Blog

Since the beginning of Affinity Bridge, one of our favourite open source content management systems (CMS) has been Drupal. Drupal is a wonderful demonstration of why we love open source software: huge amounts of community-contributed code have allowed us to build complex sites and applications for our clients at a fraction of the cost that fully custom or commercial solutions would have cost. We also love that Drupal has one the kindest, most supportive software development communities out there: within the Drupal community, the motto has been “Come for the software, stay for the community.”...

Let me start by saying this has been one of the most difficult pieces of writing I’ve ever volunteered to draft, knowing my daughter would read (and help edit) it so that it honours her experience, not just my perception of it. I am so grateful for her, and so proud of the strength she has to use her voice. I hear people saying that it’s easy for kids to come out these days. I thought so, too. Until my daughter did. She taught me that coming out is definitely still not easy. She has been raised in a home where she knows that she is and will be loved no matter what, and that we support her...

On International Women’s Day this year, the Globe and Mail ran a piece by the author and entrepreneur Emma Knight in which she argued that “it is possible to be considered a well-educated, well-adjusted adult male without ever (or while hardly ever) having read a book written by a woman.” Her prescription was “annually, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, let’s all buy a book by someone who identifies as female, and then read it. How better to celebrate women than by listening to what they have to say?” It is possible to be considered a well-educated, well-adjusted adult male without...

What is Transgender Day of Visibility? International Trans Day of Visibility, March 31st, was started by Rachel Crandall in Michigan in 2009. It’s a day to celebrate trans lives, including non-binary people. It’s also about recognizing the significant contributions that trans people make to society, and educating on the barriers and discrimination that trans people face. This celebratory day was founded in part to focus on the positivity and contributions of trans people, while still acknowledging the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance in November. This day is a great chance to educate...

At Affinity Bridge, we stand for a just, inclusive and sustainable world. We believe strongly in social justice and working with our clients to build a more equitable society. This year’s theme for World Day of Social Justice, selected by the United Nations, is a “Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy”. While we recognize that technology provides incredible opportunities for many employees and organizations, the shift to digital particularly in the pandemic has also led to a greater widening of inequities between the “digital haves” and “have nots”. For the UN, this specific focus...

At Affinity Bridge, we are passionate about bringing technology and education together online. We have worked across multiple sectors to develop a variety of learning delivery systems for our clients. From teaching kids about the importance of vaccines to supporting adults who work with young children, we have a lot of experience to share on Learning Management Systems and other tools for educators. Here are some of the ways we've helped our clients educate the world. Supporting teachers in the fight against misinformation around vaccines and COVID-19 Kids Boost Immunity is a Drupal-based...

At Affinity Bridge, we unequivocally stand in support of Black lives and denounce white supremacy in all its forms. Systemic racism against Black communities, communities of colour and Indigenous communities must be dismantled. We cannot let racism, inequality and injustice go unchallenged. Current initiatives: CultureBrew.Art — building an inclusive arts and culture sector that more accurately reflects Canada by promoting Indigenous and racialized artists. Peacegeeks.org/ArrivalAdvisor.ca — supporting development of new technology to help refugees and newcomers access resources both in Canada...

British Columbia has been a global leader in testing and developing public policy to address the COVID-19 crisis. The province was quick to start testing healthcare providers for the virus, knowing that they must self-isolate after they receive the test until they know the results. The province was facing a challenge, though: while test results were available in six hours, there was a delay in the notification. A call would be made immediately to those who tested positive, but for people who tested negative it could be days of isolation without knowing their results. In the case of healthcare...

Photo by Don Graham and used under Creative Common 2.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license. Taking a break from development for a day or two and upgrading my laptop to Catalina seemed like a good way to kick off the new year. Catalina upgrades the System PHP version from 7.2.x to 7.3.9, which is a change I am eager to get as PHP 7.2 is no longer actively supported by the PHP developer community. The OS X upgrade process always includes a few surprises for developers, however. A big surprise in this upgrade was that Catalina improves security by adding a read-only file system for critical system...

We recently launched a fresh, redesigned site for Pacific Wild — a non-profit committed to defending wildlife and their habitat on Canada’s Pacific coast by developing and implementing conservation solutions in collaboration with First Nations communities, scientists, other organizations and individuals — and are proud to share that it was featured in the Elementor March sites of the month. We redesigned and rebuilt PacificWild.org using Elementor, a WordPress pagebuilding and layouts plugin that makes it easy for our clients collaborate on content design. The new site is full of engaging...