WebTrain
Encyclopedia
WebTrain Communications provides web conferencing
services for educational training, business meetings, presentation webinars and live auctions. WebTrain is a privately held Canadian company established in 1999.
After releasing the different products in 2001, it was found that clients wanted a single product that provided all of the features offered by each of the separate applications and services. In 2003, WebTrain released version 1 of their Communicator product, merging the feature sets of the separate applications into a single hosted application. Version 2 was released Feb 11, 2003. Version 3 of the Communicator was released August 6, 2006. The v3 French and English version release was a complete rewrite of the existing product, utilizing .NET for the back end meeting services. Web service APIs for back end integration and OEM white labeling were also provided in the v3 release. Version 4 was released on October 12, 2008.
Dr. Doug Hallett is the Chairman of the company. Hallett's more notable achievements include receiving a medal from the United Nations relating to his research and discovery of dioxins in the Great Lakes. He was senior scientific advisor to Environment Canada Ontario region, holds numerous patents of his inventions (PCB
destructor, UV Water Disinfector ) and took ELI Eco Logic public as CEO.
On November 20, 2000, Raystar Enterprises Ltd. announced their intentions of a reverse takeover
transaction. The transaction failed as the Internet tech bubble burst during the transaction period.
WebTrain was recognized by PC Magazine in 2002 as a contender to major web conferencing providers. Their product has been compared to 39 other vendors by Wainhouse Platinum Research and mentioned in the 2006 Frost and Sullivan World Web Event Services Markets report.
WebTrain was present at the BCTIA (British Columbia Technology Industry Association
) Technology Impact awards ceremony being nominated as one of the three most successful technology startup companies in British Columbia. 700 technology companies were represented at the awards ceremony.
On October 17, 2008 WebTrain announced teleconferencing is now provided with all web conferencing plans at no additional cost.
On October 2009 the Board of Directors appointed Mr. Paul Greenwood as the new President and CEO of Webtrain, based upon a proxy war of 52% of the shareholders. The two primaries (Kelvin Campbell - President and Gary Campbell - CTO) were let go. Mr. Trevor Tasker was appointed as Vice President and General Manager. The new Canadian head office was at that time, located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with head office located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada at the offices of Natural Energy Inc - www.naturalenergyinc.com - See contacts at www.naturalenergyinc.com.
On July 2010, the company released a new website which focused on an affiliate marketing approach and rebranded the product as My Blue Train. The meeting software was updated, (color changes) and a new MSI installer was released which was not Windows 7 compliant (the previous version was Windows 7 compliant). On February 7, 2011, the website service was halted, the website was replaced with notice stating "An upgrade is being posted, services would resume shortly" and the VP of operations was let go. On April 3, the website was taken offline. Since the website is offline and the service was web based, the company seems to have shut down (or might be in the process of shutting down).
Webtrain is branded as BlueTrain and offers two service levels, namely: BlueTrain Express and BlueTrain. BlueTrain Express contains all the basic features whilst BlueTrain is full featured including the syndicated marketing, full PayPal integration and enrolment management and White Labeling features. The monthly seat plans available are 5, 25, 100, 500, 1000 seat plans under both Express and BlueTrain service levels as well as a 100 seat day plan and custom meeting size options for over 1000 seats. All prices are in US Dollars
, Firefox, Netscape 8 or Opera
. Because their Voice-over-IP is low bandwidth (6300bit/s), a high bandwidth connection is not required. A persistent outbound SSL connection is required by client software while in a meeting. The service is hosted at the Caorda co-location in Burnaby, British Columbia
, Canada and operates in a Win 2008 true 64 bit environment.
The Saskatchewan Government (Ministry of Education - Technology Supported Learning) provides this statement as to what WebTrain is: "WebTrain is a powerful and exciting technology that enables students and teachers to communicate visually and verbally in an online, virtual classroom".
based; non-secure meetings are not supported. A paid security review was performed by IBM
security. The McAfee
Automated Web Safety Testing Results site reports no security concerns relating to the software. The software is distributed as a Windows MSI
with a VeriSign
software developers certificate.
Web conferencing
Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
services for educational training, business meetings, presentation webinars and live auctions. WebTrain is a privately held Canadian company established in 1999.
History
The WebTrain concept was developed in 1998 for the purpose of reducing training costs for off-site business clients. The idea was expanded to include additional communication services. Six different communication products were released after two years of initial development. Each of the software products provided a specific set of features related to its intended market. There was a call alert monitor, a free PC-PC telephone application, a virtual business meetings application, a webinar presentation application, a virtual conference center application, and a web based virtual classroom application. All products were VoIP based.After releasing the different products in 2001, it was found that clients wanted a single product that provided all of the features offered by each of the separate applications and services. In 2003, WebTrain released version 1 of their Communicator product, merging the feature sets of the separate applications into a single hosted application. Version 2 was released Feb 11, 2003. Version 3 of the Communicator was released August 6, 2006. The v3 French and English version release was a complete rewrite of the existing product, utilizing .NET for the back end meeting services. Web service APIs for back end integration and OEM white labeling were also provided in the v3 release. Version 4 was released on October 12, 2008.
Dr. Doug Hallett is the Chairman of the company. Hallett's more notable achievements include receiving a medal from the United Nations relating to his research and discovery of dioxins in the Great Lakes. He was senior scientific advisor to Environment Canada Ontario region, holds numerous patents of his inventions (PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
destructor, UV Water Disinfector ) and took ELI Eco Logic public as CEO.
On November 20, 2000, Raystar Enterprises Ltd. announced their intentions of a reverse takeover
Reverse takeover
A reverse takeover or reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public...
transaction. The transaction failed as the Internet tech bubble burst during the transaction period.
WebTrain was recognized by PC Magazine in 2002 as a contender to major web conferencing providers. Their product has been compared to 39 other vendors by Wainhouse Platinum Research and mentioned in the 2006 Frost and Sullivan World Web Event Services Markets report.
WebTrain was present at the BCTIA (British Columbia Technology Industry Association
British Columbia Technology Industry Association
The British Columbia Technology Industry Association is a not-for-profit member-funded trade association in British Columbia, Canada, which promotes the technology industry in the province...
) Technology Impact awards ceremony being nominated as one of the three most successful technology startup companies in British Columbia. 700 technology companies were represented at the awards ceremony.
On October 17, 2008 WebTrain announced teleconferencing is now provided with all web conferencing plans at no additional cost.
On October 2009 the Board of Directors appointed Mr. Paul Greenwood as the new President and CEO of Webtrain, based upon a proxy war of 52% of the shareholders. The two primaries (Kelvin Campbell - President and Gary Campbell - CTO) were let go. Mr. Trevor Tasker was appointed as Vice President and General Manager. The new Canadian head office was at that time, located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with head office located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada at the offices of Natural Energy Inc - www.naturalenergyinc.com - See contacts at www.naturalenergyinc.com.
On July 2010, the company released a new website which focused on an affiliate marketing approach and rebranded the product as My Blue Train. The meeting software was updated, (color changes) and a new MSI installer was released which was not Windows 7 compliant (the previous version was Windows 7 compliant). On February 7, 2011, the website service was halted, the website was replaced with notice stating "An upgrade is being posted, services would resume shortly" and the VP of operations was let go. On April 3, the website was taken offline. Since the website is offline and the service was web based, the company seems to have shut down (or might be in the process of shutting down).
Business Models
WebTrain provides paid services under various pricing models with a free 30 day trial on the 25 seat plan.Webtrain is branded as BlueTrain and offers two service levels, namely: BlueTrain Express and BlueTrain. BlueTrain Express contains all the basic features whilst BlueTrain is full featured including the syndicated marketing, full PayPal integration and enrolment management and White Labeling features. The monthly seat plans available are 5, 25, 100, 500, 1000 seat plans under both Express and BlueTrain service levels as well as a 100 seat day plan and custom meeting size options for over 1000 seats. All prices are in US Dollars
Software
WebTrain is a single conferencing product that operates under a brand called BlueTrain (the same product is used by meeting hosts, presenters and participants) for varying uses (meetings, training, education, webinars, etc.) The product is developed for Windows, and embedded in Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
, Firefox, Netscape 8 or Opera
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
. Because their Voice-over-IP is low bandwidth (6300bit/s), a high bandwidth connection is not required. A persistent outbound SSL connection is required by client software while in a meeting. The service is hosted at the Caorda co-location in Burnaby, British Columbia
Burnaby, British Columbia
Burnaby is a city in British Columbia, Canada, located immediately to the east of Vancouver. It is the third-largest city in British Columbia by population, surpassed only by nearby Surrey and Vancouver....
, Canada and operates in a Win 2008 true 64 bit environment.
The Saskatchewan Government (Ministry of Education - Technology Supported Learning) provides this statement as to what WebTrain is: "WebTrain is a powerful and exciting technology that enables students and teachers to communicate visually and verbally in an online, virtual classroom".
Security
Meetings are SSLTransport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...
based; non-secure meetings are not supported. A paid security review was performed by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
security. The McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
Automated Web Safety Testing Results site reports no security concerns relating to the software. The software is distributed as a Windows MSI
Windows Installer
The Windows Installer is a software component used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software on modern Microsoft Windows systems...
with a VeriSign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
software developers certificate.
Support
Webtrain provides free, direct telephone support for web conference organizers as well as participants 24x7. There are Video Tutorial and complete online help for all features.Use
The product is used by different types of organizations in different ways for different purposes.- Engineers Without BordersEngineers Without BordersEngineers Without Borders – International is an international association of some national EWB/ISF groups, whose mission is to facilitate collaboration, exchange of information, and assistance among its member groups that have applied to become part of the association...
uses WebTrain to communicate using VoIP with members from different chapters at the same time. - The Military Order of the Purple Heart Foundation uses the product to provide virtual VoIP based training to war veterans to help them re-enter the workforce.
- Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
uses the product for assisting the visually and speech impaired. - The University of ReginaUniversity of ReginaThe University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...
uses the product to teach French. - Auction companies utilize a unique aspect of their product to broadcast live auctions (real estate foreclosures, heavy equipment, land auctions) enabling virtual Internet bidders to hear the live auctioneer (VoIP) while bidding against the floor (and each other) using a real time java bidding applet.
- Health CanadaHealth CanadaHealth Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health.The current Minister of Health is Leona Aglukkaq, a Conservative Member of Parliament appointed to the position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Branches, regions and agencies:Health Canada...
uses the product for internal meetings and various health issues such as best practice health workshops.
See also
- Web conferencingWeb conferencingWeb conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
- Comparison of web conferencing softwareComparison of web conferencing softwareThis page is a comparison of web conferencing software available for various platforms.- Comparison chart :- Terminology :In the table above, the following terminology is intended to be used to describe some important features:...
- Collaborative softwareCollaborative softwareCollaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...
- List of applications with iCalendar support
External links
- WebTrain Web Conferencing (English) official site
- Web Conferencing Pricing
- Web Conferencing Solutions Summary
- myBlueTrain BlueTrain new Webtrain brand