History
The VIUcam pilot project was initiated in Spring of 2008 by Facilties Services and Campus Development and was developed together with VIU's Communications & IT Departments as a tool to give the VIU community virtually live feedback on weather, parking and other interesting activities & events on campus. Research was performed on systems used by other organizations, including municipalities & alpine resorts. The Nanaimo Campus VIUcam was officially running as of Fall 2008.
From 2009-2011, Facilities Services and Campus Development used a similar camera setup, called the Cowichan "ConstructionCAM", to monitor and track construction of the New Cowichan Campus, which officially opened in September 2011.
Due to the success of the Nanaimo Campus VIUcam, the Cowichan ConstructionCAM & positive feedback from the VIU community, two additional cameras were added in 2011: Cowichan Campus VIUcam, and Deep Bay Marine Field Station VIUcam.
Details
The web-based, Digital IP, "PTZ" [pan, tilt, zoom] camera operates continuously on a pre-determined patrol sequence, publishing multiple frames to VIU's website approximately every 5 minutes. This information is particularly useful for daily commuters, but also for the university's publicity on a local, regional, national and international level.
For privacy purposes, information obtained by the camera is not stored in any way. As the camera runs through its patrol sequence, each image is overwritten by its corresponding successor & published to the web. The VIUcam is subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), and complies with Commissioner’s Order #02-46. For more information please contact the Office of the University Secretary/Senior Policy Advisor at 250-740-6564.
Future
ConstructionCAM will continue to be used in the future by Facilities Services and Campus Development to monitor and track the construction of Major Capital Projects. Additional VIUcams may also be explored for institutional publicity, information, special events, projects and other points of interest.