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TORONTO, Ontario –Octopz Inc. is delighted to announce that the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) has selected Octopz, an advanced online collaboration solution, for use by students and faculty in the Advertising, Graphic, Industrial Design and Environmental Design programs. Initially, the Octopz software will be made available to the 900 participants in the OCAD Laptop Program.

OCAD chose Octopz to help its students maximize their time, whether working independently or collaborating with fellow team members, and to take full advantage of emerging digital media technologies. Octopz was developed specifically to meet the needs of creative professionals and enables up to five people to synchronously view and mark up an unprecedented range of documents including digital media such as video and animations, and to communicate via built-in text, voice and video chat. Their work —including all marked up documents and notes — is stored securely, so that participants can access, review and revise projects whenever it’s convenient, 24/7.

“OCAD emphasizes the fine balance between individual creativity and collaboration”, said Sara Diamond, university president. “Octopz is a next generation social technology that is ideal for design and art-making in the media space, for both virtual planning and production. We are especially pleased that it has been developed with a company that has been supported by our partners at MaRS. OCAD’s Digital Futures initiative allows us to support our students with the skills and knowledge that they need to lead in the digital world.”

Also attractive to OCAD was the fact that it is possible to begin using Octopz immediately. Octopz has intuitive navigation and tool icons, and because it is easy to use, minimal training is required. As a fully hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, nothing needs to be installed on either the university’s servers or the users’ computers.

“We take great pride in delivering leading technologies to our OCAD community,” said Alastair Macleod, Director, Information Technology Services for OCAD. “Participants in the laptop program are already equipped with the latest 2D and 3D applications, including software from companies like Autodesk and Adobe, and we believe that Octopz will enable students and faculty to collaborate in new and exciting ways on work they create in these applications.”

Octopz launched at Web 2.0 Expo 2007, where CNET named it one of the ‘Top Five’ Web 2.0 services. Since then, Octopz has been a finalist in the Webware 100 awards, identified as a 2007 rising star by InfoWorld, selected by Red Herring as one of the ten hottest startups in Canada and named one of Canada’s Companies-to-Watch as part of the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards.

“Partnering with OCAD is extremely exciting,” said Ron McKenzie, CEO of Octopz. “Response to Octopz from the design community has been enthusiastic – creative professionals from all over the world have found Octopz invaluable in their day-to-day work. We applaud OCAD’s foresight and innovative approach to providing students with the emerging technologies they will need to maximize their creative potential, at school and beyond.”

About Octopz Inc. Octopz Inc. (www.octopz.com) develops advanced online collaboration technologies built specifically for today’s creative professionals. With fully integrated support for text messaging, VoIP and webcams, Octopz allows colleagues and partners anywhere in the world to work together securely in real-time, or individually at their own convenience, using multiple document types. Team members can then save and archive their work for subsequent retrieval, review and feedback. The result is accelerated decision making and speed-to-market – a significant competitive edge.

For more information on Octopz contact:
Ann Christie
Vice President, Marketing
Octopz Inc.
416.673.8187
email here

Click here to log on to Octopz

Canada’s ‘University of the Imagination’ Uses Digital Technology to Enhance Innovation and Creativity

	Collaborate Click here to log on to Octopz Click here for more information Octopz' press release: Canada’s ‘University of the Imagination’ Uses Digital Technology to Enhance Innovation and Creativity TORONTO, Ontario –Octopz Inc. is delighted to announce that the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) has selected Octopz, an advanced online collaboration solution, for use by students and faculty in the Advertising, Graphic, Industrial Design and Environmental Design programs. Initially, the Octopz software will be made available to the 900 participants in the OCAD Laptop Program. OCAD chose Octopz to help its students maximize their time, whether working independently or collaborating with fellow team members, and to take full advantage of emerging digital media technologies. Octopz was developed specifically to meet the needs of creative professionals and enables up to five people to synchronously view and mark up an unprecedented range of documents including digital media such as video and animations, and to communicate via built-in text, voice and video chat. Their work —including all marked up documents and notes — is stored securely, so that participants can access, review and revise projects whenever it’s convenient, 24/7. “OCAD emphasizes the fine balance between individual creativity and collaboration”, said Sara Diamond, university president. “Octopz is a next generation social technology that is ideal for design and art-making in the media space, for both virtual planning and production. We are especially pleased that it has been developed with a company that has been supported by our partners at MaRS. OCAD’s Digital Futures initiative allows us to support our students with the skills and knowledge that they need to lead in the digital world.” Also attractive to OCAD was the fact that it is possible to begin using Octopz immediately. Octopz has intuitive navigation and tool icons, and because it is easy to use, minimal training is required. As a fully hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, nothing needs to be installed on either the university’s servers or the users’ computers. “We take great pride in delivering leading technologies to our OCAD community,” said Alastair Macleod, Director, Information Technology Services for OCAD. “Participants in the laptop program are already equipped with the latest 2D and 3D applications, including software from companies like Autodesk and Adobe, and we believe that Octopz will enable students and faculty to collaborate in new and exciting ways on work they create in these applications.” Octopz launched at Web 2.0 Expo 2007, where CNET named it one of the ‘Top Five’ Web 2.0 services. Since then, Octopz has been a finalist in the Webware 100 awards, identified as a 2007 rising star by InfoWorld, selected by Red Herring as one of the ten hottest startups in Canada and named one of Canada’s Companies-to-Watch as part of the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards. “Partnering with OCAD is extremely exciting,” said Ron McKenzie, CEO of Octopz. “Response to Octopz from the design community has been enthusiastic – creative professionals from all over the world have found Octopz invaluable in their day-to-day work. We applaud OCAD’s foresight and innovative approach to providing students with the emerging technologies they will need to maximize their creative potential, at school and beyond.” About Octopz Inc. Octopz Inc. (www.octopz.com) develops advanced online collaboration technologies built specifically for today’s creative professionals. With fully integrated support for text messaging, VoIP and webcams, Octopz allows colleagues and partners anywhere in the world to work together securely in real-time, or individually at their own convenience, using multiple document types. Team members can then save and archive their work for subsequent retrieval, review and feedback. The result is accelerated decision making and speed-to-market – a significant competitive edge. For more information on Octopz contact: Ann Christie Vice President, Marketing Octopz Inc. 416.673.8187 email here	Print-friendly Page

Last Modified:23/01/2008 5:51:02 PM