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March 28, 2008
Cisco Web 2.0 Summit
Web 2.0 is the rage and we, at Cisco, talk about it in terms of the "Human Network." But, the business side of Web 2.0 is clearly behind consumers on use and implentation of this technology and this "movement." Today, we hosted an internal Web 2.0 Summit to share best practices and learn about Web 2.0 technologies and architecture and embedding it more in the business. In one session, Blair Christie, SVP of Corporate Communications, interviewed our Chairman and CEO John Chambers on Cisco's vision and use of Web 2.0.
Some notes from their discussion follow (Note: I am paraphrasing...not quoting directly).
Q: When did you start thinking about the importance of Web 2.0?
A: I've been on the collaboration focus since about 2001...really during the downturn. We moved from selling boxes to selling solutions and we needed to move decision-making further down the reporting chain. Collaboration across business functions was critical in order to be successful. Collaborative technologies had to be utilized to work in this way. It is imporant not to get way from the fact that it is easy to get fascinated by the technology, rather than on what the technology can do.
Q: What are you seeing from the customer side of things?
A: There is a huge hunger for this technology, but also a void in the market...to really enable this technology, you have to rearchitect your entire business processes from the ground up. In baseball terms, we're really at the top of the first inning on the business side.
Q: (from audience) As demand for Web 2.0 increases we see ASPs crop up and we see businesses flock to them. This gets us ahead of the curve, but potentially puts our data at risk. What is right balance for ASPs versus building these tools internally?
A: We really have a vision of any data on any device over any combination of networks. I need to see near real-time sales information on my PDA, for instance. There are security concerns, but we have to have a balance. We can't fight it, we have to lead it...you have to minimize your exposure, obviously.
Q: (from audience) In marketing, we're trying to be where our customers are...customers like you. What is your web behavior like?
A: The way I use these technologies is growing every day. In personal life, with my family...I text...the more you text, I find, the more you call. Almost everything I do now is on the web. From reading the Wall Street Journal to watching popular YouTube videos. I literally use more and more each month.
Q: (from audience) As we use Web 2.0, we collaborate better, but we also spread our days out more on geographic basis, how can we manage this?
A: We have to take into consideration the time zones and strike a balance...we'll get better on this, but TelePresence is really driving this behavior internally. I believe the majority of web 2.0 will move to video and voice and away from text, but we have to strike the overall work/life balance as always.
Q: What are you seeing in geographies on web 2.0 on the business side?
A: As I said, we're in is top of first inning on the business side of things and that applies globally as well. Although there are some countries that are more advanced than others. Consumers are way ahead of where business is. At Cisco, we're trying to move as fast as possible, but we still have work to do, but I'm proud of where we are in our use of Web 2.0...especially with WebEx, TelePresence and Unified Communications.
Q: Parting advice for attendees and employees?
A: Don't do Web 2.0 in your job because it is cool. Do it because it is good for the business. Do it because it enables collaboration and business strategy. I do have patience on the vision, but not on the execution.
End note:
Hats off to Jeanette Gibson, Director of New Media for Cisco, and the entire Web 2.0 Summit team for putting this great event together.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 11:07 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
March 24, 2008
NBA and Cisco: Going Global with TelePresence
The National Basketball Association and Cisco have teamed up to use the cutting edge Cisco TelePresence technology to connect NBA players with fans and journalists all over the world.
Using TelePresence, Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets, and Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns both recently participated in interviews with Chinese Journalist Chelsea Mark of NBA Zhi Zhao (the Chinese translation of "Made in NBA"), a show that is broadcast on more than 40 provincial TV stations across China.
(Shane Battier being interviewed via Cisco TelePresence - photo by NBAE/Getty Images)
The cutting edge capabilities of TelePresence offered a life-size view of Hill and Battier, giving the appearance that he was sitting directly across the table.
(Grant Hill giving the "thumbs up" sign during interview via Cisco TelePresence - photo by NBAE/Getty Images)
Cisco TelePresence technology creates an "in-person" meeting experience over the Internet, delivers real-time, face-to-face interactions using advanced visual, audio, and collaboration technologies. These technologies transmit life-size, high-definition images and spatial audio that offers a real-world experience. It is designed to bring users closer to the important people, places, and events in their personal and professional lives.
As an aside, both of these players went to Duke University, and I have to wonder if maybe we could get one of my fellow Demon Deacons from Wake Forest to participate...Tim Duncan or Chris Paul anyone? And, yes, of course, my vote (I don't have one) goes to Chris Paul for NBA MVP this year.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 10:34 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Lessons Learned….Cisco Updates Policy on Employee Blogging
We have chosen to dedicate a substantial post to this topic since it is an important issue affecting Cisco and many other companies as online communications continue to evolve.
Our recent experiences have shown us that as corporate blogging becomes more prevalent, new questions arise about transparency and etiquette. Corporate blogging is an important vehicle for two-way dialogue and communications, and it is a vehicle we are committed to utilizing here at Cisco. Most recently, we’ve learned some important lessons and through this blog post, hope our learnings add value to those participating in this important new media.
Policy Change
Cisco today is amending its policy on employee blogging. These changes follow the disclosure by a Cisco employee that he had authored an anonymous blog commenting on various policy and legal matters with which the company has been involved and on which he worked. In addition, Cisco employees who knew he was the author circulated links to the blog without revealing that a Cisco employee authored the blog.
The company believes strongly in employees’ right to freedom of expression, online and elsewhere. At the same time, we expect our employees, when commenting on matters related to Cisco’s business, to exercise that freedom in a manner consistent with Cisco’s corporate values of transparency and integrity. Therefore, we have evolved our employee blogging policy to expressly address:
· blogging anonymously about issues employees have responsibilities for at Cisco; and
· passing on to third parties “anonymous” blog postings of any kind that employees know were written by someone at Cisco.
The revised blogging policy will include the following clause, to take effect immediately:
“If you comment on any aspect of the company’s business or any policy issue the company is involved in where you have responsibility for Cisco’s engagement, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco. In addition, Cisco employees should not circulate postings that they know are written by other employees without informing the recipient that the source was within Cisco.”
Background
A lawyer in Cisco’s intellectual property department, Rick Frenkel, created the Patent Troll Tracker blog. Rick started his anonymous blog in May 2007, writing frequently and broadly on patents and presenting relevant data related to patent litigation, an area currently of great public interest, in which Cisco also has an interest. He identified himself as the author of the blog in a posting on his site on February 23, 2008. Once his authorship became public, confusion was created between Rick’s views and Cisco’s views on various patent issues discussed in his blog.
What We Learned
As we have investigated this issue, there are clear lessons we have learned. There are two very distinct issues in this situation that have been instructive:
1. No one from Cisco edited Rick’s anonymous postings or required him to write on any topic, no one in his chain of command beyond his immediate supervisor knew that he was the author of Troll Tracker, and Rick intended that the blog solely reflect his opinions. However, given that Rick worked on intellectual property matters for Cisco, Rick’s relationship to Cisco should have been made clear and Cisco takes responsibility for the content of the blog.
2. We believe that a few Cisco employees used poor judgment when they suggested topics to Rick for his anonymous blog or pointed third parties to the blog without disclosing that the content was created by a Cisco employee. These are not appropriate communications activities for Cisco employees and are inconsistent with our values and principles.
These shortcomings began innocently – with Rick’s desire for personal anonymity and Cisco employees’ desire to disseminate useful information while respecting Rick’s anonymity. But eventually this opened the door for a perception that Cisco somehow had something to hide. Cisco is committed to transparency in our communications and in the relationships we have with all of our constituencies, and we regret that this situation occurred.
Moving Forward
We are committed to our policy of allowing our employees appropriate online expression. As an employee, Rick is free to continue his personal blog, Patent Troll Tracker, in compliance with the revised policy. Rick has many fans who appreciate the information he collects and disseminates on patent litigation trends and recognize his blog as an important voice in the on-going national dialogue on patent issues.
Blogging and blog policy are evolving areas for many companies. We believe we have learned a valuable lesson from this regrettable situation. Our goal now is to bring further clarity to our employees in the area of online communication, and our hope is that others will learn from this experience as well.
Posted by Cisco at 09:00 AM Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)
Cisco's Internet Postings Policy
With the rise of new media and next generation communications tools, the way in which Cisco employees can communicate internally and externally continues to evolve. While this creates new opportunities for communication and collaboration, it also creates new responsibilities for Cisco employees.
This Internet Postings Policy applies to employees who use the following:
· Multi-media and social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo! Groups and YouTube
· Blogs (Both Cisco Blogs and Blogs external to Cisco)
· Wikis such as Wikipedia and any other site where text can be posted
· All of these activities are referred to as “Internet postings” in this Policy
Please be aware that violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.
Common sense is the best guide if you decide to post information in any way relating to Cisco. If you are unsure about any particular posting, please contact the Cisco “internet postings” email alias for guidance. For instance, if you are writing about Cisco business where you have responsibility, you may wish to make sure your manager is comfortable with your taking that action.
Your Internet postings should not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary to the company or to any third party that has disclosed information to Cisco.
If you comment on any aspect of the company’s business or any policy issue in which the company is involved and in which you have responsibility, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco. In addition, Cisco employees should not circulate postings they know are written by other Cisco employees without informing the recipient that the author of the posting is a Cisco employee.
Your Internet posting should reflect your personal point of view, not necessarily the point of view of Cisco. Because you are legally responsible for your postings, you may be subject to liability if your posts are found defamatory, harassing, or in violation of any other applicable law. You may also be liable if you make postings which include confidential or copyrighted information (music, videos, text, etc.) belonging to third parties. All of the above mentioned postings are prohibited under this policy.
When posting your point of view, you should neither claim nor imply you are speaking on Cisco’s behalf, unless you are authorized in writing by your manager to do so.
If you identify yourself as a Cisco employee on any Internet posting, refer to the work done by Cisco or provide a link on a Cisco website, you are required to include the following disclaimer in a reasonably prominent place: “the views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cisco.”
Your Internet postings should not include Cisco’s logos or trademarks, and should respect copyright, privacy, fair use, financial disclosure, and other applicable laws.
Cisco Blogs (located on http://blogs.cisco.com) are blogs requiring corporate approval in which employees may blog about Cisco and our industry. Only Cisco Blogs may include the company’s logo. Cisco Blogs may also include links back to Cisco web destinations. All Cisco Blogs must include a legal disclaimer stating that all posts by the author, guest author and visitors reflect personal thoughts and opinions which are not necessarily those of the company.
Cisco may request that you avoid certain subjects or withdraw certain posts from a Cisco Blog if it believes that doing so will help ensure compliance with applicable laws, including securities regulations.
Cisco reserves the right to remove any posted comment on Cisco Blog site(s) that is not appropriate for the topic discussed or uses inappropriate language. Cisco also reserves the right to post particular communications on a Cisco Blog.
If a member of the news media or blogger contacts you about an Internet posting that concerns the business of Cisco, please refer that person to Cisco public relations, see: http://tools.cisco.com/newsroom/contactSearch/jsp/prSearch.jsp
Your Internet postings should not violate any other applicable policy of Cisco, including those set forth in the Employee Resource Guide and the Code of Business Conduct.
You agree that Cisco shall not be liable, under any circumstances, for any errors, omissions, loss or damages claimed or incurred due to any of your Internet postings.
Cisco reserves the right to suspend, modify, or withdraw this Internet Postings Policy, and you are responsible for regularly reviewing the terms of this Internet Postings Policy.
Posted by Cisco at 08:59 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 21, 2008
Spring Fever, First Steps and March Madness
With spring (the first day was yesterday), of course, comes spring fever as well as March Madness...the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Many news outlets reported yesterday, including from Newsweek's Sarah Kliff, that businesses would be sapped by people watching or looking for updates on the NCAA tournament...to the tune of $1.7 Billion. This assumes that every worker who has participated in an NCAA office pool spends 10 minutes during each work day of the tourney checking scores or watching games. (This, of course, is in the U.S.)
The report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a consulting firm specializing in workplace issues, admits that the study isn't exactly scientific. I will further challenge their assumption of lost productivity by asking what price you put on morale. You may lose 10 minutes of productivity here or there from the NCAA tournament, but you have to take the happiness of the employee into consideration. In this day of always-on workers with broadband at home and mobile mail and cellphones, we are always reachable and often have to shift our schedules to work with global colleagues. Many of us in the workforce (especially in technology) are also given the flexibility in our work schedules to attend the parent-teacher conference, the school play or the soccer game. As long as the employee is happy and gets his or her done, then the WHEN of the work becomes much less relevant. In other words, a happy employee is a productive employee.
The report may have had more relevance a few years ago, but in this day of always-on, globalized, broadband accessibility, 10 minutes a day checking the scores of a game is irrelevent. With that said, I still think that North Carolina is going to win the tournment.
AND!!!, as spring is the signal of new beginnings, I am happy to report that last night, on the first day of spring, my 13-month old son took his first steps. He was very pleased...as was I...as was his mom.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 11:04 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
March 19, 2008
Gore on Green: "business leaders are way ahead of political leaders"
As noted in this space last week, an "EcoPanel" took place today with former U.S. VP Al Gore and Cisco CEO John Chambers via Cisco TelePresence. You can view a replay of the conversation here.
From left: Cisco CEO John Chambers in San Jose, CA; former VP Al Gore in Nashville, TN; ITN correspondent Lawrence McGinty in London; and Cisco Chief Marketing Officer Sue Bostrom in Orlando, FL
(Photo by Alex Dunne via Flickr)
CNET Reporter Martin LaMonica has a good write-up of the conversation. He states, in part, "Gore spoke from a location near his home in Nashville, Tenn., while Chambers was in San Jose, Calif., and the moderator of the event--ITN science editor Lawrence McGinty--spoke from outside London. People could watch over the Web and audiences listened and watched from the VoiceCon conference in Orlando, outside London, Warsaw, Dubai, and Paris.
The multi-location format drove home the basic point of the event: the Internet can help more people collaborate, something that is essential to solving the difficult challenge of climate change."
LaMonica continues that Sue Bostrom, our EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, who was on the panel in Orlando, said that our "use of videoconferencing at 185 locations has saved the company about $100 million in travel expenses, eliminating about 15 million cubic tons of carbon emissions."
Speaking personally, I had a TelePresence session with some colleagues in North Carolina recently...and while I wouldn't have normally traveled for that meeting (although there was a request that I do it in person), I can tell you that the effectiveness of the meeting was much more impactful than had we just done a teleconference. And, of course, I got to spend a little time with my family over the holidays via TelePresence so count me as a fan.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 01:07 PM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
March 17, 2008
GREEN on St. Patty's Week
First, Happy St. Patrick's Day. I, of course, forgot to don a green shirt...or socks...or anything, so even though I have a bit of Irish in me I'm not "showing the colors," so to speak. I hope this acknowledgement by blog will suffice.
This week is a good week for green generally. Our CEO John Chambers is talking virtually through TelePresence to former U.S. Vice President (and Nobel Laureate and Oscar winner) Al Gore on Wednesday about on climate change and technology innovation on Wednesday, March 19 at 11AM ET (8AM PT). Please join the conversation by registering for this webcast at www.cisco.com/offer/ecopanel.
And, to turn personal, I'm a bit green with envy over the teams that were included in the NCAA basketball tournament*. My school, Wake Forest, was not chosen to participate...and, even though we had a winning record and I thought, surely, we'd go to the NIT tournament, we were not chosen for that post-season tourney either...which leaves me a little green in the gills, as they say. So, maybe I am wearing a bit of green today.
*I'm going to have to go with my home-state North Carolina Tar Heels to win it all this year.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 10:00 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Cisco Joins Eclipse Foundation
We are pleased to announce that we are joining the Eclipse Foundation, the leading open source organization whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks and tools for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle.
Cisco has always espoused the benefits of "no technology religion" as well as open, standards-based platforms and we are pleased to share this philosophy in membership with the Eclipse Foundation.
The Eclipse Foundation’s commitment to help cultivate an open source community and an ecosystem of complementary products and services is something that Cisco supports and we are happy to join them in this effort. One of the initial Eclipse Foundation projects Cisco will be supporting is around building a software tool that enables telecommunication companies to create models of next generation networks. These models are then used to generate documentation and software for essential management applications. The Eclipse Foundation refers to this as the the “Tigerstripe” project and expects to provide an update to the Eclipse community in April.
For more information check out the annual event of the Eclipse community, EclipseCon which is being held this week from March 17-20th in Santa Clara.
Post by Linda Horiuchi, Senior PR Manager
Posted by Cisco PR at 09:46 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
March 12, 2008
Al Gore and John Chambers on Climate Change and Technology Innovation
Nobel Laureate, Oscar Winner and former Vice President Al Gore will join Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers in a virtual conversation on climate change and technology innovation on Wednesday, March 19 at 11AM ET (8AM PT). Please join the conversation by registering for this webcast at www.cisco.com/offer/ecopanel.
They will be joined by Cisco's Sue Bostrom, EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, in a Cisco TelePresence session before a live audience at VoiceCon to examine the critical role that technology and innovation can play in mitigating climate change. Some topics they will cover include: the latest observations of the effects of global warming and the impact of information technology; how businesses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through innovation; and, how the technology industry can help create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change.
If you would like to submit other ideas for the panel discussion or suggest questions, please send these to: ecopanelquestions@external.cisco.com
TelePresence is our high-definition, life-size video conferencing system that allows real-time communication and collaboration in which, in this instance, our panelists will appear as if they are in the same room even though they will be thousands of miles apart. This virtual discussion will take place via with John Chambers, Al Gore and Sue Bostrom addressing live audiences simultaneously in London, England, Orlando, Fla.,and several other locations around the world.
We have done over 70,000 TelePresence sessions within Cisco which has enabled us to avoid travel in nearly 13,000 of those meetings, saving nearly $100M to date...and, of course, reduce our carbon footprint.
We hope you can join this event. Please register for the webcast at www.cisco.com/offer/ecopanel.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 11:57 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 11, 2008
What is Your Digital Footprint?
The New York Times BITS blog today wrote about a new study out by IDC that says that at, "281 exabytes, the digital universe in 2007 was 10 percent larger than the firm had projected a year ago. And the world’s assemblage of all things digital will grow at a compound yearly rate of 59 percent through 2011. That adds up to a tenfold jump over five years, to 1,800 exabytes. (Not that there is any real way to visualize it, but an exabyte — a billion gigabytes — is said to be 50,000 times larger than a digitized Library of Congress.)"
This, of course, is good news for companies like Cisco that build the infrastructure that transports, virtualizes, globalizes and stores (among other things) this type of (increasingly video) data. Our CEO, John Chambers, wrote a Forbes column last year about the exponential growth of bandwidth needs, storage and the like.
And our friends at EMC have posted the IDC report along with a nifty "digital footprint calculator*" on their website that allows you to answer a few questions to show what your digital footprint might be...mine turned out to 7,828 megabytes...and, as I post this, counting...
(*Note: you have to download an executable file in order to "play" this game - which, of course adds to your digital footprint...)
Posted by John Earnhardt at 02:51 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 06, 2008
Apple iPhone Enterprise-ready with Cisco VPN
Today at Apple’s Headquarters in Cupertino, CA, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs and SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller announced new iPhone software 2.0 which will be released in June 2008 and will incorporate enterprise security features such as Cisco IPsec VPN and email/contact/calendar sync with Microsoft Exchange.
This announcement is a testament of the growing trend of people around the world who are becoming more connected and collaborative in every aspect of their lives…including at work. We, of course, are pleased that Apple recognized Cisco’s leadership in enterprise security by incorporating our Cisco VPN technology into their iPhone new software release.
While sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think that something wonderful was happening…The convergence of devices (iPhone), applications (Microsoft Exchange) and the platform, or network, (Cisco) we're all working together to transform how we collaborate at work. Can wait to see what comes next!
(Apple photo of Phil Schiller)
You can view the video of the presentation at Apple here.
Post by Pamela Ferrill, Cisco PR Manager
Posted by Cisco PR at 04:42 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 05, 2008
Cisco is Most Admired Company Nine Years In a Row
And the Oscar goes to...
Honors are great, but one needs to step back a little bit to see what is behind them. Cisco is listed in Fortune Magazine’s "Most Admired Companies" list for 2008. This marks the ninth consecutive year that Cisco, ranked 18th, has been named to this prestigious list. Fortune states, "There is no higher praise than the respect of one's colleagues and competitors." Indeed.
This really is a great honor as we are recognized by peers, but peel back the onion a little bit and what is really being recognized is our employees, our customer service and our innovative technology. Because, hey, what IS a company? Our CEO often says that the most valuable assets of Cisco walk out the door every night: the employees. And this recognition for 9 straight years is really a testament to our assembled team of engineers, salespeople, marketers and, yes, overhead (like me).
So, congratulations fellow Cisco employees...as well as the other top companies on the list: 1) Apple; 2) Berkshire Hathaway; 3) General Electric; 4) Google; 5) Toyota; 6) Starbucks; 7) FedEx; 8) Proctor & Gamble; 9) Johnson & Johnson; 10) Goldman Sachs; 11) Target; 12) Southwest Airlines; 13) American Express; 14) BMW; 14) Costco; 16) Microsoft; 17) United Parcel Service; 18) Cisco!!; 19) 3M; 20) Nordstrom.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 03:28 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Web 2.0 Marketing Campaign for the ASR 1000 Series
Suraj Shetty, senior director of service provider marketing at Cisco discusses the importance of web 2.0 marketing as both a component of the launch and a driver for adoption of the platform itself.
Posted by Wilson Craig at 01:37 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 04, 2008
Service Provider Market Drivers for the Cisco ASR 1000
Suraj Shetty, senior director of service provider marketing at Cisco discusses service provider market drivers for the Cisco ASR 1000 Series.
Posted by Wilson Craig at 12:25 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Strategic Drivers for Development of the Cisco ASR 1000
Stefan Dyckerhoff, VP and GM of the Midrange Routing Business Unit at Cisco discusses the strategic drivers in the service provider and enterprise markets for development of the Cisco ASR 1000 Series.
Posted by Wilson Craig at 08:30 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Cisco Internal Innovation on the Launch of the ASR 1000 Series
Pankaj Patel, SVP and GM, Service Provider Group, Cisco, discusses the role of internal innovation in concept and development of the Cisco ASR 1000 Series router.
Posted by Wilson Craig at 08:00 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
