The Canada CODE Flash wheel. There is also a HTML site, with a big view of lots of content that allows visitors to watch new submissions roll in.

Canada CODE, an initiative of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, is a cyber look at Canadian identity and culture—a mosaic of contemporary Canadian society—as seen by the people.

To give Canadians “a collaborative way to share who we are … as we count down to 2010,” anyone with Internet access is invited to post their unique perspectives about Canada—or their particular corner of it—in words, sounds, and/or images online at canadacode.vancouver2010.com.

The user-friendly, bilingual site fosters widespread public participation and allows the sharing of text, images, and flash animation sequences between millions of Canadians.

Forty-nine Canadian writers—including Giller Prize winner Joseph Boyden of Willowdale, Ontario, Vancouver’s Evelyn Lau, and Montreal’s Nicole Brossard—provided short stories to help launch Canada CODE in early May.

David Bouchard, a Métis writer from British Columbia recently named to the Order of Canada, contributed a poem about discovering his heritage, while writer Arthur Black, who had a long-running show on CBC Radio, commented on living on one of the Gulf Islands.

'Morning Light', submitted by a user from Vancouver, B.C.

“I live on an island where things grow preposterously well—trees and flowers, ideas and art. Especially art. Saltspring is a crucible of human ingenuity. A haven for painters and writers, sculptors and jewellers, not to mention potters, poets, woodworkers, cheese makers, dancers, singers, and a host of cosmically creative people who defy labelling.”

Another submission reads: “Raccoon, whale, skunk, coyote, bear cougar—Canadian city life is wilder than you’d think.”

Giving a small slice of life in Canada’s great white north, one Patricia Robertson writes:

“A baby on a plastic sled, bundled in furs, sleeps with her face to the sun outside a Whitehorse cafe window. On the other side of the window her parents talk in French and drink cappuccinos on a February Sunday morning.”

A participant calling herself YogaMama posted photos of a branch of pink cherry blossoms and a 2000-year-old petroglyph called “The Lovers” carved into a rock on Quadra Island.

Canada CODE is the first project of a larger program called CODE (Cultural Olympiad’s digital edition). The Cultural Olympiad began in 2008 and is a three-year series of multidisciplinary festivals of arts, popular culture, and digital programs, presented by Bell Canada.

A major collaborator on the project is the National Film Board of Canada. The involvement of the writers was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the participation of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

A selection of the best Canada CODE content will be showcased on public screens in Vancouver and Whistler for the thousands of spectators and athletes during the 2010 Winter Games. The project in its entirety will continue to exist online in perpetuity as an archive of the country in 2010, according to the website.

The current top submission reads: “I love the non-conformity of the stop signs in Montreal. Some neighbourhoods sport Arrêt and some Stop while others have the bilingual version with Stop and Arrêt nested together.”