My City Lives will be launching in private beta in late January 2010. Please sign up on the site to receive one of our limited invitations and check out our My City Lives Updates on this site.
What is My City Lives?
My City Lives is an online platform where individuals who live or visit a city, can share videos about how they have experienced the city, what they love, and what they think. We combine amateur video clips of various neighbourhoods with our mapping technology to produce an unprecedented exploration tool specifically designed for Toronto by the people who live there. Imagine an artist telling you what’s unique about their gallery; a commuter gushing about why they love the Eglinton Subway; an organizer explaining why their event is important, or a dog walker explaining why Trinity Bellwoods is their favourite place to walk. These stories collectively define a city, but they are rarely connected with the sterile grids of modern cartography. Through the advents of modern media, My City Lives bring you an authentic view of Toronto that is powerful because it is personal—we animate the missing link between maps and the people. A city is not a collection of inanimate roads, expressways, trolley-tracks or buildings; that is infrastructure. A city is the combination of these objects with the people who build and live amongst them. At My City Lives, we combine the topographical precision of new-age mapping technology with the vibrancy and style of an independent film.
Ordinary maps are lifeless—we present a view of our city by the people who make Toronto breath.
Why My City Lives?
The idea for “My City Lives” was born of the common problems we all shared at Creativity Killed the Recession. These include, but are not limited to: Toronto’s need for economic stimulus; supporting arts and culture in the region; connecting communities, and stimulating civil pride in our city and its institutions. We believe that by addressing these issues Toronto would not only move to elevate itself out of the recession, but push towards a level of prosperity that is possible on local, national, and even global levels. “My City Lives,” will therefore have its roots in Toronto, but, as time has shown and history will attest, its success here can have an even greater impact beyond our ever-changing boundaries.