SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — It was an early wake-up call at 6 a.m. when a text message brought the objects to life.
"Hello Journal Pioneer #8," read the first text, sent from a curious passerby to the sign on the lamppost outside the newspaper's office.
Within seconds, a reply came back, "Good Morning... Tell me some of the news you've had this week."
And just like that, the "Hello I'm a Talking..." pilot project was up and running in Summerside.
Since June 28, people travelling through the city have been able to have a text message conversation with an object, building, even a tree to learn about the area and provide feedback to the city.
The initiative started two years ago when the city of Summerside was match-made with a United Kingdom company Hello Lamp Post.
"Then in April of this year, was when we started working with them to bring a pilot project to the city," said Neil Moore, a research analyst with the economic development department at the City of Summerside.
Moore is also running point for the project.
He said there were three main purposes of bringing the talking objects to the city.
The first, to keep people informed about decisions made within the city; second to provide users with information about Summerside; third, to provide users with an avenue to voice their opinion and feedback concerning different partners and stakeholders using the program.
In this case, there are 12 partners involved with the project ranging from small businesses to community organizations to departments within the city.
"Each object talks about things you would expect... They all have a context. Does it make sense for the Samuel's vault to talk about history? Yes. Would it make sense for the boardwalk to talk about history? Maybe not," said Moore.
"I liken it to the Rainbow Valley Owl. It would greet you and talk to you and ask you questions. It's kind of like that."
The project will run for six months, until Dec. 28. After that, partners in the project may renew a subscription to keep the service going.
Through the next six months, data points about the number of unique users, how many communications with each object and other feedback will be gathered.
Summerside is the first city-wide deployment of the project in the world. In total, it's been set up 25 times across the globe and is featured in areas like Singapore.
Thinking long term, Moore said it would be great if the Hello Lamp Post company were to set up a location here and staff it, allowing them an office in the region where other businesses and organizations may be a good fit for the service.
Dan Kutcher, owner of South Central Kitchen and Provisions, is one of the partners in the project.
"It was a cool and different initiative. It's an interesting and playful way to interact with customers," said Kutcher.
"It lets them have a sense of fun, ask some questions, and provide us with feedback."
The other day, Kutcher overheard a mother and her two daughters talking about the project.
Kutcher said the feedback gathered from users could be valuable to the city.
He described the project as whimsical and fun.
"Why wouldn't we be part of it? It adds another piece of flavour to Summerside that's a little bit different. It's great."
