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With CAD designs being one of the most highly in-demand services for engineering work on contract and CAD design companies these days, both clients and designers would find it useful to have a related library containing useful information, tools and resources that they can access anytime, anywhere.

This is exactly what CAD Crowd offers – a free CAD library, where they can learn everything that there is to know about 3D and CAD models and CAD templates. The CAD Library includes CAD symbols, CAD drawings and CAD blocks for engineers. Common CAD software in the block library includes Adobe, AutoCAD, Alibre-Design, CATIA, Google Sketchup, Pro/Engineer, Solid Edge, Solid Works and Revit.

The popularity of online forums has brought about this instant sharing of ideas, which is exactly how the Free CAD Library works. Through it, you can share content with other users, download other members’ content or even find components for your design which are provided by actual industry engineers and companies. CAD designers will find it easy to increase their visibility, client base, establish their reputation and get instant feedback for their work. They can also browse through the Free CAD Library and get ideas for CAD designs, and even reuse the work of other engineers. With the goal of becoming the a leading engineering design and CAD services procurement, CAD Crowd definitely does provide benefits for buyers and designers through the easily accessible – and free – CAD library that they have onsite.

Social Media Week Toronto will showcase a series of free sessions with leading social media experts designed specifically to help companies thrive in today’s ever-changing digital landscape. The events run from February 7-11 as part of a series of simultaneous global events in nine cities.

“As the social web has moved from the fringe into the mainstream, its ability to impact business has increased dramatically. To explore this side of social media, we’ve curated a series of events during Social Media Week Toronto focused squarely on business”, says Eli Singer, founder and president of Entrinsic, a social media communications agency, and co-curator for Social Media Week Toronto.

On February 8, Social Media Week Toronto event partner BMO Bank of Montreal will bring together social media industry experts Google, LinkedIn, The Globe and Mail, and Silver Lining for a session focused on small businesses. Entitled Business 3.0, the forum will offer social media strategies and tactics to help small companies grow their business and brand.

“We are very excited to be creating a forum where our customers can come together to learn about how to use the social web to build their businesses and simplify their financial matters,” says Bal Sahjpaul, Director eChannel, BMO Financial Group.

On February 9, Sysomos presents Using Analytics to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Efforts, an event showcasing new tools to monitor, measure and analyze social media. Additional events targeted towards business growth, including Facebook’s The People Web on February 11, highlight the importance of creating consumer experiences and relationships, instead of simply trying to tell consumers what to think.

Award-winning global PR firm Weber Shandwick hosts Defending Your Brand and Corporate Reputation in Social Media on February 7. This session will introduce FireBell, a crisis simulation tool developed by Weber that allows businesses to experience threats in real-time across an array of social media platforms in order to prepare for future reputation attacks.

Over 45 free events are being delivered through Social Media Week Toronto. The sessions cover a wide range of industry sectors and conversations about the impacts of digital and social media on business, marketing, culture and society as a whole. Full registration for Social Media Week Toronto is now open. Follow them on Twitter at @SMWTO.

Social Media Week Toronto is produced by Entrinsic. Global support for Social Media Week comes from headline sponsor NOKIA and supporting sponsors PepsiCo, Meebo, JWT and global media partner Weber Shandwick, along with local media partner Marketwire, all of whom have come together to make this possible.

Intertainment Media Inc. has released the latest growth stats for its social media, real time, language translation platform Ortsbo. The service has doubled user engagement since December 2010 with over 54 million minutes of online usage. All other key performance metrics including Online Sessions, Page Views and Unique Users experienced double to triple digits growth in the past month. Ortsbo is breaking down the language barriers initiating new marketing programs in South America, South East Asia and India while continuing to expand programs in Asia, Europe and North America.

According to published reports, by the end of its first year in 2004, Facebook had 1 Million users. By comparison, after just 7 month of operations, January 2011, Ortsbo already had almost 4 Million active users on a monthly basis, increasing 83% month over month, and is currently tracking at over 1.2 Million per week, well on its way to Facebook’s 2005 second year results of 5.5 Million active users.

Since its launch on July 22, 2010 Ortsbo has achieved the following:

54.1 Million Minutes of User Engagement
33.7 Million Page Views
15.2 Million Online Sessions
10 Million Unique Visitors From Over 170 Countries / Territories
35,000 Facebook Fans
3,800 Twitter Followers

Ortsbo’s real time multi-session, multi-platform and multi-lingual application connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile devices as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China’s largest chat platforms and Twitter. Ortsbo instantly provides real time translation capabilities to well over 1 billion active chat accounts in over 170 Countries / Territories.

With beta trials expected to be completed shortly, Ortsbo is finalizing its commercial release schedule for its translation module for email applications. Ortsbo for Microsoft Outlook provides instant translation of both sent and received emails, with original language attachments, making it easy to communicate via email in multiple languages. The email plug-in module will retail for $29.95 US. Ortsbo also offers a secure, multi-user, multilingual chat module for the commercial market.

With the accelerated growth, popularity and global reach of Ortsbo, as well as the upcoming commercial launch of Ortsbo for Outlook, the Company has engaged the Corum Group (Seattle and Zurich), a global leader in software mergers and acquisitions to assist with its strategic opportunities. The Company has considered independent offers and feels that working with Corum provides potentially higher value for Ortsbo. The Company has stated that it will provide further updates as they become available. Intertainment Media also owns and operates a number of other key properties including Ad Taffy, itiBiti and Magnum.

Reminder: Registration is open for the Wired Woman Vancouver session with Tod Maffin on Deconstructing Viral: How to Build a Killer Viral Marketing Campaign.

Serebra Learning Corporation has announced important enhancements to the Serebra Campus learning management system (LMS) that will combine features designed to better service existing clientele with features that will distinguish Serebra as a leader in the industry.

“At Serebra we are constantly innovating and looking for ways to increase student engagement and satisfaction with our systems,” said Serebra’s acting President, Taleeb Noormohamed. “Taking into consideration feedback from our valued clients, we’ve made revisions and enhancements that will empower administrators and streamline the learning process.”

In addition to numerous application improvements, Serebra has added new features to Serebra Campus, including:

Learning Plans: The new learning plan feature offers administrators the unique ability to organize courses into educational paths directly related to employees’ career plans and goals. Learners can review plans that have been assigned to them and track their personal progress. This feature will allow organizations to formalize their training and development programs and effectively manage short and long-term career development of employees.

Custom Course Management: The latest release of Serebra Campus allows administrators to upload and manage proprietary SCORM or AICC custom courseware. Administrators can now preview the training before making it available to students and ensure that it is working as they expect. Organizations that create their own content can now track, manage and deliver their courses more effectively and efficiently.

Student Training Dashboard: When students log into the system they will now be directed to the My Training Dashboard, which will provide them with a snapshot of their training activity with an emphasis on compliance and learning plan progress. This streamlines the learning experience and keeps students on track with their learning.

Edmonton-based Lifelong Learn is proud to offer two new additions to their library of children’s e-books on their website. The children’s books from Lifelong Learn provide an enjoyable reading experience while motivating basic reading skills, left to right progression, turning pages, identifying words through pictures, early research, and much more. The concept books are available to assist caregivers (parents, families, early childhood educators, and teachers) on how to motivate a child’s developmental process.

One of the new books offered by Lifelong Learn is called Feelings. This easy-to-read book helps children with identifying feelings. Each feeling is represented in two variations and in two languages. Identification of feelings is a critical skill in the early years of development because it supports the building of positive self-esteem and social competence.
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Toronto Pearson has announced that the airport will participate in Facebook Deals to offer Facebook users free access to Plaza Premium Lounges at the airport when they check-in to Toronto Pearson on Facebook Places. Facebook Places gives people the power to easily share where they are with friends on Facebook, find friends who are nearby and discover new places.

Using an iPhone or by logging into Facebook Touch on a touch-enabled smart phone, 1,000 Toronto Pearson guests each day on January 31, February 1 and February 2, 2011 who check-in to the Toronto Pearson location on Facebook Places will receive a deal redeemable at any of the airport’s five Plaza Premium Lounges. Guests simply show their claimed deal on their mobile phone at any of the lounge locations for free access while they await their flights. A total of 3,000 lounge access coupons are available to be claimed during the 72-hour promotion.

“As one of the busiest entry points into North America, it’s no surprise Toronto Pearson is also one of the most popular check-in spots in Canada for Facebook’s 500 million users, and we’re excited to be among the first brands in Canada to reward guests who check-in,” said Pamela Griffith-Jones, Chief Marketing and Commercial Development Officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Toronto Pearson. “Offering free lounge access to our passengers who check-in to Toronto Pearson on Facebook Places is another way for us to attract, serve and delight our guests.”

Toronto Pearson’s Plaza Premium Lounges are located in:

• Terminal 1 Domestic Departures
• Terminal 1 Transborder(US) Departures
• Terminal 1 International Departures
• Terminal 3 Domestic Departures
• Terminal 3 International Departures

Plaza Premium Lounges offer Toronto Pearson passengers food, beverage, showers, internet, business services, newspapers, magazines and television.  Toronto Pearson and Plaza Premium have joined together to provide travellers with a unique, common use lounge experience. Every Plaza Premium operated lounge is open to all travellers, irrespective of the airline they are travelling on or class of fare. Rates for the Plaza Premium lounges are a maximum of $35 plus tax per visit. The GTAA is the non-share, not for profit authority that operates Toronto Pearson. All revenue generated by the GTAA is reinvested back into the airport. In 2009, 30.4 million passengers travelled through Toronto Pearson.

Toronto’s Centract Settlement Services announced today that its TrendPoint™ application programming interface (API) is now powering smartphones, including Blackberry® and iPhone®.

This new mobile application will allow users to obtain valuable information on residential real estate pricing trends in markets across Canada by accessing Centract’s current data and analytic products including Neighbourhood Reports and Heat Maps. Read the rest of this entry »

Future Shop has announced the six Canadian high schools that will be receiving state-of-the-art technology labs through donations totalling $300,000 in 2011. Thanks to the generosity of Future Shop’s Future Generation Tech Lab program, selected schools from across the country in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec will receive $50,000 each to use based on their needs to build new technology classrooms that benefit programs and engagement of students.

“We’re proud of the Future Generation Tech Lab program’s continued support of education in Canada,” said Todd Empey, Vice President of Store Operations, Future Shop. “This is our fourth consecutive year supporting high schools across Canada; the transformations and impact they have for the students and programming is remarkable. I’m looking forward to seeing the unveilings of the new classrooms when they’re completed in September.”

Launched in 2007, the Future Generation Tech Lab program is designed to give back to the communities Future Shop serves and reduce both the digital and economic divide within Canadian high schools. More than 90 high schools applied for a Future Generation Tech Lab donation, double the amount of applicants in 2010.

According to a Student Awards poll conducted by Uthink Online (a subsidiary of StudentAwards.com) on behalf of Future Shop from July 27 – August 13, 2010, 87 per cent of Canadian high school students shared they would take more advantage of technology in school if it were up-to-date and functional. This online survey of 1,000 included Canadian students from grades 10 to 12 demonstrates the need for continuing scholastic support by programs like Future Generation Tech Lab.

The following six high schools were selected to receive $50,000 each through the Future Generation Tech Lab program:

British Columbia

• Burnaby North Secondary School (Burnaby) – As one of the largest high schools in British Columbia, Burnaby North S.S. has only one computer per 18 students. Also, in addition to existing students attending Burnaby North S.S., eight districts send students to participate in the school’s Digital Sound Production and the Film and Broadcast Industry Connect programs. With a large amount of students enrolling in the program, the Future Generation Tech Lab donation is imperative to sustain and expand its services.
• Norkam Secondary School (Kamloops) – The majority of Norkam S.S.’ computers are either donated or refurbished, and quickly deteriorating. The lack of modern technology is affecting key programs like the Video and Media Technology course which has just eight computers and dated video cameras. The Future Generation Tech Lab donation will be used to upgrade the classroom to bring it up-to-date with new computers, editing equipment and creation of a mini-sound state with lighting and a green screen.

Ontario

• St. Joseph’s Catholic High School (Windsor) – Visuals Arts is one of the school’s most popular programs, where classes like photography, graphic design and flash animation create waiting lists each year. Sadly, the four computers and technology used to carry out some of these programs are dated and limit the development of skills for the students. The Future Generation Tech Lab donation will be used to purchase new equipment and provide students with an improved and more creative learning environment.
• Highland Secondary School (Dundas) – A recent theft and vandalism at the school, 45 year-old machinery that was installed the year the school was built and computers almost a decade old, will soon be upgraded thanks to the Future Generation Tech Lab program. Highland S.S. plans to use the donation money to build a cross-curricular program that features an integrated learning hub for students interested in communications, machinery and Custom Car Design and Drafting (CAD) services.
• L’école secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers (Ottawa) – A minority French education school in Ottawa with more than 70 different countries represented in its student body, L’école secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers is a culturally diverse school with little technology. With only one computer for every six students, Omer-Deslauriers will use their Future Generation Tech Lab to outfit a classroom with equipment to elevate classes in its Information, Technology and Communications program. The new technologies acquired from the donation will fulfill student needs, such as learning audio and video montages, animation and web design.

Quebec

• L’école secondaire Cavelier-De LaSalle (Montreal) – Known as a school with a less fortunate student population, L’école secondaire Cavelier-De LaSalle will use its Future Generation Tech Lab donation to boost morale and productivity. The donation will benefit three programs and 25 classes. Technology will be purchased to teach students how to develop communications skill-sets, such as creating newsletters and presentations, as well as provide research and developmental support for the general student body, including those with learning disabilities.

Photos of the current state of each classroom above will be available online for viewing beginning February 1, 2011. Reveals of the classroom upgrades and renovations will be shared in September.

IBM has unveiled one of the most advanced computing facilities in Canada with the launch of IBM Compute Cloud Centre, the company’s first cloud delivery centre in Canada. This new centre was built to address the growing demand from enterprises to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and access new technologies such as analytics and mobile computing.

With the new $42 million IBM Compute Cloud Centre, Canadian businesses can securely develop, host and test applications while paying only for the computational power they use. The platform represents an evolutionary opportunity for organizations to capitalize on the cloud computing model to further grow their social and business applications. Confidential information is protected and kept securely resident in Canada in accordance with Canadian privacy laws.

Among the first clients to take advantage of the IBM Compute Cloud Centre’s offerings in Canada are VisionMax, a Canadian-based custom software development firm offering IT solutions, and Buchanan Technologies, an IBM Canada business partner and IT professional services firm whose headquarters are in the USA.

According to Canadian IDC analyst, Mark Schrutt, in his recent report Cloud Computing: The Next Form of Outsourcing, “IBM becomes the first Tier 1 multinational IT service provider to establish Canadian cloud delivery capabilities, in a market that is expected to grow by more than 40% over the next three years, breaking the C$1billion mark by 2015. IBM’s global cloud footprint is impressive and is a critical component in addressing some of the technical issues around cloud such as latency. More importantly, at least for the Canadian market, IBM Smart Business Compute Cloud provides an in-country solution for buyers concerned about data residency.” Read the rest of this entry »