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April 27, 2007
John Chambers Essay in Forbes: "Guts and Glory"
I would be remiss if I didn't bring the following essay by our CEO, John Chambers, to your attention. In a Forbes magazine special report on "Networks," he talks about the future of technology and leads his essay with: "The last 15 years have brought us advances in communications technology far surpassing those made in the previous 5,000--making the next 15 an era that will be limited only by our imagination and our courage to execute." Full article here.
I can only surmise that Forbes entitled it "Guts and Glory" because Cisco makes the Guts of the network which enables the Glory or Telepresence, blogging, video sharing, communities, voice, video, data, mobility, etc. I found it interesting to read his thoughts on where he thinks the future of technology is going and thought you might too.
Others who contributed to this Forbes special section include:
- Fred Smith of FedEx
- John Doerr and Bill Joy of Kleiner Perkins
- Howard Dean of the DNC
- Rupert Murdoch of NewsCorp
and 20-some other essays on Networks and their impact on medicine, charity, video and more.
Really interesting special report and I encourage you to check it out.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 02:49 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)
Corporate Blogging: What is the Right Answer?
I went to the Portfolio magazine launch party last night in San Francisco and chatted with some nice Portfolio people (Kevin Maney, Joanne Lipman, Blaise Zerega), some industry and Cisco colleagues and some other reporters, including Dan Farber and Tom Foremski.
One of the conversations that I had was on the topic of corporate blogs. As you may know, at Cisco, we have a handful of blogs and the bloggers blog on pretty much anything they want. We have a mobility blog, this blog, a high tech policy blog (our first blog and one that I started in February of 2005) and we also do "event blogs" including the Partners Summit and Cisco at ITU Telecom World. IMHO, I think we do a decent job of giving some flavor of what we are interested in and doing in each of these areas. To be sure, there is a LOT more going on inside and around Cisco and there is much more to say than just on these blogs. We haven't yet, however, provided a platform for any employee to start and create their own blog. This is a suggestion that was made to me by a reporter.
Being in the media relations business, one of my first instincts is to be a bit paranoid, so, of course, I responded that it would certainly be good for you, as a reporter, for any and every Cisco employee to blog about whatever they wanted (what great potential copy, right?), but from a corporate perspective there is a loss of control of messaging and focus and direction...potentially, that is.
However, there is something to be said for letting a smart engineer or marketer (we have many, many of them) blog on their interests in say, IPv6, or IP video or, really, whatever. The argument made to me was that the blogs that aren't interesting and aren't well maintained aren't going to get read, so no harm done. There would, however, be a few or more that would rise to the top and would be a good place for technology or industry conversations to take place. This made an impact on me. It is what Google does, what Sun does, what Microsoft does and what IBM does.
Not that Cisco isn't afraid to go it alone, but clearly these major companies are "comfortable" in letting their employees blog...on anything. We LOVE our employees at Cisco (as our CEO says, "our most important asset."), and after all I am one of them, so I'm going to take this discussion to heart and start exploring ways to let more blogs bloom at Cisco and let the chips fall where they may. If you don't see a lot more blogs from us in the future, you can take that as a measure of my influence.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 09:27 AM Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
April 25, 2007
OECD Broadband Numbers: U.S. Falls In Rankings
The OECD* broadband rankings are out and the U.S. has dropped in the rankings again. As previously noted in this space, Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco's Chief Development Officer, called for a national broadband plan in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle at the end of last year. With the 2006 OECD broadband rankings now out, I would like to again draw your attention to his rationale for said national broadband plan.
Please make sure you check out the great data and graphs on broadband sliced and diced around the OECD at the bottom of their release.
There are a lot of criteria at play here in the U.S. One, I believe, is the official U.S. definition of broadband...i.e. how we measure it. Something that I may have taken issue with before.
In 2004, President Bush called for broadband access for all Americans by 2007 and clearly he has some other things on his plate, as does FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, so I won't offer any commentary there, but I will encourage you to read coverage on this topic over at GigaOm.
However, I think that as U.S. citizens (if you are Scandinavian or Korean or an Icelander I offer you my congratulations on your ranking!!) we should all be a little concerned about our technological place in the world. Sure, we will have the most broadband subscribers in the OECD by number and there is competition for broadband in some markets, however, as a nation, when we are measuring broadband by 200kpbs instead of 200Mbps I still think we are missing the mark. But, that's just me talking. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
There is, however, good news globally with broadband including the lede of the release, "Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD increased 26% from 157 million in December 2005 to 197 million in December 2006. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 13.5 in December 2005 to 16.9 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year later..."
The U.S. House of Representatives is beginning to take steps on their Innovation Agenda as formulated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others. The Innovation Agenda also includes ways to "spur affordable access to broadband technology."
*The OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD consists of 30 member countries.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 02:44 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 20, 2007
Media Coverage on Human Rights Issue
Earlier this week, there was media coverage on a lawsuit brought against a large technology corporation by a human rights organization for providing information to the Chinese government that allowed it to personally identify a citizen, who was subsequently sentenced to prison.
Some of the coverage identified Cisco as supplying technology equipment that allows the Chinese government to divert Internet traffic away from information that the government doesn't want accessed by its citizens. The way it was written could be read that we work with governments to help them censor or manage the information that their citizens access. We do not. We have made our concerns clear to the media outlets in question.
The purpose of this blog entry is to make clear what Cisco does and does not do with respect to the management of information.
1. Cisco does not in any way participate in the censorship of information by governments. We never have.
2. Some countries have chosen, as a matter of national policy, to restrict or limit access to information on the internet to its citizens. The router functionality that may be employed by such nations to restrict this access is the same functionality that libraries and corporate network administrators use to block sites that they might not want to be accessed by their users (i.e. pornography, hate sites, etc.) Whereas this functionality can be used for many different purposes, Cisco has not specially designed or marketed products for any government, or any regional market, to censor Internet content from citizens.
Further, the equipment that we sell in San Jose, CA (our hometown) is the same equipment that we sell anywhere else in the world.
We are proud of the role that we have played in spreading access to information around the world, including in China. As we stated in our testimony before Congress last year, "since our entry into the Chinese market in 1994, the number of Chinese accessing the global Internet has grown from 80,000 in 1995 to over 130,000,000 in 2005 – a 1625% increase in the past 10 years." We are proud to have played a role in this spread of access to information and collaboration.
It is important that we refute or correct information that we deem incorrect or inaccurate on this issue and I hope that this blog entry has served that purpose.
More information on this topic from a Q&A that we posted last year after the Congressional hearing.
For more information on Cisco and Corporate Social Responsibility, please see our 2006 CSR report.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 03:51 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
April 18, 2007
Earth Day 2007: Think Globally...Act Locally
This Sunday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. Earth Day was started in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) in order "to spark a revolution against environmental abuse" according to Earth Day Networks.
With that spirit in mind, the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce (hometown CoC for Cisco HQ) is organizing an e-waste recycle day for its members and for the community at large this Saturday, April 21 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Spartan Stadium parking lot on South Seventh Street in San Jose. It is FREE for all.
In partnership with GreenWaste Recovery Inc., E-Recycling and Spartan Athletics at San Jose State University, they will be taking computers, toasters, VCR's -- just about any electronics with a plug - for recycling. Acceptable items include working or non-working computers, monitors and televisions. Items that will not be accepted include large appliances such as stoves, dishwashers and ovens.
Materials from the electronics are then recycled and eligible for state funds generated from environmental fees on electronics sales. Proceeds will go to the Chamber's Community Education Foundation, which funds grants
for deserving students and educators in our community. That's what I would call a win-win situation. More information is at www.sjchamber.com. So, if you are located in the greater San Jose area, please put this on your "to do" list for your weekend errands...and let your friends know as well.
To find out what your community might be doing to celebrate Earth Day, visit Earth Day Networks website where you can find a local event or post your own event. Happy Earth Day.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 11:04 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 17, 2007
Uncle Sam...Off the Grid
It is that time of year in the U.S. "Beware of the Ides of March" is a famous warning to Julius Caeser. "Beware of the Ides of April" should be an equally famous warning from Uncle Sam. John and Paul once wrote, "(if you drive a car) - I’ll tax the street; (if you try to sit) - I’ll tax your seat; (if you get too cold) - I’ll tax the heat; (if you take a walk) - I'll tax your feet." Why? "'Cause I’m the taxman, Yeah, I’m the taxman."
Yep, it's tax day and I hope that you will have filed by midnight tonight. Or filed your extension. More and more taxes are being filed online and that's a good thing because I understand that it saves dollars per filing. Which, in turn, means fewer dollars are needed by the government for processing taxes, which means your taxes should be lower. Right? In sum, paying your taxes online saves me and you money. So, hat's off to Uncle Sam for encouraging online filing.
The Uncle Sam I'm talking about in this title, however, is my brother Sam. He is a new Uncle to my 10 week old, Jack, and he's coming to visit this weekend. He lives in Black Mountain, NC, outside of Asheville and often has black bears in his yard coming down from the mountains looking for food or water. That's neither here nor there. What is here AND there is the fact that he doesn't have Internet access at his house. He could have it if he wanted, but he CHOOSES not to have it. Yep, no e-mail. Yep, no reading NYTimes (for free with registration) online. Yep, no checking sports scores or checking local events. No ease of online shopping. No online banking. No comparison shopping before making a big purchase. He says he just doesn't want it. He's had it before and has a computer perfectly capable of accessing the Internet. As someone who absolutely LIVES on the internet (and also makes a living OFF of the Internet), I just don't understand where he is coming from. He's got a cell phone, so he isn't ANTI-technology, but he just doesn't see the necessity of being online. Can someone help me understand? Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller? I want to make sure that before he visits Jack that what he has isn't communicable. Thanks for any help in advance.
ADDENDUM: Is asking for the rationale for NOT being on the Internet via a blog akin to posting written notices for a meeting of "Illiterates Anonymous"?
Posted by John Earnhardt at 10:34 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 16, 2007
Cisco Welcomes "Portfolio" to the Conversation
Today, we are happy to welcome Portfolio to the online world and COMING SOON to your mailbox or to your local newstand in analog, magazine form. I am a subscriber and I've already gotten my "FREE with Subscription" Conde Nast Portfolio umbrella, but I have yet to get the first magazine, although I'm sure it will arrive soon. I'll let you know my thoughts when I get it.
I'd like to also give a shout out to Kevin Maney and plug* his blog "The Tech Observer" on Portfolio.com as well. He is formerly with USAToday and has vast experience and insight on the technology space. The beauty and freedom of the blog is that he can also follow his passion for music and enlist "guest bloggers" to write about technology's impact on music...in this case Roger McGuinn of The Byrds ...as well as link to other blogs like GigaOm and and TechCrunch, and to his own band's MySpace page. His band currently has 43 friends, including former parachute-pants-wearing, Oakland, CA native, Mr. MC Hammer. It turns out, you CAN touch this and send his band, Not Dead Yet, a "friend request"...if you are on MySpace, that is...
Welcome, Portfolio, we look forward to reading you and working with you.
*If he wanted to plug or link to this blog, we certainly wouldn't stop him. : )
Posted by John Earnhardt at 12:28 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 12, 2007
Routers as Traffic Cops...Literally
One of my pet peeves of living in the Bay Area is that people just don't use their turn signals. I don't know why it is so difficult, but I would say that 1 out of 2 Bay Area drivers look at the turn signal as an irrelevant appendage. There is now technology being developed that allows a user to "think" something and physically make it happen...something called Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). Say, turn the lights on or off or open the garage door. You have to train your brain to do this, but with the device on your head, it can read your brain waves and you can make inantimate objects (albeit electrical or motorized) move. Here's hoping that technology can also be applied to the turn signal.
(Image from Flickr - by Rogue Soul)
Which made me think a bit about traffic...another cross that Bay Area residents must bear. Sure, we've got nearly perfect weather all the time. We're close to the beach, the mountains and live in an area where thousands upon thousands choose as their vacation spot every year, but we've got the whole turn signal and traffic thing going against us. Somehow we'll survive.
You've likely heard of routers as the "traffic cops" of the Internet. Why can't we use similar technology for actual traffic? Think about it. Routers move packets in the most efficient way from A to B. There are routing tables and if one section of the 'net is down then the packet will find another route, etc. Just like we do with our cars when one route is too busy or a wreck occurs. Can we give IP addresses to all of our vehicles, imbed wireless devices in them and let them communicate with their fellow cars on the road to find the most efficient, quickest, traffic-free way home? We've already got a GPS system (just like the Internet, initially developed by the government) that will help direct cars from point A to B. Why not just program in where you are going and let your GPS and car's IP address take you there? Maybe it sounds a bit like a Woody Allen movie, but can this be that far off?
Posted by John Earnhardt at 03:59 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
April 10, 2007
Class Reunions Before the Internet...Just Didn't Happen
As I've said before, I really think this Internet thing is here to stay. Not to date myself, but to date myself, my 20th high school reunion is this year. As the duly elected president of the 1987 graduating class at North Stanly High School (New London, NC), I have recently joined forces with my fellow class officers via the Internet (two in NC and one in PA) and we have started to track down classmates and let the word be known that we ARE having a 20th reunion.
I have NO idea how we would do this so successfully and quickly without the internet. From looking up names to just going to sites that actually exist for reunions and whatnot - classmates.com and reunion.com to name two particularly good ones - this Internet thing has been very helpful. I tracked down a good friend (and fellow class officer) with the help of her current last name...we last talked 10 years ago pre-Internet...certainly, pre-ubiqitous internet. And if Malcolm Gladwell is right about anything (other than having a great head of hair - another theme of 20 year reunions) it is the fact that there are some people who are just connected and finding the one or two of them then cascades down to a lot of other people.
With that in mind, there is still very much a human element to the internet that cannot be underestimated or discounted. Clearly, spelling helps. And, a little bit of information helps you find more information. At this point I would like to thank Mr. Yahoo and Mr. Google for being so helpful in the class of 1987's search for fellow classmates.
In closing, if you know any of my fellow Comets* (yes, that is our mascot) from the class of 1987, please send them my way...or just send them to classmates.com where our reunion information is. Thank you, Internet, for helping in putting together a successful reunion. I'll give you an update periodically on reunion progress.
*Comets cheer: "It's hot, it's hot, it's hot in here, there must be a comet in the atmosphere." As hard as I might try, I can't make stuff like that up.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 09:31 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 06, 2007
Patent Board: Cisco is #1 Global Innovator in Telecom
For the second straight year, "Cisco Systems leads the telecommunications industry as the number one source of global innovation," sayeth the Patent Board. I'll go ahead and put words in you mouth and say, "WOW!!" According to a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 2006/2007 patent portfolios released in the annual Patent Scorecard, Cisco is the #1 most innovative company in telecommunications. Number of patents is not the only measurement for the ranking: "the quality, scientific strength and impact of its patents on the industry are also calculated."
I've got to admit that Cisco is on a roll and being named as "the number one source of global innovation" in the highly competitive and center-of-the-business-universe telecommunications industry is about the highest praise a company can receive. Sure, I'm a bit biased, but if you've followed this blog, you've seen that Fortune regards Cisco highly, Wired regards Cisco highly, the Financial Times regards Cisco highly, and now the Patent Board regards us highly. Still, we had noone in the company who could rank on PC World's list of "Most Important People on the Web." Maybe now that we're the "#1 Innovator in Telecom" for the second straight year we'll get some consideration next year. : )
Posted by John Earnhardt at 09:59 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 05, 2007
Cisco: Fortune "Most Admired Company" for 8 Straight Years
For the eighth straight year, Cisco has been named to Fortune's Most Admired Companies list. We are also the #1 Most Admired in the Network Communications category. While I don't like to take any credit when it is not due to me, I joined the company 8 years ago and we've been on the list ever since. Coincidence? Next time I talk to Fortune Managing Editor Andy Serwer, I'll ask him. : )
We are also honored to have been named one of Fortune's Top 10 "Blue Ribbon Companies." It means were were on the most Fortune, Business 2.0 and Fortune Small Business lists - including the FORTUNE 500, Fastest-Growing and Best Companies to Work For. That sounds like a really great group to be in and it sounds like those companies might be good to work for. Here are Cisco's listings. The other 9 companies on the list are Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, Eli Lilly, Apple, Amgen, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, and Conoco-Phillips.
On another note, we are obviously doing some really cool stuff at Cisco. We have smart people and, imho, are in the sweet spot for where technology is moving in the next 5, 10 and 20 years...and beyond. This internet thing, what with the data, the video, the voice, the mobility, etc. seems to be not only popular, but useful and effective. I think it will stick around for a bit. And, as Cisco is the platform technology for the Internet, that's why I'm bullish. Time will tell, but I'm feeling good.
In a conversation I've had recently with a Cisco engineer, he told me that at some point in the future the network would be able to operate as a translator between languages...i.e. you could have a device that would "real-time" translate one language into another. So, you could have the device in your ear or through TelePresence or whatever and your colleague could speak to you in Chinese and you would hear them in English. (I am assuming that if you are reading this, you speak English and don't speak Chinese, but certainly replace whatever languages make it most compelling to you.) Anyway, how cool is that? It made me think, however, how far could we extend this? I have an 8 week old baby, Jack, and if we could use the network to translate him, that would be AWESOME. In the meantime, if any of you out there speak baby-talk, I would be most appreciative if you could translate the following video for me. Thanks in advance for your help. And, congrats to my company for being a great company.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 10:42 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 03, 2007
To Russia, With Love
So here’s a challenge. Go walk around downtown Silicon Valley, pick up a rock and throw it. I challenge you NOT to hit someone who has some sort of elaborate China or India investment strategy. It can’t be done. These days you need a sharp China or India strategy or else you’re just not with it.
We’re pretty with it at Cisco and we’ve also got a pretty good corporate venture strategy for those two countries. But we don’t stay focused only on one place, if you’re going to catch market transitions, you need to start putting money to work in places where other people haven’t. So let me throw this place out for your consideration: Russia.
Sure, its one of the famed “BRICs” so its not like no one has given it a thought before. But how many VCs or corporate VCs do you see putting together a really thoughtful approach to capitalizing on the emerging innovation economy happening there.
To many, Russia conjures up images of decadent Tsars being overthrown by idealistic but ultimately doomed Dr. Zhivagos. Or the thought of Russia may cause you to harken back to high school literature class, where we’ve all had to wrestle with a 1,000 page tome written by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.
Music, literature, revolutions, and the occasional bit of international espionage intrigue, Russia’s got all that covered. But high tech entrepreneurs? I can see you shaking your heads in collective disbelief.
The fact is that Russia has an enormous wealth of unlocked technical and entrepreneurial talent. The first company we’re investing in is Ozon.ru, which is changing the face of book and music on-line retailing across the country. We’ve got a full time manager, Andrew Morozov, on the ground in Moscow hunting around for deals so you can definitely expect more action coming out from him.
Russia has as many Internet users, in terms of absolute numbers, as the large Western European countries, but the overall Internet penetration rate is very low. To Cisco, this represents a great opportunity to help develop the market.
In emerging markets like Russia, the growth of the Internet correlates with the growth of companies like Ozon. The more Ozon helps drive demand among its customers, the more Ozon helps drive demand for bandwidth and Internet-based services in general across the country.
This strategy of using venture investment to drive Internet use in countries is called building the “Innovation Economy.” The strategy was hugely successful first in Israel and is being actively implemented in both China and India, where we have over $700 millions at work funding local entrepreneurs in the two markets.
Today we’re announcing Russia and what’s next? Well, to quote the family motto of the famous Cold War British spy who once battled the Russians but now hawks Omega watches, “The World is Not Enough.”
Posted by Ron Piovesan at 03:51 PM Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
VIDEO: Cisco CFO Dennis Powell on Maximizing Shareholder Value
Video, video, video. Cisco loves video. Telepresence is an example of our video focus, as is our acquisition of WebEx. More and more we also use video as a way to communicate. Video helps visual learners as well as makes collaboration easier. Please see a recent video presentation from our SVP and CFO, Dennis Powell, talking about maximizing shareholder value. He talks about profitable growth, decision making, financial health, and integrity and transparency. I think it is an interesting and useful presentation, but if nothing else, please check out the format for this presentation and see if you find it useful in learning about Cisco and our approach to our company's management. This presentation and other executive perspectives are produced out of our Executive Thought Leadership group.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 03:05 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
