.co.nz, which the visitor can interact with on the wall, right down to making reservations and bookings. It can link to other content on the anchor projects, or display live data from initiatives the such as the sensing city that the visitor can provide feedback and comment on.

Gibson Group is looking to partner with other technology developers to build more features and value into the platform, says Tompkins. "There is a lot of activity with local people working on mobile, data collection and digital modelling projects that we could join forces with. We are interested in talking with potential partners about projects".

Government agencies such as Callaghan Innovation are well positioned to support these sorts of innovative projects, but corporate sponsorship can also play a significant role, says Tompkins "Having a sponsor who understands and is committed to the digital world and the connections it can offer would be an obvious a fit".