Edu­ca­tion Fast For­ward (EFF), an orga­ni­za­tion, spon­sored jointly by Promethean and Cisco, that brings together lead­ing global experts and change agents from the world of edu­ca­tion to dis­cuss ‘the top­ics that mat­ter most’, wants to begin to change that by bring­ing together some artic­u­late and intel­li­gent voices from the world’s youth to dis­cuss issues that are rel­e­vant to young peo­ple them­selves and to their edu­ca­tion.

In July 2012, in the most recent of the five debates orga­nized by EFF to date, a group of elo­quent and youth­ful voices debated the topic ‘From Learner Voice to Global Peace’. The young peo­ple were located all across the globe and came together pri­mar­ily through the won­der of Telep­res­ence (TP), a high-definition video con­fer­enc­ing tech­nol­ogy. The dis­cus­sion that day was not only intel­li­gent and thought­ful: it was truly inspir­ing for every­one involved.

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Tags: debate, Edu, education, Education Fast Forward, EFF, TP

Telepresence and videoconferencing services (both hosted and managed) will reach a whopping $1.2 billion(US) worldwide by 2016, according to ABI Research.

Cisco partner Tata Communications is riding that wave and shares insights in a recent FastChat video with MSPmentor Editorial Director Joe Panettieri.

In the video below, Joe interviews Greg Brophy, Director of Product Management at Tata. Greg shares ways that the company is using the cloud to help its customers connect globally using Cisco’s TelePresence technology. He also shares a recent customer win and what he sees are key trends among his customer base.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erszpHxrf8U&

Wondering how can you plug into Tata Communications’ infrastructure? Read More »

Tags: business, channels blog, Cisco, cloud, communications, customer, endpoint, FastChat, infrastructure, MSPMentor, partner, tata, technology, TelePresence, TP, unified communications

This question was posed by the Manufacturing IT Director for a major Pharma producer, as part of an annual customer advisory board hosted jointly by Cisco and Rockwell Automation. One answer:  Good luck! …And why would you want to?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHUhLh5VH4

Chet Namboodri talks about how consumer products are entering production and maintenance workflows and how “Rockwell and Cisco are in the forefront of enabling those solutions” during a recent customer innovation council session.

The migration of technology and applications from Consumer to Business to Industrial has become a well worn path, and the use of Smart Phones, Tablets, Mobile Video and other Operator Interfaces powering work flows and industrial intelligence has become a mainstay for Manufacturers.  Read More »

Tags: ACR, active collaboration room, Apple, automation, Borderless Networks, Cisco cloud, Cius, collaboration, customer intimacy, data center, Enterprise, Ethernet to the factory, ETTF, Factory, industrial, Industrial Automation, Industry, innovation, ip, iPad, Manufacturing, mobility, networking, operational excellence, operations, operations excellence, partner, plant, Production, R&D, Research and Development, security, shop floor, social media, TelePresence, TP, UC Voice Picking, UCS, video, virtualization, Voice Picking, wireless

The overall collaboration market is now $38 billion (USD) worldwide. Video, including You Tube and Flip, is growing 35% year over year.

And there is a more than an $8 billion (USD) market for video end points. (That’s not including the services opportunities that add three to five times to that $8 billion.)

I’m not throwing out these stats just to impress you. (Though I hope they are.)

With more than 80% of Cisco’s business going through the channel and more 95% of Tandberg’s legacy business through the channel, collaboration doesn’t just mean creating products that will help businesses collaborate. Sure, that’s an integral part of it, but the collaboration we mean here is also about ways we collaborate with our partners.

We sat down with Richard McLeod (Senior Director of Collaboration here at Cisco) to find out about the products and programs launching this week at our 2010 Collaboration Launch, why everything from Cisco will be video-enabled, and what it means for Cisco and Tandberg partners.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FydqB0Ices

Our 2010 Collaboration Launch brings to market a slew of new video, desktop virtualization, and collaboration products for businesses of all sizes. Not to mention new programs for partners. The new products and programs include…

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Tags: Borderless Networks, Cisco, collaboration, richard mcleod, tandberg, TelePresence, TP, video, vxc, vxi