Paperless Government

The Town of Stratford Prince Edward Island, which is about a 15 minute drive from my home here in Charlottetown, has decided to go paperless. Town council approved a motion on Wednesday night to move all of its documents to electronic format. The town has commissioned a British Columbia based company to provide the software to enable them to archive and retrieve all of its letters, reports, agendas, budgets, etc. through a secure internet portal. The system will cost the town $6000 to install and another $6000 annually to operate and maintain. Stratford's Finance Chair, Emile Gallant points out "If I want to go on and do a search for a letter that we got eight months ago, I don't have to call staff or go looking for it." I don't know about you, but I don't think the paperless thing would work entirely for me as I tend to print and read the large documents! It would be interesting to get councils feedback on the system in 6 months time. CBC Story here.

Longtail Studios take up offices in Charlottetown, upto 40 jobs over next 2 years expected

The Province of Prince Edward Island's Development and Technology Minister, Richard Brown, announced yesterday that Longtail Studios Inc. is leasing office space at the Atlantic Technology Centre in Charlottetown, and plans to hire up to 40 people over the next two years. According to a press release issued by the Province, Longtail Studios was "established in 2003 by Gerard Guillemot, a co-founder of Ubisoft Entertainment" and is "committed to developing character-driven games and content." Longtail Studios operates offices in New York City, Quebec City and now in Charlottetown.