By Jill Sperling

Kamloops tech company helps preserve First Nations languages through government contract

Jan 24, 2019 | 1:59 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s a small operation with only six employees, but Two Story Robot is taking on some big projects. 

One of the company’s recent projects involved upgrades to the back-end of an online language tool called First Voices.

“Most of the stuff that we’ve done, the people who use the site wouldn’t really notice, they wouldn’t see,” said Two Story Robot Founder and CEO Jonathan Bowers. “It was more of an improvement for the existing development team who work on the project full time to help them to get some of the libraries they were using up to date with more modern software.” 

Bowers and his team worked on the project between September and October of 2018 after receiving a $10,500 contract through the Government of B.C. 

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“The provincial government has set up a new project called the BC Developer Exchange, which is just basically a website that allows companies like us to go and find projects within government that need help, that need technical help, so it’s just like a matchmaking service between us and them,” Bowers said.

The First Voices project was the first contract Two Story Robot was successful at winning through the BC Developer Exchange. 

“We’re very very happy that Two Story Robot qualified for this,” said Minister of Citizens’ Services, Jinny Sims, “because this actually provides a chance for them to work for a big client, like the BC Government, while they can focus on what they do best rather than all the paperwork needed for a complex proposal and then waiting for months or years in some cases.” 

For Bowers and his team, it was also an opportunity to use their skills in a way that benefits others. 

“It’s exciting to help with projects that have impact on people whether that’s environmental concerns, or in this case First Nations language and culture,” Bowers said. 

“We get excited about the technology, but the icing on the cake is whenever we get to use technology in a way that’s helpful for people, so that’s always a nice bonus.”