After witnessing a live demo of the PoE-powered, iphone-controlled LED lights in the EnergyWise pavilion at Cisco Live, the IT manager for a well-known auto maker approached Chris Isaacson, CEO of NuLEDs. He asked one question: “How many colors does the fixture support?” Chris’s reply echoed Henry Ford’s famous quote in his 1927 autobiography, “You can have any color as long as it’s in the visible spectrum.”

The marriage of microprocessors with legacy products will create new products, solutions and markets. The work of partners in the Cisco EnergyWise pavilion at CiscoLive San Diego highlights this well. Though not all 17,000 Cisco Live attendees visited the EnergyWise Pavilion, those who did witnessed a world in transition. Read More »

Tags: cisco_cre, cisco_energywise, connected_realestate, cre, energy_efficiency, Green, ICT, innovation, Joulex, LEDs, matt_laherty, NuLEDs, renewables, smart_building, smart_connected_communities, smart_load

No matter where you are in the world, you need networking skills to be competitive in today’s economy. In many countries, a lack of people with information and communications technology (ICT) skills is the biggest impediment to global competitiveness.

In the current issue of the Brunswick Review, Cisco Vice President of Corporate Affairs Amy Christen discusses how Cisco Networking Academy is helping to bridge this ICT skills gap by training 1 million people in 165 countries each year to build, maintain, and secure computer networks. Some of the facts Amy shares in her interview may surprise you.

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Tags: Cisco, CSR, developing world, education, ICT, K-12, netacad, networking academy, workforce

In my first editorial in this series, I introduced the notion of some very bold aspirations for community regeneration and economic growth, that’s about to occur in East London.

I’m sharing the following key data points about the London 2012 socioeconomic impact, to give you an idea of the scale of this purposeful investment strategy — and the anticipated economic development related outcomes.

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Tags: BT Openreach, East London Tech City, ICT, infrastructure, legacy, London Olympics

Wow! Learning Management Systems (LMS) have come a long way! Cisco Networking Academy had a vision for a network-based LMS in 1997, when we were founded. We had to build our own custom LMS, because there were no options in the market. Today at InstructureCon, an annual gathering of education technology leaders, I was amazed to see not only how far the technology has come, but how broadly the vision of LMS and education assisted by networking technology has gained acceptance!

I was so excited to share with the Canvas community that Cisco Networking Academy will be incorporating Canvas as the LMS portion of our new platform, Cisco NetSpace, which we will announce and unveil at the NetAcad Global Conference on Monday. As Networking Academy continues to grow, the ability to continue to innovate to deliver high-impact educational offerings to instructors and students will be critical. It was time to enhance the essential core business functionality with an engaging, feature-rich, and personalized user experience that incorporated the latest in educational best practices for learning solutions. The new NetSpace will deliver results today, yet is flexible enough to accommodate future innovations to help improve education through the use of technology and the network.

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Tags: Cisco, CSR, ICT, impact multiplied, InstructureCon, lms, networking academy, stem

There is a lot of talk about the Olympic legacy for London 2012, yet in some parts of the media in particular there seems to remain some cynicism. But over the past few weeks and months I have witnessed the genuine efforts being made by Cisco to building a brilliant future after the Games.

For example former Olympic silver medallist Roger Black and Cisco ambassador has spent the last week touring around several schools in the east end of London to highlight the Cisco Network Academy programme and inspire kids to look at Science Technology Engineering and Math subjects at school. Read More »

Tags: Cisco_London_2012, CSR, education, ICT, London Olympics, netacad, networkingacademy