Autobus des créateurs
BUS TOUR HARNESSES GEEK POWER
By Roberto Rocha, The Gazette
May 24, 2012
By Roberto Rocha, The Gazette
May 24, 2012
MONTREAL - In an effort to harness the knowledge and creativity of Montrealers to find high-tech solutions to city problems, the city of Montreal locked up computer programmers in a bus and drove around the island for six hours. The results were inspirational, if a bit tinged with motion sickness.
The event, called Autobus des créateurs, was part of the city’s fledgling approach to open data, wherein it publishes municipal databanks and invites local geeks to do something useful with them.
“It was a very good idea, it allowed people meet, exchange ideas, and be inspired by others,” said Emmanuelle Dumesnil, a member of one of five teams picked for this event. “But six hours on a bus is not the easiest thing. Especially for someone like me who gets carsick. It’s not the ideal place to work on a computer,” she said.
The point of the Wi-Fi-equipped bus was to get programmers talking to each other and to city workers while writing the seminal lines of code for their software, Matthieu Cardinal, a city spokesperson said. “The idea was to do a symbolic tour of Montreal. Hopefully, this inspired the teams in their work,” he said. “It shows the city wants to create links with citizens,” Dumesnil weighed in. “It gives us the opportunity to feel like we’re doing something for the city.”
The bus took off from Griffintown, headed west to the tip of Montreal Island, looped back on Gouin Blvd. to the easternmost end, and finished at city hall. A winning project was picked by a panel of judges, chosen for its viability, its benefit to the city, its environmental impact, its creativity, and its use of municipal data. Van Du Tran was a co-winner for incorporating data on bike paths and Société de transport de Montréal bus stops to the Bixi mobile app he created. “It was fun. It was better than being stuck in a room for six hours,” he said. “But yeah, a lot of people weren’t feeling so well.”
Here are the five projects that were chosen by the city for the bus tour:
Biximo — WINNER
Van Du Tran and Paul Pham
Biximo is an existing mobile app that shows Bixi users the closest available bike or open dock from their location. With new data released by the city, the app will show bike paths on a map as well as the locations of bus stops.
Park Catcher
Emmanuelle Dumesnil and Mudar Noufal
This work in progress aims to be a parking helper for Montreal drivers. It will be an online map where users punch in the date and time they plan on parking. The website returns the zones that have unrestricted parking at those times.
Transit
Étienne Caron
A mobile and Web application that suggests the ideal mode of transportation for a chosen route. It takes data on road constructions and calculates the time it would take to drive around it, vs. taking another vehicle. If it’s quicker to bike to the destination, the app alerts the user.
The app would also have a social element, letting users share the routes they take every day so similar commuters can carpool.
Flex Park
Saïd Radhouani
Another parking solution, this app would show a mobile user the closest zone with free parking times, and send an alert by text message when the free period is ending.
It would also let people with private parking spots or garages rent them out to people seeking a spot in that area. Another function, made for parking lot owners, would let drivers reserve a spot for big events, like hockey games.
Entretemps
Lama Sfeir, Hassan Aziz, Eliane Achcar, Rabih Khodr, and Marta Masferrer
A bus recycling scheme, where buses that are either decommissioned or not in use outside rush hour would convert into homeless shelters for the night if all other shelters are filled to capacity.
Available buses would also be used in the daytime as meeting places, where volunteers would lead discussions or workshops for their communities.
The event, called Autobus des créateurs, was part of the city’s fledgling approach to open data, wherein it publishes municipal databanks and invites local geeks to do something useful with them.
“It was a very good idea, it allowed people meet, exchange ideas, and be inspired by others,” said Emmanuelle Dumesnil, a member of one of five teams picked for this event. “But six hours on a bus is not the easiest thing. Especially for someone like me who gets carsick. It’s not the ideal place to work on a computer,” she said.
The point of the Wi-Fi-equipped bus was to get programmers talking to each other and to city workers while writing the seminal lines of code for their software, Matthieu Cardinal, a city spokesperson said. “The idea was to do a symbolic tour of Montreal. Hopefully, this inspired the teams in their work,” he said. “It shows the city wants to create links with citizens,” Dumesnil weighed in. “It gives us the opportunity to feel like we’re doing something for the city.”
The bus took off from Griffintown, headed west to the tip of Montreal Island, looped back on Gouin Blvd. to the easternmost end, and finished at city hall. A winning project was picked by a panel of judges, chosen for its viability, its benefit to the city, its environmental impact, its creativity, and its use of municipal data. Van Du Tran was a co-winner for incorporating data on bike paths and Société de transport de Montréal bus stops to the Bixi mobile app he created. “It was fun. It was better than being stuck in a room for six hours,” he said. “But yeah, a lot of people weren’t feeling so well.”
Here are the five projects that were chosen by the city for the bus tour:
Biximo — WINNER
Van Du Tran and Paul Pham
Biximo is an existing mobile app that shows Bixi users the closest available bike or open dock from their location. With new data released by the city, the app will show bike paths on a map as well as the locations of bus stops.
Park Catcher
Emmanuelle Dumesnil and Mudar Noufal
This work in progress aims to be a parking helper for Montreal drivers. It will be an online map where users punch in the date and time they plan on parking. The website returns the zones that have unrestricted parking at those times.
Transit
Étienne Caron
A mobile and Web application that suggests the ideal mode of transportation for a chosen route. It takes data on road constructions and calculates the time it would take to drive around it, vs. taking another vehicle. If it’s quicker to bike to the destination, the app alerts the user.
The app would also have a social element, letting users share the routes they take every day so similar commuters can carpool.
Flex Park
Saïd Radhouani
Another parking solution, this app would show a mobile user the closest zone with free parking times, and send an alert by text message when the free period is ending.
It would also let people with private parking spots or garages rent them out to people seeking a spot in that area. Another function, made for parking lot owners, would let drivers reserve a spot for big events, like hockey games.
Entretemps
Lama Sfeir, Hassan Aziz, Eliane Achcar, Rabih Khodr, and Marta Masferrer
A bus recycling scheme, where buses that are either decommissioned or not in use outside rush hour would convert into homeless shelters for the night if all other shelters are filled to capacity.
Available buses would also be used in the daytime as meeting places, where volunteers would lead discussions or workshops for their communities.
