Thursday February 3, 2011

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Ted Talks

Johanna Blakley: Social media and the end of gender

Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they're becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, Blakley explains what changes are in store for the future of media.

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Merger

OpenText Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Metastorm

WATERLOO - Open Text Corporation announced it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger to acquire Metastorm Inc. through a merger of Metastorm with a subsidiary of OpenText.

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Council

From the Feb. 2, 2011 Regional Council meeting:

Waterloo - Council approved an option to build roundabouts at two Ottawa Street intersections: · Ottawa Street and Alpine Road; and · Ottawa Street and Homer Watson Boulevard. The two-roundabout solution is expected to provide a 70 per cent reduction in injury collisions and reduce delay and congestion in the area. The area will also be improved for pedestrians and cyclists through an off-road multi-use trail. Construction is expected in 2015.

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Document Management

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation Agrees to Deploy the OpenText ECM Suite

WATERLOO - OpenText has entered into a global agreement with SABIC, one of the world's top six petrochemical companies, in which SABIC will be deploying the OpenText ECM Suite to its 37,000 users. The agreement will provide users around the world with a single integrated environment that allows them to manage documents in an efficient and transparent manner.

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Ecosystem

Road May Disrupt Migration, Ruin Serengeti, Study Finds

Guelph - Building a highway through Serengeti National Park may devastate one of the world's last large-scale herd migrations and the region's ecosystem, according to new research by an international team of ecologists, including a University of Guelph professor.

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Acoustics

Toronto Police should discard sound cannons as gesture of good faith

Toronto – The Toronto Police Services Board should deny Chief Bill Blair’s request tomorrow to buy the controversial sound cannons that the federal government lent them for the G20 meeting last June, says the Council of Canadians. Blair has asked for funding to buy four of the Long Range Acoustic Devices from the Harper government instead of returning them.

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Auto

Mercedes-Benz Canada reports strong January sales performance and celebrates 125! Years of innovation

TORONTO - Mercedes-Benz Canada reported that the group delivered a total of 1,564 Mercedes-Benz and smart units throughout the month. In addition, this month the company proudly celebrated the 125th anniversary of the automobile, with the original patent being filed by Carl Benz for his three-wheeled motor car on January 29th, 1886.

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Investment

Why Canadians jump into bad real estate investments and how to avoid them

Toronto - Renting to Own Investment expert and author Mark Loeffler says that while it’s great that the real estate industry is reporting growth, it’s critical to drill down deeper into the markets that you might be currently investing in, or are considering investing in before jumping into what could be a potential mess.

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Investments

Canadians on the sidelines in cross border M&A with Brazil: PwC report

The time is right to take a second look at Brazil

TORONTO - A report on Brazil by PwC's Deals practice shows that Canada is largely missing out on opportunities with one of the world's most promising emerging economies. While foreign direct investment between Brazil and Canada has grown rapidly over the last decade, there has surprisingly been a lack of merger and acquisition deal activity between the two countries.

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Energy

ONLINE ENERGY RETAILER MyRateEnergy.ca PROVIDES CUSTOMERS WITH 10% OCEB REBATE

MISSISSAUGA - Customers of Ontario's lowest-priced online energy retailer MyRateEnergy.ca will automatically receive a 10% rebate applied to their electricity bills for the next five years. The rebate is part of The Ministry of Energy's Ontario Clean Energy Benefit and is designed to move Ontario's power industry towards cleaner sources of energy.

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Infrastructure

Seven Canadian Universities Respond to Carleton President’s Call to Help Universities in Chile

Ottawa – Carleton President Roseann O’Reilly Runte met today with His Excellency Roberto Cristian Ibarra Garcia, Chilean Ambassador to Canada, and announced a gift of more than $12,000 to help rebuild Universidad de Talca and the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile.

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PSA

York Professor to Speak on Renowned Intellectual Karl Polanyi

Ottawa - Karl Polanyi was a Hungarian intellectual known for his opposition to traditional economic thought. On Thursday, Feb. 10, as part of Carleton University’s Research Days celebration, Dr. Hannes Lacher from York University will review the development of Polanyi’s social thought and political projects as laid out in his influential book The Great Transformation and the political-economic frameworks that were established after its publication.

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Guest Column

Seven Hallmarks of a Great Workplace

By Norm Spitzig

What exactly makes a workplace "great?" What are the specific characteristics common to those very special workplaces that are universally recognized as the indisputable signs of a superior operation? If there is a more basic (or fascinating) question for a workplace and the people who inhabit it, it hasn’t been found. A workplace that successfully attains the following characteristics—whatever size it might be or industry it may be in—can proudly and accurately call itself "great."