Cisco, in partnership with Mobile Work Exchange, is eager to kick off the third-annual Telework Week from March 4-8. Telework Week 2013 is a global effort to encourage agencies, organizations, and individuals to pledge to telework anytime during this week. I plan not only to pledge to telework that week, but also to continue in my career of teleworking.

I have worked for companies based in San Jose, Tucson, Phoenix, Washington DC, Boston, and now San Jose again… all without leaving my beautiful home state of Ohio.  I adopted telework in 1993 and as Telework Week 2013 approaches, I wanted to share my story about my years as a teleworker. Let me start by saying I would not change a thing.

Telework Pros and Cons… But Are They Really Cons?

Do I miss having lunch with my colleagues? Sure. However, my dogs are pretty good companions because they never complain. Plus, the food in my kitchen is a lot better than any cafeteria food. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve missed being able to celebrate the milestones taking place in my colleagues’ lives in person, but I’ve made sure they always get a baby gift or a wedding gift.

What I don’t miss is the daily commute. Driving in rush-hour traffic or in snowstorms aren’t especially fun or productive and through telework, I’ve been able to get to work on-time every day. Also, my checkbook likes my lower insurance rates. On top of all of that, I am able to work in pajamas or sweat pants if I feel like it. For big projects that require more focus and concentration, I appreciate not having people dropping by to chat about their weekend.

Sometimes, people tell me I have it so easy working from home, being that I can come and go as I please. However, any teleworker will tell you it just doesn’t work unless you have regular office hours. My schedule still fills up with meetings just like my colleagues’ working from an office. What many people don’t know though is that it seems a lot harder to end the work day when your office is just a few steps or clicks away. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, social media, TelePresence, telework, video, WebEX

Frustrated. That’s how Wharton School of Business Professor Karl Ulrich feels when he cannot engage with students enrolled in the prestigious University of Pennsylvania’s remote campus in San Francisco.

Given how many hats members of the faculty from the school wear, it’s a real challenge. Take Ulrich. In addition to his duties as a professor, he also serves as the Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School. Add to that his work as a researcher, entrepreneur and author, and you get a professor who wants to spend time with students -- but can’t -- due to time and distance. The same is true of remote students who are eager to spend time with the Philadelphia-based professors for which Wharton is renowned. It’s been frustrating!

Until now.

Today, Wharton and Cisco are taking the wraps off a technology that will change the way we look at education. In the “Cisco Connected Classrooms” unveiled in San Francisco and Philadelphia, Wharton educators can interact with remote students separated by thousands of miles as though they were in the same room. I’ve had a chance to join students and professors today and experience first-hand how we can transform education and become truly collaborative. I want to congratulate the Cisco Collaboration Technology Group, Inder Sidhu and Shailendra Gupta, and the educators and technologists from Wharton. They have produced a true breakthrough in education.

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Tags: collaboration, connected classroom, Future of Education, TelePresence, Wharton

I am proud to be part of a company that is making innovations in education on a daily basis. You may have already heard how universities around the world are using Cisco to transform the classroom, and today’s news is further evidence of this.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is working with Cisco to provide collaboration solutions that will bridge faculty and students in Philadelphia and San Francisco to deliver the classroom of the future. As one of the country’s most esteemed colleges, the Wharton School is using Cisco’s collaboration technologies, including Cisco TelePresence, to bridge the classrooms across the United States. In the future, they hope to extend these benefits to Wharton’s classrooms around the globe, including Asia, Europe and South America.

Most of Wharton’s star-studded professors are based in Pennsylvania and frequently travel to the San Francisco satellite campus that caters to Silicon Valley executives aiming for an MBA.  Read More »

Tags: Classroom of the Future, collaboration, connected classroom, distance learning, education, higher education, jabber, TelePresence, university of pennsylvania, video, Wharton

The wide adoption and interest in telepresence has made it the target for some of the greatest myths in technology today. To respect your time, I thought it would be best to recap the five most common that I hear.

Myth #1. “It’s unaffordable and only for the enterprise”

Telepresence offers an easy and dynamic way for dispersed teams to innovate, troubleshoot and collaborate in real-time and is affordable for companies of just about any size. The development of technologies, especially via the cloud, is making the benefits of telepresence accessible to businesses around the globe. Smaller organizations are rapidly realizing the business value and rapid ROI that telepresence solutions offer and are integrating this with their broader collaboration strategy.

Myth #2. “Web-based consumer services are good enough”

Consumer-grade video services fall short of what businesses need in a video solution in several key areas, including security, quality, flexibility and feature richness. Consumer video suppliers have always promised lifelike experiences, but the reality is most solutions offer poor image and audio quality that are likely to be fuzzy and jerky. While this is generally acceptable to consumers because it’s low-cost or free, it’s not a plausible solution for conducting business.

Myth #3. “Software vs. hardware”

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Tags: Cisco, collaboration, myths, TelePresence

Do you work on your way into the office in the mornings? Many business professionals make phone calls on their mobile devices as they are commuting into their offices.  Cisco enables collaboration tools that allow a user to take the same mobile voice call and transfer it to a video device without having to hang up and call back in. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, EX Series, seamless mobility, single number reach, TelePresence