Science Library Pad

Ottawa Minecraft map

The City of Ottawa Open Data initiative has released a Minecraft map of the city

geoOttaWOW: A Minecraft world of the City of Ottawa

However you have to know a few things that aren't really explained:

• This is a really big map which means it is slow to load and will tax your computer system.  It may crash on some older systems, particularly if you try to move around very quickly.
• The starting point (world spawn point) is, for some reason, currently set to near the Rideau river, Old Ottawa South (Glengarry & Onslow).
• You can teleport to other locations but you have to know the coordinates.

Fortunately some locations are listed under the Showcase link

Spawn point tp -5.5 129 -2.5

is near the Rideau river, Old Ottawa South (Glengarry & Onslow)

Parliament: tp -2266 139 -2061

Exp. Farm traffic circle tp -2851 163 1744

What does this mean?

As this is a Creative map with Cheats turned on, you can teleport, using the /tp command.

To get to Parliament Hill, just type

/tp -2266 139 -2061

Otherwise, since you spawn in a forest without any familiar landmarks, and Ottawa is very big, you may wander around for a long time before finding anything.

Parliament (Centre Block) looks like this

(Despite a CBC article which may make you think you are looking for a blue-and-white castle.)

I don't know the details of how the map was generated, but I'm guessing mostly through an export from Ottawa's Geographic Information System (GIS).  This would give the shapes of the major buildings (if you live in an apartment tower you will probably see it, if you live in a single-family detached house you will just see your lot full of grass).  The generator has some eccentric parameters set, so you will find water and lava in various places, including flowing down buildings.

It is cool to wander around Ottawa with animals grazing on Parliament Hill and more than the usual number of zombies wandering around Centretown.

The city really should set the world spawn to Parliament Hill though.  But since it's open data you can modify it and share the modifications as you wish.

Angry Birds smashing silos

Angry Birds is a game in which small birds with different abilities topple structures (well, for the purposes of this metaphor, anyway).

An individual bird has a literal arc for a career, sometimes a long curve, sometimes a sharp peak, but always ending with a final impact.  That impact may be a single wall destroyed, or it may be the final touch that causes an entire structure to collapse.

Each has different abilities - some have bursts of speed, some explode, some drop bombs, others simply smash through by brute force.  Different combinations are needed to achieve the desired results.

We talk of smashing silos when we speak of IT project improvement or public service renewal.  We talk of the Ivory Tower under assault

@danielleganza Danielle Robichaud

The defences of the Ivory Tower are under attack - by the Internet. #jcdl2011

http://twitter.com/danielleganza/status/80631996623237120

So can ask yourself a few questions: What kind of bird am I?  What career arc do I want?  At the end of my career, what final impact do I want to have, whether it's a single brick dislodged or silos toppling like dominoes?

Sometimes it may seem impossible

but in the end, there is always a way

The above written to provoke discussion at Wednesday June 15, 2011 Web 2.0 Practitioners tweetup in Ottawa.

Sidebar: After having thought of this idea (while bathing, although fortunately for everyone I did not run the streets shoulding Eureka!  Angry Birds!) I was rather surprised and worried to see Angry Birds ... Understand Collaboration show up in my tweetstream from GovLoop the very same day.  It actually turns out to be some specific collaboration lessons you can learn from Rovio, who have done various clever things to promote their game.