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Vancouver – Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the Masters of Digital Media Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media, together with Dr. Yosef Wosk, Director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University announced today the Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship Fund, to be offered to the most outstanding female student entering the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program each year based on the student’s academic performance and portfolio assessment. The application deadline for the MDM Program is June 30, 2009.

Dr. Yosef Wosk+

The Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship Fund was established by Dr. Yosef Wosk, a supporter of digital media and the Masters of Digital Media Program, a member of the Order of British Columbia and an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.) from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. “I wanted to provide financial support for a truly outstanding female student entering the Masters of Digital Media Program in honour of my high regard for MDM’s Executive Director, Dr. Gerri Sinclair and her mother, Dianne,” said Dr. Wosk. “The fund is named in the memory of Dianne Sinclair who believed passionately in the importance of a graduate school education for women.”
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Vancouver – Aftercad Software is pleased to announce the Version 2 release of its ground breaking Visual Workspace.

The Aftercad Online Visual Workspace is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that allows businesses to upload, view, mark-up, manage and publish large and complex 2D & 3D CAD files onto the web, without the need for proprietary viewers, providing easy and instant access to project information by non-CAD professionals.

“With the release of Version 2 we have achieved our goal of bringing a complete online file system to our customers so that they can collaborate on all project documents alongside stunning visuals” said Chris Boothroyd, CEO of Aftercad. “The Goal of the Visual Workspace is to quickly centralize and visualize what it is you are trying to sell so that your clients can come to decisions faster and easier. Each Visual Workspace has its own secure online file system, event notification and sharing tools so that you can easily invite clients or partners to collaborate with you on a project.”
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Waterloo – Open Text, a global leader in Enterprise Content Management (ECM), today announced that it has been awarded a 2009 SAP(R) Pinnacle Award as the Regional Software Solutions Partner of the Year, EMEA. SAP Pinnacle Awards were granted to leading SAP partners that have excelled in enhancing the customer experience, addressing critical issues such as accelerating co-innovation and improving return on investment. Winners were selected based on over 300 nominations, twice the amount in 2008, received from partners and SAP employees. Open Text received the award at a special awards ceremony held on the eve of SAPPHIRE® 2009, SAP’s international customer conference being held in Orlando, Fla. May 11-14

“The SAP Pinnacle Awards reflect the continued success we are seeing both in EMEA and around the world helping customers connect their enterprise content with SAP solutions,” said Patrick Barnert, Vice President, SAP Solutions at Open Text. “We are especially pleased to have won an SAP Pinnacle Award two years running and look forward to even greater success in the coming year. By working closely with SAP, we are helping our joint customers lower costs, boost productivity and increase compliance.”
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Vancouver – Pixar Studios has announced that they will be opening a new 20 000 square foot Vancouver studio this fall. Pixar President told The Hollywood Reporter that the new studio will focus on the production of Pixar’s short films and other non-feature projects based for the most part on “legacy characters”, such as the characters of Toy Story.

“The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition… for several different divisions of The Walt Disney Company”, he continued, while General Manager Jim Morris stated that “the studio plans to hire 75 – 100 employees, with the majority of them being Canadian.”
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Vancouver – Microsoft Corp. today announced its intent to acquire BigPark Inc., which was founded in 2007 by a group of industry veterans who led the creation and growth of two hugely successful software companies, Distinctive Software Inc. and Electronic Arts Canada. BigPark’s founding team is composed of business leaders with over 80 years of collective experience in the video game industry, having produced or overseen blockbuster franchises including “Need for Speed,” “FIFA Soccer,” “NBA Street” and “SSX.”

The acquisition will bring BigPark’s talented developers into Microsoft Game Studios, where the team will continue development on an exclusive Xbox 360 game. Over the past year, Microsoft and BigPark have worked closely on this project, providing Microsoft with a clear view into the caliber of talent and innovation at BigPark.
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Calgary – ICEsoft™ Technologies, Inc., a leading global provider of open source enterprise Java technologies and sponsor of the award winning ICEfaces® open source project, today announced a new addition to its open source product portfolio. ICEpdf®, ICEsoft’s Java PDF library and engine, is now available under the MPL open source license.

ICEpdf is a lightweight open source Java PDF rendering library that can be easily integrated within any Java-based client application or deployed on a server in headless mode as a PDF servlet (JSP or JSF). ICEpdf is ideal for providing PDF viewing and navigation as well as PDF content conversion and extraction without the hassles of Java-to-native integration issues.
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Quebec City – All non-profit organizations now have access to an affordable project management system for their activities. “Starting May 1st, it is the official policy of Websystems to give a 20% discount to all non-profits who use AceProject,” says Daniel Raymond, President of Websystems, inc.

Non-profit organizations that already subscribe to AceProject can request the rebate by emailing info[at]aceproject[dot]com. Other non-profit organizations who would like to subscribe to AceProject, can request the rebate at the time of purchase. AceProject is available now online. A demo is available at demo.aceproject.com and free accounts can be created at free.aceproject.com.

Ottawa – Rove Inc., developer of system administration software that provides mobile management of IT systems and infrastructure, announced that its flagship product, Mobile Admin, fully supports the newly launched Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.
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Ottawa – Corel Corporation today introduced the Corel Graphics Enterprise License (CGEL) Program, a new solution for enterprises with 250 users or more that will enable site-wide licensing of Corel’s award-winning graphics software including CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel DESIGNER® Technical Suite and CorelDRAW® Essentials. Designed to offer simplified administration, this new program equips enterprise users with the tools they need to communicate more effectively and with greater impact, at a fraction of the cost of purchasing individual licenses.
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Online – Few Canadian tech companies can thrive without succeeding in the U.S. market. This session looks at the special challenges presented by the largest, most competitive market in the world, and the strategies and assistance that can help Canadian companies succeed there.

Each one hour webinar features a noted subject matter expert and tech industry entrepreneur sharing their knowledge on a specific topic. They will also point you to where you can get access to additional assistance and resources.

After each webinar, you will have access to a recording of the session, along with a white paper capturing the valuable information shared in the webinar.

The Ready Set Grow webinar series is specifically designed to help you by providing access to the real-world experience, resources and connections that you need. In particular, a panel of experts will discuss what you need to know to successfully penetrate U.S. market, including:

Market penetration strategies
Legal and regulatory requirements
Accounting and Tax considerations

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