Village Gamer

Microsoft Canada continues to help foster Vancouver’s vibrant developer community with news today that it is working with local government experts and graduate students at the Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus to make government data more accessible and useful for citizens.

Leveraging Vancouver City’s Open Data Catalogue and help from the VanMaps team, and with guidance from open government activist David Eaves, grad students at Great Northern Way Campus created TaxiCity, a entertaining game where players can navigate the city in a yellow cab. Awareness of the application, which showcases the power of Silverlight and the Bing Maps API, has moved beyond Vancouver to the rest of Canada. Last week in Montreal, TaxiCity took home second prize at the FTW! Coding competition during Make Web, Not War 2010.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhRoikcFGKI]

“Applications like TaxiCity are great examples of the power of open data on the Microsoft-based platform, enabled by open source to make information available for all citizens. By helping Canadian cities transform how they deliver services, Microsoft’s continued focus is on interoperability and helping build a vibrant open data application ecosystem,” stated Nik Garkusha, Open Source Strategy Manager, Microsoft Canada Inc.

TaxiCity is just one example of how Microsoft continues to help fuel a vibrant application ecosystem around Open Data Catalogues across Canada.

“In Vancouver we’re big supporters of Open Government initiatives. It’s a great way to foster economic growth and an opportunity to rethink how government operates,” said Vancouver City Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Canadian IT companies and cities can and should be empowering citizens to use data to improve our decision making and everyday lives. It’s exciting to see students from Great Northern Way Campus using the city’s data in new and creative ways.”

Dashan Yue, Grad Student at Great Northern Way Campus and Co-Creator of TaxiCity added that “when the City of Vancouver released a new version of its Open Data Catalogue it was a natural next step for us to use the street center-lines, block outlines, building traces and park geometry available for TaxiCity. Our program combines different Open Data sets with Silverlight and Bing which helped to drastically lower development time while giving us the mapping data we needed to build a visually appealing, dynamic gaming environment.”

Impact of Microsoft’s Cross Country Gov 2.0 and Open Source Initiatives:

* Since the launch of Vancouver’s Open Data Catalogue, local programmers have been working on applications to make the data useful for the citizens of Vancouver. The release of the Open Data Application Framework open source project and the development of such applications as VanGuide Vancouver Parking, MapWay and FreeFinders are the result of a Microsoft sponsored competition to encourage the development of open government apps.

* Edmonton was the first North American city to use the Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) cloud-based solution from Microsoft for its Open Data Catalogue. The catalogue was implemented at minimal cost to the City using open source components and Microsoft’s newest cloud operating system, Windows Azure™. Using open standards and application interfaces (API), local developers and municipal IT staff can easily retrieve data for use in innovative online applications that can help improve citizen services, enhance collaboration between public and private organizations and increase City transparency.

* Microsoft’s Gov 2.0 efforts also include sponsorship of GovCamp Canada, a gathering of local citizens, public sector employees, service delivery leaders and policy people with an interest in having a conversation on engaging citizens, empowering business and increasing internal efficiencies through transformational government activities.

* Microsoft continues to contribute and drive innovation through its Open Source initiatives such as Microsoft’s CodePlex.com, Port25 and Open Source Technology Center (OTC). A deep engagement with local Open Source and application communities is also maintained through a series of events including WordCamp, DemoCamp and most recently ConFoo conference. Microsoft’s open source efforts also include Web Application Gallery, PHP on Windows and the FTW! Coding Competition at Make Web, Not War.

David Eaves, Public Policy Entrepreneur and Open Government Activist is very pleased to see Microsoft “actively fostering application development using Open Data catalogues on a variety of application platforms. By doing this work they help demonstrate that open data not only helps governments meet their transparency goals but that it can help promote citizen engagement and economic development.”

The BCTIA invites you to join them on June 17th at the Vancouver Renaissance Hotel for an over-lunch session about Vancouver’s technology community. Listen to guest speakers Morgan Sturdy, James Topham and Steve Podborski as they discuss Vancouver’s technology community and the benefits of building a community while we build companies. The programme starts at 11:30a.m., with tickets priced at $49.50 for BCTIA Members, $75.00 for non-members, and $36.00 for Student Members.

Congratulations to ParetoLogic (#23), Frima Studios (#14), Solutions 2 Go Inc. (#25), Elastic Path Software (#26), YardStick Software (#30) and all of the other Canadian technology enterprises for being named to the Canadian Business Profit 100 Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies. Additionally, iBWave (#16) has been chosen as the in-building solutions partner of choice for WIND Mobile to help design and plan wireless coverage of Toronto PATH, the world’s largest underground shopping complex, used by over 100,000 people daily. Toronto PATH spans 27 kilometres below ground and links 1,200 stores and restaurants, 50 office towers and five subway stations downtown.

I’d also like to say Happy 1st Anniversary to the ladies over at The Social Agency, hostesses of the popular Appy Hour networking social. Congratulations on this important milestone, and here’s to many, many more successful events for you three.

I’ve discovered that the easiest way to get the CaveChild to grin like a Cheshire Cat is to tell him that there’s something new coming from the Relic Entertainment studio. According to their latest news, Company of Heroes Online will be venturing east across the Pacific for a North American launch. While no firm date has been announced, it will be nice to see Company of Heroes Online, which has already hit the internet in Korea and China, playable for title’s many North American fans. He’s been impatiently waiting for the arrival of Relic’s Space Marine console game. In the meantime, he continues to develop a strategy for sneaking the life-size statue of The Emperor out of Relic’s lobby – something he’s been plotting for about four years.

EA Canada’s Burnaby campus is a very busy place. Hot on the heels of the NHL Slapshot announcement comes EA’s bulletin about changes to their long running NBA videogame franchise, which will now be known as NBA Elite.

NBA Elite 11 will revolutionize the way basketball simulation games are played, with an all-new technology base, a new control scheme and a real-time physics system. Currently in development for the PlayStation®3 and the XBox™ 360, NBA Elite 11 will be available in retail stores this October, with a suggested selling price of $59.99. Read the rest of this entry »