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.
TaxiCity is just one example of how Microsoft continues to help fuel a vibrant application ecosystem around Open Data Catalogues across Canada.
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.
Supporting Quotes:
Gregor Robertson, Mayor, City of Vancouver
"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. 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
"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."
David Eaves, Public Policy Entrepreneur and Open Government Activist
"It’s great 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."
Nik Garkusha, Open Source Strategy Manager, Microsoft Canada Inc.
"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."
Supporting Resources:
- TaxiCity: www.taxicity.ca
- Open Data Application Framework: http://odaf.codeplex.com/
- City of Vancouver’s Open Data Catalogue: http://data.vancouver.ca/
- Bing Maps API: http://www.microsoft.com/maps/developers/
- Silverlight: http://www.silverlight.net/
- VanGuide: http://vanguide.cloudapp.net/
- David Eaves blog: http://eaves.ca/
About Microsoft Canada
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Inc. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Headquartered in Mississauga, Microsoft Canada has nine regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software – any time, any place and on any device. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca.