by Rebecca Engmann*

With the suburban Copenhagen Ørestad development quickly emerging as one of the Øresund region's hotspots for technology and innovation, a capital city network known as Crossroads Copenhagen is using the emerging, futuristic city-within-a-city to launch a series of projects connecting culture, media, and information technology. Crossroads Copenhagen will act as a clearinghouse for high-tech projects coupling private and public sector actors, business interests with educational objectives - seamlessly merging new technologies with everyday life.

This autumn, Crossroads Copenhagen welcomes a dynamic new director to the fold. Incoming director Pouline Middleton says the time is ripe for an initiative like Crossroads.

"This is a particularly robust period for technology initiatives. The Nordic region has the highest rate of Internet connections, hands-free cellular devices, and e-commerce solutions per capita in all of Europe - and this puts us in a unique position to set the agenda for tomorrow's development," said Middleton.

High-tech petri dish

Some 20,000 workers, students, researchers, and residents will be concentrated in the narrow confines of the high-tech Ørestad Nord district - all of them plugged in and turned on to new technology. Crossroads Copenhagen says this concentration of tech-savvy people represents a unique control group for studying trends in information and culture, providing researchers and developers with cutting-edge empirical information as they develop the next generation of information technology. Call it a living, high-tech petri dish. Crossroads Copenhagen calls it the Living Lab. In the coming years, the Living Lab will serve as the site for a series of experiments on wireless technology in everyday life.

Part of the thrill of joining Crossroads Copenhagen at just this period in its development, Middleton says, is the idea of coupling the natural trend of urban development to ideas within technology.

"I'm particularly interested in this idea of building a city from the bottom up, being involved in the infrastructure, and making a concrete difference through new technology," said Middleton.

Cross-disciplinary umbrella

Crossroads Copenhagen was formally opened in May 2002 under the aegis of the Ministry of Science, IT, and Technology. The initiative was originally designed as an umbrella for cross-disciplinary high-tech development, with partners as diverse as the IT University of Copenhagen, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Copenhagen University's Humanities Department, and the Danish Consumer Information Agency. Influential private companies also hopped on board the project, with private sponsors including Hewlett-Packard, NOKIA, CSC, and Skanska.

The group has just applied for a 30 million-euro grant under the EU's Sixth Framework Program, together with "Living Lab" partners in Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Holland.

Crossroads Copenhagen has devised three project areas for future development: Projects A, B, and C. Project A is devoted to 3-D Location Dependent Mobility, a localization technology that can locate individuals at any point within a digital network. Solutions using location dependent mobility may one day range from the critical - allowing hospitals to locate the nearest doctor or nurse within seconds--or practical, helping people find their lost car keys.

This summer, students at the Copenhagen IT University presented their own visions for Crossroads Copenhagen's Project A, on wireless 3-D positioning systems, also known as LoCoMoCo (Laboratory for Context-Dependent Mobile Communication). Prototypes from 15 study groups were exhibited, with proposals ranging from 3-D virtual games, in which humans play an active role as three-dimensional game pieces, to practical applications, such as digital luggage check-in for airline travelers.

Project B is devoted to Situation-Based Mobile Services: wireless technology tailored to specific user profiles - also known as push strategy, or intelligent agent. Pouline Middleton explained some of the exciting possibilities of situation-based mobile technology.

Digital butler

"Project B, which is under development with Nokia, the IT University of Copenhagen, and Hewlett-Packard, includes a ‘personal butler’: a smart communication system adapted to individual needs. If, for example, you love classical music and the Barolo Quartet, the butler will let you know when and where the Barolo Quartet is playing, provide you with ticket prices, and even book your seats. This is an example of tomorrow's communication technology, in which information finds you," Middleton explained.

Project C, led by CSC, is Massive Mobile E-Learning, using e-learning technology to develop exciting new inroads for education. In the future, immigrants to Denmark may learn Danish with the help of digital technology, aiding the integration process. Full-time jobbers will have access to continuing education programs at their fingertips. This collaboration between CSC, the Royal Library, Danish Broadcasting, Copenhagen University, and business daily Børsen is even underway to develop a digital encyclopaedia, readily accessible from any cell phone or PDA.

The sky's the limit for networking development, says Crossroads Copenhagen. And over the next decade, the group is committed to pushing the Ørestad region to the cutting-edge of communication technology.

This article was originally published by Øresund IT Magasine (Autumn 2003). You can download the magazine in PDF format on Publications.

*Rebecca Engmann is an American journalist living in Copenhagen.