24 disabled students started their networking studies this week, following the inauguration of a new Cisco Networking Academy at Addetur Foundation’s secondary school in Budapest.
“Addetur Foundation was established 18 years ago with the mission to support the integration of young people with disabilities and improve their employment prospects. The cooperation with Cisco Networking Academy is another important milestone for us, as it opens up a fast-developing area for our students,” said Gabriella Kekesne Czinderi, director of Addetur. “The fact that the networking academy curriculum can be accessed online is also a great help for our community”, she added.
Cisco Hungary contributed HUF 1,000,000 to the launch of the new academy, as part of the company’s vocational training contribution.
Which Central European city has more than twenty universities, with the oldest one founded as early as 1364? As a little help, it is also the second largest city of the country which currently holds the European Union Presidency.
Views of Krakow. Source: wikipedia
Cisco continuously evaluates potential sites for support operations around the world and the availability of educated talent and an excellent communications infrastructure were key to the decision to choose Poland, and in particular Krakow, as the site of our next support center, to be opened in early summer 2012. This will be a shared services center supporting customers across the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR) region. It will complement existing locations and will provide services across multiple functional groups including Cisco Services, Finance, Operations and others.
The Krakow support center is an important part of our strategy to enhance the way we serve our customers, partners and internal stakeholders across EMEAR. By establishing a shared services center in Central Europe, our aim is to get closer to our customers, in terms of geography and timezones while offering the convenience of multi-language support.
Nusajaya is a nascent city located on the South-western tip of Peninsula Malaysia and just a short drive away from Singapore. Nusajaya is also one of the crown jewels of Iskandar Malaysia, the special economic zone in the state of Johor and one of the flagships of the Malaysian Government’s national development plan.
Soon, Nusajaya could also become the catalyst for Smart City development in Malaysia and beyond. Yesterday, two of the area’s largest property developers, UEM Land Holdings Berhad and Iskandar Investment Berhad, signed agreements with Cisco to develop a master plan for a Smart+Connected Nusajaya.
“We’re seeing smart cities being built around the world and we think that Nusajaya has the potential to become a benchmark for smart cities. This is just the beginning, we want Cisco to help us plot the path for us towards a Smart+Connected Nusajaya,” said Dato’ Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, managing director and chief executive officer of UEM Land Holdings.
Anil Menon, President for Globalisation and Smart+Connected Communities, shared with the Malaysian media the forces that are driving smart city developments around the world:
Residents in Songdo International Business District will soon be able to learn a new dish or take a yoga class in the comfort of their homes. A managed services company called U.Life Solutions has been set up by Cisco, Gale Internatonal, POSCO E&C and LG CNS to deliver Smart+Connected Community Services in the newly established city.
At the launch event for the new entity on July 4, 2011, celebrity Korean chef and restaurateur, Soojin Choi (picture below), taught the audience how to make a chicken salad over Cisco TelePresence.
True to its tradition, each year Magyar Telekom recognises suppliers that play an outstanding role in the field of sustainability. The DELFIN -- Award (the title of which is the acronym of the Hungarian equivalents of Award for a Committed, Sustainable, and Innovative Generation) has been awarded for the fourth time in four categories.
Cisco Hungary won the award in the “Innovation for Sustainability” category, recognizing Cisco’s collaboration in creating Magyar Telekom’s VideoGate service, which is based on Cisco TelePresence technology.
VideoGate enables businesses to carry out intercompany video conferences over the Internet. Thus, it helps save time and costs of travel, whilst at the same time it provides a competitive advantage for users. Cisco also provided free-of-charge web applications to help calculate a company’s CO2 footprint.
DELFIN Award winners (5th from the right is Otto Dalos from Cisco Hungary) with Magyar Telekom representatives Eva Somorjai (chief human resources officer), Nora Olah (procurement director), Katalin Szomolanyi (head of Corporate Sustainability Department) and the members of the jury.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited the Cisco main campus in San Jose, California on June 11, 2011. He was on a technology trends tour and wanted to get first hand information about how technology can be applied to help solve some Mexico’s challenges. We honored to host President Calderon. During his visit, we demonstrated the power of collaboration technologies to transform education, healthcare, and government administration.
Mexico is a world leader in the use of Cisco TelePresence technology, both in the executive office and in healthcare applications. Mexico’s next step may well be in building cloud services. Patient records, hospital administration, pharmacy information, and more can be stored in the cloud and delivered to care givers or administrators as needed.
HealthPresence was of particular interest. Providing high-quality care to all citizens at a reasonable cost is a priority worldwide. Technology has long played a role in healthcare, but collaboration and cloud-based services are changing both patient care and healthcare investment priorities.
During President Calderon’s visit, we demonstrated Cisco HealthPresence, a telepresence-based technology that integrates a range of medical devices through the network. Care delivered at a distance, or with vehicles delivering mobile care to rural areas, can become intimate and sophisticated when specialists provided services through the network. The demonstration also included the Health Services Exchange (HSX), a cloud-based solution for the management of healthcare information.
In addition to the healthcare presentation, President Calderon was given a demonstration showing how technology and the network can improve and extend the education experience. The key to a great classroom is always a great teacher. Nurturing great teachers requires constant training, but the travel expense and time away from the classroom make training challenging. Solutions such as the Digital Media System (DMS) can be used to remotely train teachers and deliver more information to the education community.
President Calderon was given a demonstration on how collaboration technologies are transforming the way government institutions organize themselves, administer their activities and communicate with their citizens. From tax authorities to hospitals to complex public or private enterprises, these technologies are improving productivity and job satisfaction while delivering better services for citizens and consumers. Finally, President Calderon was able to experience the Cisco Cius with its rich media capabilities supporting video calls.
I will leave you know with a few videos and pictures from the visit:
Mexican President Felipe Calderon at Cisco Campus on June 11. Jaime Valles, vice president Cisco Latin America; Chuck Robbins, senior vice president for the Americas region; Kerry Lynn Lambert, senior vice president Services Cisco Americas; Francisco Uribe director business development Cisco Mexico and Rogelio Velasco, general director of Cisco Mexico.
President Felipe Calderon interacting with a Cisco Health Presense solution during his visit to CIsco campus in San Jose, California
President Felipe Calderon using Cisco CIUS during his visit to San Jose, California
Jaime Valles, vice president of Cisco Latin America; Kerry Lynn Lambert, senior vicepresident Services Cisco Americas; President Felipe Calderon, Chuck Robbins, senior vice president for the Americas region and Rogelio Velasco, general director of Cisco Mexico.
“Which school should I choose, to do what you do?” This was one of the most frequent questions asked by Serbian schoolgirls visiting Cisco in Belgrade for “Girls in ICT” Day. Aged 14, the girls are nearing an important decision in their lives when it comes to choosing their future education and professional path. The “Girls in ICT” initiative was created to help this difficult decision and convey the message that information technology is interesting and it is something for girls as well.
"Girls in ICT" Day visitors at Cisco Serbia
The visitors, who were accompanied by their teachers, toured the office, visited the networking lab and chatted with female Cisco employees both in Serbia as well as other countries, the latter via Cisco TelePresence. I also had a chance to talk to our young guests and explain what an interesting combination ICT & marketing are, what is it like to have a regional role and work with people form different timezones and cultures.
Serbian schoolgirls at Cisco TelePresence room
We then connected the girls with their peers in Sofia, Bulgaria and there were lots of smiles and laughter, and even some singing. See the video.
Interested to know more about „Girls in ICT” Day? The initiative was the brainchild of Serbia’s Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society, Ms Jasna Matic, who launched the Global Network of Women in ICT at a special event in New York in February this year, with the support of Dr Touré, the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, and a number of high-ranking female dignitaries. The initiative is also embraced by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
For the first time in the station’s 86 years history, reporters of MR1 Kossuth radio used video for creating the broadcaster’s special Europe Day program. Celebrating the day when the idea of European integration was born, the editors brought together citizens of the continent around a virtual roundtable.
Cisco, together with local partner KFKI was providing a Cisco TelePresence 1300 unit as well as connectivity with 15 cities across Europe. Reporters, who usually need to rely on voice only, enjoyed the experience of meeting their interviewees and engaging in a conversation “just across the table”.
“TelePresence opened us a whole new dimension for preparing interviews. We are proud to be the first station in Hungary to use such an innovative technology for a radio program,” – said Ferenc Markovits, editor of Hungarian Radio.
Highlights included a re-encounter of members of a Greek family that was separated during world war two, a roundtable with heads of Hungarian cultural institutions talking about events celebrated across Europe during the current Hungarian EU Presidency, and a song performed jointly by Roma singers in Paris and Budapest.
Click here for more videos and photos, or copy/paste the URL below in your browser:
Guest Post By Hani Nofal, regional manager in Cisco UAE
Hani Nofal
On Monday 25th April 2011, I attended the second annual Network World CPI Middle East Awards, which was held at the Address Hotel in Dubai Marina.
The evening brought together vendors, system integrators and end users who were all eagerly anticipating the winners announcement throughout the ceremony. Altogether, the awards comprised of 22 categories, which looked to celebrate innovative networking projects, end-users for their contribution to business, and vendors for their market leadership. Cisco has been shortlisted for the prestigious Networking Vendor of the year award – an award determined by votes, not a judging panel or committee.
To our absolute delight, Cisco won the most-coveted Networking Vendor of the year category. The win crowns our focus on defining true innovation and operational excellence to our customers in the region and a real testimony by our customers and partners.
Once we were nominated and shortlisted, the category was then opened to the public for voting to take place. Cisco received 1800 votes, which equated to 33% of the overall voting total -- polling ahead of other shortlisted finalists. With a mixed feeling of excitement and confidence, it was indeed an honorable moment to get on stage and receive the award on behalf of Cisco.
Our achievement was also complemented by the success of our customers’ innovation and business impact who were also recognized at the event for the end-user awards categories.
This is a another milestone for Cisco achievements in the Middle East as it demonstrates our commitment to deliver on Cisco’s vision to lead emerging country innovation, prosperity, job creation, and social inclusion through life-changing networks.
Our work with nations through out the region to help utilize ICT to drive sustainable socioeconomic progress, secure affordable broadband networking, facilitate instant information access for businesses and enable world-class citizen services with better access to healthcare, education, and social services.
The winners in the vendor category were recognized for their outstanding performance and significant impact on the market. The criteria for winning included a variety of indicators, including product innovation, quality of services, major customer wins and commitment to the region.
To achieve these awards has been an extremely proud moment for Cisco, our partners and customers – a true, networking glory for all involved.
The recent Global Information Technology Report (GITR) from the World Economic Forum highlights the role that ICT plays as an enabler of economic, environmental and social development today. The Networked Readiness Index in the report also showed that developing countries led by China and Brazil are catching up in terms of technology adoption.
There’s another aspect to the report that bears mentioning, and that is the rising importance and shifting composition of the Internet Economy, in chapter 1.2, and authored by Cisco’s Enrique Rueda-Sabater and John Garrity. Cisco has supported and made contributions to the GITR for most of its 10 years of existence and has used the Networked Readiness Index in many discussions around the world on the potential for networks to contribute to economic and social progress.
Several months ago Cisco published The Evolving Internet – Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025—a report done jointly with GBN which was intended as a contribution to ongoing discussions and efforts to harness the huge potential of Internet and IP networks to drive economic and human development around the world.
The report has generated a lot of attention and has been the subject of blogs (from Russia, Singapore, Turkey …) press articles and comments from businesses, government official and individuals across the world.
Regardless of how the future unfolds, the Internet will evolve in ways we can only begin to imagine. By allowing ourselves to explore and rehearse divergent and plausible futures for the Internet, not only do we find ourselves more prepared for any future—we can also help shape it for the better.
I thought I’d sharing one of the video discussions on the findings of the report with the Monitor team.
Net Neutrality
You can watch the rest of the videos here, and download the complete white paper (PDF) here.
Smart cities has been a hot topic for governments around the world for several years as climate concerns, rising urbanization trends and increasingly technology-savvy citizens is driving demand for connected and sustainable cities. The race to build smart cities will only intensify as competitive pressures build up amongst cities to attract the best talent and investment, says Dr Steve Hodgkinson, research director for Ovum, the analyst and consulting company.
Dr Hodgkinson, based in Melbourne, Australia, was speaking to press from around the Asia Pacific region over TelePresence and WebEx about a new report which he authored: “Is your city smart enough?”. The report cements the role of ICT as an important factor in designing, building and operating smart cities sustainably.
Imagine being able to download services such as an e-learning course, health check-ups or a high-definition video conference session with your friends, family or business associates anywhere in the world from your smart phone or network-enabled TV at home.
Need to tweak your energy usage up or down? Check on your little one in kindergarten? Or ask your city council to help with some bulky refuse? Just a few taps on your smart phone or remote control gets the job done.
Just as we today download apps for our iPhone or Android devices, citizens in Busan Metropolitan City, at the heart Korea’s second largest mega city region, will soon be able to request for services or download applications for their everyday needs.
Busan may only have a population of around 3.7 million but it’s the world’s fifth largest port, and also a leading producer of semi-conductors, automobiles and iron and steel. The city is clearly aiming higher and working with private sector companies like Cisco to achieve its ambitions to be a smart city.
This bold vision took the first step towards reality with the opening of an innovation center, called the Busan Mobile Application Center (BMAC), which will provide developers with an environment to create and test these applications and services.
On October 2, 2010, the day after Singapore celebrated Children’s Day, close to two thousand children and Cisco volunteers led by Edzard Overbeek, President of Cisco’s Asia Pacific and Japan theaters, created a little piece of history by attending the World’s Largest Art Lesson across 12 countries and 33 locations around the globe.
Sitting in Cisco’s Singapore office, Peter Draw, a gifted young artist with a passion to bring joy to the lives of underprivileged children through art, achieved his dream of reaching out to hundreds of children simultaneously thanks to Cisco’s technologies including TelePresence and WebEx.
The event was recognized by Guinness as a new world record but the real rewards lay in the squeals of laughter from the children who came from different backgrounds, different cultures and different nations; united for those few hours through a combination of technology and good old fashioned drawing.
Each year, tens of thousands of IT and communications professionals attend Cisco Live events held around world. Cisco Live offers an unparalleled combination of education and training on the latest technologies and trends; testing and certification on Cisco products; and the opportunity for attendees to extend their professional networks by forging new connections with like-minded colleagues.
Fortunately for us IT professionals in the UAE, Cisco Live is taking place for the second year in our neighboring country, Bahrain.
The first-ever Networkers Bahrain 2010 in the Middle East region was a huge success for Cisco in the Middle East where the event attracted more than 4000 attendees live and online from over 75 different countries.
Cisco Live Bahrain 2011 is a great opportunity for our customers and partners from the UAE to network and connect with more than 3,000 key technical and business decision makers among their peers from across Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Visitors will gain insights into the new and emerging technologies and trends that will transform how companies do business and maintain competitiveness in the current economic climate. Moreover, visitors will have the opportunity to attend networking, technical seminars, service provider and IT management programs and more than 280 technical sessions across the event delivered by world-class Cisco and Cisco partner experts.
Cisco Live Bahrain is the biggest IT event in the Middle East for our customers and partners in the UAE and I look forward to see you in Bahrain!
