Lead Projects

Corporate Directory Platform and Ottawa Tech Community

Lead: Peter Hoddinot

The Corporate Directory Platform and the Ottawa Tech Community comprise a lead project initiated by the Talent First Network.

Corporate Directory Platform

The objectives of the Corporate Directory Platform lead project are to:

• Develop a Web 2.0 platform for corporate directories across Ontario
• Demonstrate the capabilities of the platform by providing information across Ontario in real time

The Corporate Directory Platform enables a user to easily obtain information across Ontario technology communities. For example, a user will be able to find the number of companies that develop Wi-Max products across Ontario and show their location in an Ontario map. A second user will be able to find the number of new products, processes and services introduced by the companies that are part of wireless clusters across Ontario cities. A third user will be able to measure the health of the photonics cluster in Toronto and compare it with the health of the photonics cluster in another Ontario city.

The Corporate Directory lead project is searching for:

• Designers and programmers interested in contributing to platform development
• Individuals and organizations interested in deploying corporate directories in their own communities

The Ottawa Tech Community

The Ottawa Tech Community is an example of an online directory using the Corporate Directory Platform. The five objectives of this lead project are to:

• Provide reliable and comprehensive information on Ottawa's technology community
• Provide an assortment of tools that make sense of the information in near real-time
• Showcase the capabilities of Web 2.0 technology
• Facilitate communities across Ontario deploying and operating similar corporate directories
• Facilitate the networking of corporate directories across Ontario for the purpose of providing Ontario-wide consolidated Corporate Directory information

The Ottawa Tech Community lead project is searching for:

• Authors who wish to contribute content to the Ottawa directory
• An Editor in Chief
• Editors with domain expertise
• Stewards
• Advisory Board members
• Software developers

Peter Hoddinott has over 25 years of experience in the Information and Communications industry. Peter has a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Computer Science, and recently completed the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton. He is currently employed by Carleton where he works full time on advancing the objectives of the Talent First Network.

Blindside Communications Platform and TFN System 100

Prime: Richard Alam

The Blindside Communications Platform (BCP) and the TFN System 100 lead application comprise a lead project of the Talent First Network.

Blindside Communications Platform

The goal of the Blindside Communications Platform lead project is to develop and evolve an open source software stack to deliver on-demand web meeting applications similar to those provided by WebEx and Webtrain.

The BCP project integrates Asterisk, Red5, AppFuse, and other open source software.

The Blindside Communications Platform lead project is searching for:

• Developers with experience in user interface design and knowledge in developing Red5 applications
• Developers with Java and J2EE frameworks (Spring) and/or C/C++/Qt experience
• Developers with Linux system administration experience (rPath experience a plus) and/or experience in maven/subversion/Eclipse/Trac
• Developers with Asterisk/FreeSwitch installation and configuration experience

TFN System 100

The goal of the TFN System 100 lead project is to enable the delivery of courses and presentations over the Web. The system will include: (i) a portable PC for capturing and archiving internal and external events, (ii) a server that integrates Red5, OpenOffice, Openfire, and other software, and (iii) an Asterisk/Free Switch.

The TFN System 100 lead project is searching developers to:

• Design and develop a Flash user interface to provide slide presentation, chat, presence, and video using Flex/ActionScript/Flash Media
• Extend OpenWengo softphone using C++/Qt library and modify and extend Asterisk/FreeSwitch to scale and support many concurrent users
• Develop J2EE web application for scheduling and delivering presentation archives

Do you wish to propose a new lead project?

Do you wish to describe a lead project for which you need contributors?

A lead project is a project designed to use open source to create a discontinuity in the market place. A lead project is comprised of a platform (e.g., open source stack) and a lead application/service that demonstrates the customer value of the platform. Typically, the lead application is led by an entrepreneur.

The TFN is particularly interested in supporting lead projects based in academic institutions that add value to Ontario companies.

Richard Alam completed his Master's degree at Carleton writing a thesis on how companies make money from the open source projects they initiate. He started the Blindside Project which develops a multimedia communication system using software from different open source projects.