You heard it here first: a new space race has begun. Alright, maybe it’s more accurate to say it very well could begin, thanks to Australia’s new Pathways to Space program.

Hosted by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, the initiative aims to enhance Australia’s engineering and science education. Pathways to Space gives secondary school students the chance to develop space robotics and search for life on Mars. And, with telepresence, even students living deep in the outback can participate.

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Tags: Australia, Cisco TelePresence, Distance Education, edtech, IVC, Mars, pathways to Space, Powerhouse Museum, Space Camp, Sydney, videoconferencing

By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist

There is a country whose east and west coasts border on major oceans. Its major cities dot its coastline, while its internal areas, while populated, could accurately be described as “flyover” zones. It takes about six hours to fly coast-to-coast.

Its government is making the single largest infrastructure investment in the country’s history, investing $43 billion over eight years in order to connect 90+ percent of all its homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services over fiber-optic cable with speeds up to 100 megabits per second, 100 times faster than those currently used by many households and businesses.

Which forward-looking nation committed to this bold goal?

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Tags: Australia, broadband, economic development, infrastructure, innovation, NBN

Last week, two groups of aged care groups located in Melbourne, Australia and Amsterdam, Netherlands travelled to local Cisco offices, for a different kind of TelePresence meeting -- participating in a one of a kind TelePresence sing-along!

The meeting was orchestrated by Kevin Johnson, from the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, who introduced the two passionate singing groups as part of the Cisco Ageing Well program, which is addressing some of the world’s most significant yet positive trends. Firstly, the fact that people are living longer, healthier and more-active lives, and secondly the potential for communication and collaboration technologies like video to transform the way we work, live, play, and learn in an ageing world. Read More »

Tags: Australia, TelePresence