Recently there has been feedback from some folks that a virtual experience can not compensate for a physical experience. My first reaction was “really I had no idea?”. All sarcasm aside; yes physical and virtual experiences are different. The fact is they both offer different value for the attendees.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 11:30AM PST
So Twitter is everywhere! Obama @barackobama, Guy Kawasaki @guykawasaki, Darth Vader @darthvader and John Cleese @johncleese use it. I know any time I watch any news station a plug to get the latest breaking news via following @blank on Twitter is sure to be shown. Of course @cisco is no exception as we love tools that allow us to connect with our customers and each other anytime, anywhere.
To this effect we worked fast and furious to make sure you all can contribute to the conversation on our Cisco Live 2009 activities. Now once you are logged into Cisco Live Virtual you will be able to tweet via the chat status mechanism available in the bottom right-hand corner (see picture for detail) of the Cisco Live Virtual interface or on the social networking link (that launches next week) in the left hand navigation.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 03:00PM PST
Cisco Live is once again coming to Second Life, third year running! We will host activities for your participation live on June 30 and July 1, see below for the schedule.
Looking for technical content? Then Cisco Live Virtual is the virtual destination of choice.
In Cisco Live Virtual you can participate in all of the activities offered in Second Life* plus watch technical sessions and interact with Cisco and partner experts in the virtual World of Solutions. Register for Cisco Live Virtual and see for yourself all that this community has to offer.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 01:00PM PST
Since my last post on Cisco Live Virtual 2009 there have been a lot of folks buzzing about the upcoming show. Some great feedback coming in on the environment and live agenda and of course we hope to get more, i.e. keep it coming!
One theme that has been cropping up frequently is regarding a perceived ‘shift’ to a web based virtual program from a virtual world program. Just want to clarify that there is no shift really as we have been using both web based and virtual world platforms for more than 2 years now, since we made the shift from an online portal in 2007. See below for a list of what we use and why. 
Posted by Dannette Veale at 10:00AM PST
“We have friends of friends networks and reputation scores when we trade online. We share our preferences and our tag clouds as well we make sure that we are recognized in our professional lives in a given social network or even our hourly updates of what is going on with our lives are known to the entire world. It is once again not a coincidence but is a necessity as these tools become widely available geography disappears.
Ideas flow freely in the flat world we are inhabiting and this flow of ideas is enabled by the tools reinforcing the message. Especially in online worlds of which SecondLife is an excellent example, go in an entirely new forceful direction with the concept of extending the frontiers of where a corporation must tread and dare to tread. Because in an online world not only in the ‘traditional Internet with Blogs’ for example, you can go on and eliminate the differences between provider and consumer, between seller and customer. In online worlds you start to and involve what used to be called a client at even earlier stages in co-designing your next generation products. Together with whoever cares enough to invest their time. To invest their creativity from whatever you want to earn then and profit from”.
David Orban, Chief Evangelist, WideTag and host and moderator of the Spime Design Workshops
Posted by Dennis Mancini at 10:28AM PST
If you didn’t see the recent announcements from Cisco Security on how Cisco is enabling you to collaborate with confidence, read the details now.
This TechChat featured Danelle Au, Senior Product Manager, Security Technology Business Unit, and Rush Carskadden, Product Manager, IPS Technology Group, both from Cisco. During this TechChat our speakers discussed the newest capabilities of the Cisco Security portfolio announced at RSA, including IPS updates (global correlation for IPS) and an ASA feature (Botnet Traffic Filter). These will help simplify operations while providing even better threat mitigation for your organization.
View this archived discussion to hear how these new capabilities help to:
- Keep intellectual property protected with improved attack detection
- Reduce total cost of ownership using more robust network intelligence for reduced network downtime
- Protect your organization’s reputation with intelligent troubleshooting for threats
Click play below to view the archive of the event.
Click below to download the presentation and view reference materials.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 09:59AM PST
I told you earlier in the year that we were going to get even more immersive with Cisco Live Virtual this year and now I can share a deeper level of detail with you!
This year Cisco Live Virtual is going live along side our Cisco Live San Francisco 2009 conference. We know nothing can replace the on site experience but also realize that economics and travel restrictions may make that tough for folks this year so we are pleased to be offer a virtual alternative!
So drum roll please…if you can not attend in San Francisco join us virtually on June 30 and July 1 from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm PDT and engage in:
Just like Cisco Live San Francisco 2009 there are guest and paid subscriber options to attend Cisco Live Virtual, register now.
If you are visual like me sometimes seeing an overview is more helpful than reading about it. A quick flash movie was created to recap quickly the highlights of participating in Cisco Live Virtual, watch the demo.
Now let’s get a little deeper into the details regarding the virtual event agenda, peer networking tools and recap on the benefits of downloading the PDF attendee guide.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 12:00PM PST
Cisco Live in Second Life TechChat: “Learn How to Keep Your Network SAFE”
This TechChat featured Bill McGee, Manager, Security Solutions and Calvin Chai, Security Solutions Marketing Manager, both from Cisco. During this TechChat our speakers discussed how a solutions-based approach to security, based on the SAFE architecture, provides more comprehensive security, better risk management, and tighter visibility and control of your network than traditional, siloed security products.
Watch this archived discussion to hear how the SAFE architecture-based solution can address some of the critical threats for each place in the network (PIN), including:
• Data and identity theft
• Financial fraud
• Compliance
• Virtualization and cloud computing security
• Network abuse
• Service availability
• Security management and operation
• Cost
• Lack of consistency and collaboration across products
Click play below to view the archive of the event.
Click below to download the presentation and view reference materials.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 10:00AM PST
This TechChat featured Sriram Balasubramanian, Technical Marketing Engineer, LAN Switching Business Unit (LSBU) and Rik Irons-Mclean, Systems Engineer, UK Public Sector “green” lead. During this TechChat our speakers will discuss how going green is good for your business and the environment and how Cisco is uniquely positioned with the only innovative technology in the networking industry that directly targets energy consumption by expanding the role of the network to measure, reduce, and report energy consumption of IT and non-IT devices, including IP-enabled building field controllers.
View the archive of this discussion to understand how Cisco EnergyWise enables you to:
• Optimize business operations and cut costs
• Comply with government directives
• Create competitive differentiation
• Address the 98 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that are not directly under the control of IT
• Affect companywide energy usage
Click play below to view the archive of the event.
Click below to download the presentation and view reference materials.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 04:58AM PST
There has been a lot of buzz about virtual tradeshows and events lately. With a lot of folks speculating on whether they are ‘here to stay’ or ‘only result of the current economic state’. Check out these five reasons on why I am on the ‘here to stay’ side of this fence.
1) Virtual events will only get more immersive as we move forward and better tools for collaboration and immersion will create different ways of training and interacting. Which means attendees will stay longer at your event and engage more with each other, sponsor participants and your virtual event staff. For example, Cisco is hosting our monthly Cisco Live in Second Life TechChat on Cisco EnergyWise on April 14 but this time there is an immersive twist. In addition to the discussion based event format we always have at our TechChats this time the speakers will also include a virtual conceptualization of a day in an office using green technologies. After the event you can interact with the demo yourself so if you do not have a Second Life account yet you should register now and download the client so you can interact directly.
2) We are all responsible for this planet and we need to consider this when making event choices. This does not mean all physical events should be scrapped but when planning an event one should look at whether a virtual extension or virtual only option makes sense or is viable as there are many ways there are many ways these approaches can help green the globe. For example reduced or no hotel stay needed for virtual event extensions or virtual only events which means less water down the pipe…or reducing the carbon impression associated with shipping booth materials and staffers around the globe; just to name a couple.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 06:00PM PST
As we investigate virtual worlds for enterprise, we’re seeing that 3D technology takes Web 2.0 to another level in the way it supports synchronous interactions. Virtual world settings have a way of enhancing the collaborative experience by establishing a sense of cohesiveness, a feeling that you’re a part of a team rather than a lone participant on a remote call. Being in the same space, at the same time, in an immersive environment improves one’s sense of presence during an interaction that cannot be replicated in a 2D space.
According to former CEO of Linden Labs, Phillip Rosedale, there’s a sense of geographic place and personal presence in virtual worlds, even when users are miles or continents apart. In Second Life, as well as other Virtual World platforms you can see and interact the others in the form of their avatar character through voice chat, text chat, and even instant messaging. Rosedale points out that virtual worlds transform the way we collaborate and do business by providing a multi-tiered communication platform with dimensions that do not exist with e-mail, conference calls or other platforms.
Cisco, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, IBM and others are colonizing Virtual Worlds by holding global events, meetings and training sessions. In a recent Cisco VW pilot hosted by WW Sales Force Development Learning Technologies, Kevin Avery, Sales Operations and Business Development Manager, shared with participants how to use the Executive Engage and Discovery toolset to drive executive conversations.
Posted by Rose Anderson at 09:27AM PST
The OpenSpime project by WideTag on the Internet Of Things has announced a new series of of events, the Spime Design Workshops in Second Life. The hosting of the event is a collaborative effort between WideTag, Cisco, Feeding Edge, in association with Eightbar, L’Ecole de Design, ScienceSIM and will be extending to other organizations in the coming months.
The natural extension of the Spime Design Workshops into Second Life on top of the real live workshops has it’s advantages since events in virtual worlds eliminate travel time and the associated cost. The interactive collaborative events will be held each month at a different location hosted by a different entity. They start at 1 PM PST and last about 3 hours. 3 - 4 groups with 4 - 5 people will begin with a provocative assignment and concentrate mostly on the brainstorming and at the end present their ideas and findings.
The workshops can accommodate a limited number of participants for free. Be sure to make a reservation with this application form. You will be contacted with the details for the workshop of your choice. The first workshop is starting next week and there are couple of positions available.
Knowing how to create Spimes has a competitive advantage whether your a designer, developer, engineer, analyst or in sales and marketing. Strategic branding can use Spimes in real or virtual tradeshows and events to reveal and link an object to allow interactive or passive experiences to acquire historical knowledge about everything you wanted to know about it.
How can Cisco use The Human Network Effect and Spimes to collaborate together with others at these workshops and more importantly thinks about the Internet of Things? The business opportunity is on a magnitude of scale so disruptive entire processes how we manage and manufacture consumer products, commoditize search for mining unique objects by enabling smart networks to operate on auto-pilot, how tools are prototyped virtually for rapid fabrication on demand in real life, leveraging GPS to locate and visualize or increase sustainable ‘Cradle to cradle’ recycling of objects. Spime Design Workshops offer an abundance of opportunity right here and now to design the shape of space and time.
Posted by Dennis Mancini at 10:50AM PST
Do you write clear use cases when you begin a project? Can you explain how using a virtual world compares to typical learning modalities we’ve seen used in the last two decades?
Hello world…I’m Barry Shields and I’m a new blogger on this space. I work as a Program Manager for Sales Force Development’s Learning Technologies team. Rose Anderson (author of post on February 7) and I work along side an amazing team and we are defining how we will use virtual worlds for learning.
For our virtual worlds for learning projects, it’s essential to be able to present the business value. We want to answer the question why?” Here are the first two steps that enable you to answer the question “why?”
1. Write a clear use cases. What goes in a use case? I’ve been around long enough to have written and reviewed many use
cases and each company or team writes them differently. The point? Get to the business of writing the use case. Don’t be
concerned with what goes in a use case. Read the suggested article below. It provides some detail on what to include. So,
get started.
2. Study how the virtual world compares to typical learning modalities. You need to be able to answer the question “what’s
the difference?” You’ll find that you become an evangalist for virtual worlds, then you’ll be a skeptic, then an evangelist, and so on. Again, read the article below and get started.
Thank you for your comments and let’s get to the business of collaboration.
Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds
Posted by Barry Shields at 05:32PM PST
Will Web 3D technologies and Virtual Worlds revolutionize the way people learn and interact? What impact will Web 3.0 applications have on Enterprise learning organizations? Chris Badger, VP of marketing for Forterra Systems Inc., a leading provider of virtual world technologies, believes the use for online virtual worlds will become mainstream within five years, and that 2009 will be seen as an important year of transition. He says rising travel costs will help hasten this trend.
Virtual Worlds have the potential to revolutionize the way we learn and the way learning systems are built - and do so in a way that is immediately accessible to the growing number of people worldwide connected to the internet. Web 2.0 is already old news to some organizations who are moving from building flat, static web pages to traversable 3D spaces.
BIG PAYOFFS
What are some big payoffs of using the Virtual World as a learning platform? And how does 3D learning compare with other learning modalities like e-learning or classroom training? Well here are some key benefits we discovered during our current investigation and piloting of using Virtual Worlds as a delivery modality for learning. The Virtual World Platform:
• Provides a fail safe, realistic environment where the learner can learn while doing and then transfer the experience from 3D simulated practice to actual on-the-job performance
• Encourages collaboration by providing an environment where learners can connect, share best practices, and learn from each other via the 3D virtual environment
• Provides a persistent platform for social networking especially at a time when travel budgets are cut
• And last but not least....Allows the learner to be immersed in an environment that’s as close as you can get to the actual environment without really being there. Watch this Cisco example in Second Life to see what we mean.
Posted by Rose Anderson at 11:23PM PST
Cisco Live in Second Life TechChat: “Scalable, Secure, and Cost-Effective WAN Services with Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers”
This TechChat featured Mike Weir, Technical Marketing Engineer Manager, Edge Routing Business Unit, and Matthew Eubanks, Product Manager for Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers in the Edge Routing Business Unit. During this TechChat, Weir and Eubanks discussed new innovations and solutions on the Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers, designed to address existing and future networking requirements.
View this archived discussion to hear how the Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers:
• Consolidate multiple functions and services, improving cost efficiency
• Help you meet increasing compliance and security requirements
• Are designed to handle rising capacity needs, including the growing numbers of remote and branch office workers
• Deliver a resilient and secure next-generation WAN infrastructure
Click here to watch the archive of the event.
Posted by Dannette Veale at 08:15AM PST
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