Case Studies
Government of Nunavut: Web-enable a Business Service Centre
Project: Web-enable a Business Service Centre
Technologies: Java, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, CFML, Cold Fusion, Apache, Oracle 9i, Lotus Script, Verity K2, Lotus Notes, Lotus Domino, Lotus Enterprise Integrator
Services: Software Development,Software Interface Design
Domains: Web Applications
Situation. Each Canadian province and territory has an on-line Business Service Centre that gives the public in-depth information about starting and running a small business. In the new territory of Nunavut, residents speak an Inuit language, so the Government of Nunavut wanted to provide the content of its Business Service Centre in English, French, Inuktitut, and Inuinnaqtun.
Solution. Macadamian took on the challenge. The project’s goal was to store Inuktitut syllabics in Unicode and search and index the content as easily as English or French documents. However, some of the underlying software involved did not support Unicode, and the application was not designed to support more than two languages. In order to be useful to users with older computers and web browsers, the web application had to support older font encoding in addition to Unicode. Furthermore, a number of different groups had been responsible for the English/French content management application, and had left much of the design and functionality undocumented.
Using our experience on the Asuilaak, the award-winning Living Dictionary (www.livingdictionary.com), Macadamian adapted Java components that transformed Unicode to 7- and 8-bit font encoding so that these could be read on practically any operating system, computer, and browser.
Benefits. The residents of Nunavut can search and read the documents of the Business Service Centre in their native tongue, regardless of which browser or operating system they use. Macadamian integrated the new language functionality into the application seamlessly and transparently to both CNBSC users and staff. CNBSC users can switch between languages anywhere in the site, and the CNBSC staff can create, edit, and publish Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun documents in the same way as they do with English and French documents. Because Macadamian kept the existing design and coding standards, the CNBSC Web development team can maintain the application without outside help.
