Redistricting and Running MLS on Browsers Other than Internet Explorer
I first heard about two Toronto Real Estate Board projects at a presentation a year ago at RealtorQuest 2009. I've been wondering for a while about the status of these projects.
1) Redistricting is a project where TREB will replace the current districts (e.g E15, N08, W10) with the names of neighbourhoods and communities, usually as defined by the municipality but in some cases, where the municipality does provide sufficient / appropriate feedback, then by using the recommendations of some TREB members. For the central districts in Toronto's core, the current district naming conventions (e.g. C01, C02) will continue to be used. After redistricting is complete, you will NOT be able to search by district number (except in the Central districts) but you will search by neighbourhood, community or municipality.
2) Enabling TorontoMLS to run on an independent platform basis rather than requiring Internet Explorer to be used. Currently, Mozilla based browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome) are not supported but some people have used Safari on the Mac with some workarounds or slightly limited features.
Today, I had a meeting and lunch with the President-Elect for the 2010/2011 fiscal year and asked him. He had to leave lunch early and therefore invited the CIO in for lunch. Here is a summary of the conversation:
1) Redistricting will be completed first. The overall design work is essentially complete. Coding will start soon. Based on the conversation, it appears to me that redistricting will become available late in 2010 or very early in 2011.
2) The browser independent work will be finalized after redistricting is complete. Current expectations are that browser independence will be available in the first quarter of calendar 2011. The browser independence project is based on the .NET programming methodology. It appears to be TREB's plans that two platforms for accessing MLS will be maintained - the new browser independent MLS and the current Internet Explorer platform.
Note that due to the nature of these projects, there could be delays and, thus, project timeline completion dates may change.
Copyright Marc Swartz 2010. All rights reserved. E&OE.
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