Featured Stories: Volume 9 No. 2

• Using GIS to Help with a Successful Merger and Beyond 
  Superior Propane is Canada's only national propane supplier and largest distributor of propane, related products, and services with locations coast to coast. For over 50 years, Superior Propane has served the energy needs of Canadians with approximately 1,650 employees and 1.4 billion litres of annual propane sales providing service to more than 300,000 customers nationwide.
  
  
• GIS supports target marketing for phone provider
  National Teleconnect, based out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has discovered the power of GIS to help direct their marketing efforts and target new service areas. National Teleconnect is a reseller of telephone services and their clients are typically people who have been denied other companies' telephone services or have had their services discontinued. In analyzing their client database National Teleconnect recognized that their clients typically live in certain pockets of the community. The most effective way to reach their target market directly is to focus their marketing to the areas surrounding their existing clients.
  
  
• Interactive website for shipwreck enthusiasts
  Located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Eco- Nova Productions is a full service production company that has been successfully producing international caliber television programming for over a decade. Their wholly owned media arm, Ghostship Studio, provides all the service work in 2D and 3D computer graphics for their television products as well as overseeing all new media development, design, and maintenance.
  
  
• Using GIS to effectively plan bus transit routes
  Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) operates conventional buses, smaller community shuttles, trolley buses, and the SeaBus ferry system, in the Greater Vancouver area, which is the largest single transit service area in Canada. CMBC was formed in 1999 as an operating subsidiary of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) to deliver bus transit services to the region. Their comprehensive service is focused on safety, reliability, community service, and innovation. They support 400,000 passenger trips (i.e. boardings) per day along 180 bus routes in a 1,800-square-kilometer region.
  
  
• Utilisation du SIG pour planifier efficacement des trajectoires d'autobus
  La Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) exploite des autobus ordinaires, des navettes communautaires, des autobus électriques et le réseau de traversiers SeaBus dans la région du Grand Vancouver, qui représente la plus grande zone de services de transport public à passagers au Canada. La CMBC a été établie en 1999 à titre de filiale active de la Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) afin de fournir des services de transport par autobus à la région. Son service complet est axé sur la sécurité, la fiabilité, les services communautaires et l'innovation, en plus des 400 000 embarquements effectués quotidiennement le long des 180 trajectoires couvrant une superficie de 1 800 kilomètres carrés.
  
  
• A New Geo Data Diffusion Solution at the Laval University Library
  The Geographical and Statistical Information Centre at the Laval University Library, in Québec City, has partnered with data distributors including DMTI, Natural Resources Canada, and LAND INFO Worldwide Mapping to distribute data via the web for the institution's community of 35,000 students and researchers. This service now includes more than 18 different products including the complete coverage for Québec with the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) for Québec, 1200 aerial pictures of the Québec area, and Québec's ecoforestry data. They manage and regularly update thousands of GIS data files.
  
  
• La bibliothèque de l'UL innove dans la diffusion des données géospatiales
  Le Centre d'information géographique et statistique (Centre Géo/Stat) de la bibliothèque de l'Université Laval de Québec diffuse gratuitement, via Internet et par le biais d'achats et de partenariats auprès de distributeurs tels que DMTI, Ressources Naturelle Canada et LAND INFO Worldwide Mapping, les feuillets cartographiques numériques nécessaires à la communauté de 35,000 étudiants et chercheurs de l'institution. Ce service, qui comprend maintenant plus de 18 produits différents tels que la couverture québécoise de la Base nationale de données topographiques du Canada (BNDT) au 1:50000 et 1:250 000, les 1200 orthophotos de la région de Québec/Lévis ou les données numériques écoforestières du Québec, nécessite la conversion, la gestion et la mise en ligne régulière de milliers de fichiers de données géospatiales.
  
  
• Students take on real world issues using GIS 
  Malaspina University-College, located in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, is now offering an eight-month, postgraduate program in GIS applications. This Advanced Diploma in GIS Applications (ADGISA) program offers a twist: after an intensive four months of hands-on training in a dedicated classroom setting, students then spend the next four months using GIS as a tool in solving a geographic or spatial problem of their choice. Students, with the assistance of the GIS instructors, are responsible for finding a sponsor for their GIS project. A number of local and regional businesses, industrial firms, government agencies, crown corporations, and research institutes provide opportunities for students to apply their GIS knowledge and skills to real world problems.