Microsoft Local Impact Map »

A project that’s been in the works since late last year at Stimulant has just launched on Microsoft.com. The Local Impact Map presents over 500 stories about the positive impact of local programs supported by Microsoft around the world.

Some marketing will be following the launch soon, but I’m more interested in the technical side. Some cool features:

• The map in the background is a Deep Zoom image, with a XAML version of the map overlayed on top for rollovers and data visualization.
• Intense support for bookmarking and the browser back button. Pretty much any state of the app is bookmarkable and shareable.
• The bookmarking support is extended by the “snapshots” feature, which lets you save a series of app states and recall them later, for a sort of presentation.
• Live as-you-type search throughout all the data in the app, thanks to LINQ.
• Lots of great stories, images, and even video.

This has definitely been the most complex Silverlight project I’ve done to date, maybe even the most complex RIA so far. That is if you don’t count the one I’m working on now for MSR, of course.