WebEx Interactions: A Web Collaboration Blog by WebEx

Marketing Webinar: Casting a Wider Web

On Wednesday May 14, WebEx and MarketingSherpa are teaming up to present Casting a Wider Web. This 2008 Marketing eSummit includes a series of webinars from experts at Marketo, Wainhouse Research, the American Marketing Association and Loomis Group on using the latest online marketing technology. In addition to these best practice and advice webinars, marketers from Cisco and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange will also talk about their real-world experience.

Two of the sessions focus on presenting research. In the first, Stephan Tornquist from MarketingSherpa and John Miller from Marketo will discuss trends for 2008. In the second, Andrew Nilssen and Alan D. Greenberg, both senior analysts and partners at Wainhouse Research as well as Nancy Costopulos, CMO of the American Marketing Association, will present survey results about the changing nature of online events.

The 2008 Marketing eSummit is a virtual event – in addition to the participating in the webinars, attendees have the ability to interact in real-time to discuss what they’ve seen and talk to presenters between sessions. The full program for the event is available here and registration for the event is here.

Marc Blakeney, Sr. Marketing Manager, Consulting Services & Event Center, WebEx

Highlights and Happenings from the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo

Last week Silicon Valley luminaries along with emerging leaders gathered at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for the Web 2.0 Expo.  As I walked around the show floor I enjoyed seeing some of the new companies that have entered the market in the last year and hearing what people had to say about the conference and the industry as a whole. 

Going Green was top of mind for attendees, presenters and even the conference organizers who touted the efforts made to make the show more environmentally friendly.

Charlie Cooper of CNET News.com noted that talks of recession and its impact on the technology industry were heard all around the show last week and noted that the show was dominated by large established companies including Disney, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Cisco Webex, Oracle, Juniper, Google and EMC.  Yahoo was also present and made headlines with the announcement that it will open itself up to third-party developers.   

Josh Lowensohn of WebWare took a lighter look at the event with his article on the mascots of the Web 2.0 Expo. 

WebEx provided attendees with a preview of the upcoming public launch of WebEx Connect at our booth while, our own Shankar Iyer was joined on stage by Raghu Raghavan from Act-On Software for a presentation on Developing, Distributing, and Monetizing Web Applications with WebEx Connect.

Colin Smith, Dir., Public Relations, WebEx

Happy Earth Day!

How are you celebrating Earth Day? According to the Earth Day Network, Earth Day 2008 is expected to be the biggest in this event’s 38-year history. There are events of all sorts from celebrations to volunteer opportunities all over the world. You can find more than you ever thought possible with a simple Google search.

Take a simple step.

For the last few years, coincidentally, I’ve found myself flying somewhere on Earth Day (this year it was the day before). But whether I get on a plane on Earth Day or the day after (this year it was the day before) doesn’t matter much. What does matter is what I do all year. I may end up having a very-low-carbon-emission Earth Day this year, but if I go back to high-carbon-emission habits tomorrow, I haven’t really accomplished much.

Becoming greener and reducing your carbon footprint can be simple. Hold a meeting on-line (try it free). Work from home one day per week (or month if your boss doesn’t like the idea as much).

Check out what a few Cisco and WebEx execs are doing in their own lives to be just a little bit greener:

And if you are interested in how to get started, or in hearing how other companies are taking some simple steps, join us tomorrow for the Green Business Summit.

So whether it’s personal passion or pure profit that propels you to produce a bit less carbon, take one step today. And make it last all year.

I promise not to ask you to take another step…at least not until tomorrow.

Jeff Weinberger, Chair, WebEx Green Initiative, WebEx

Rising Gas Prices Fuel the Value of Remote Collaboration

Are higher gas prices making remote collaboration tools more attractive to consumers and small businesses? I certainly think so.

I read an article recently in The San Jose Mercury News that featured a Bay Area couple who spend $1200/month on fuel for their daily 385-mile (combined) commutes. While one can debate the merits–and the sanity–of this particular example, higher gas costs are looming larger in many household and small business budgets. Remote collaboration tools that make sense for large businesses are becoming money- and time-saving tools for small businesses and individuals, too. Now there’s a second “green” argument: this one’s about wallet contents rather than carbon footprints.

Imagine if the couple above worked from home just two days a month. Using a remote computer access solution like Cisco WebEx’s PCNow, they’d have secure remote desktop access to their work computers from their home computers, whether they were PCs or Macs, plus remote file and folder access from their mobile phones. Even better, a solution like this would let them easily share their local computer screens with remote colleagues for one-to-one collaboration, training, or support.

The couple would reduce their commute by over 750 miles a month, save more than $100 on gas, and reduce their stress and fatigue by avoiding over twelve hours spent listening to talk shows while avoiding other drivers who also should be collaborating remotely. All for about $25 a month for two PCNow subscriptions.

Of course, most workers don’t have the excessive commute of our lucky couple, but the price of gas isn’t likely to drop anytime soon, either. Plus, as they say in the credit card commercial, “Regaining productive time, saving money and remaining sane? Priceless.”

David Bockian, Cisco WebEx strategic marketing

Keep Your Meetings Despite Travel Hiccups

The recent disruptions in air travel, with planes grounded for inspections and a couple low-cost carriers suspending operations, should remind travelers that having a fall back plan to keep appointments can be pretty easy. While meeting with prospects and customers face-to-face is important, web conferencing provides a way to still keep a meeting when getting on a plane just isn't going to happen. Given how hard it can be to get on some people's schedules, web conferencing also gives travelers a way to connect even if they can't get to their destinations.

March through May usually make for easy flying -- much of the country enjoys reasonably good weather after the winter snows and the coming summer vacation rush has yet to begin. With these current disruptions in mind, this might be the perfect opportunity to perfect web-based training and web-touch sales skills for those planning summer travel for training and sales initiatives. Since summer travel usual involves over-booked flights and thunderstorm-induced airport gridlock, honing web collaboration skills now could pay dividends in the near future.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Great insights on using Web 2.0 Tech for Collaboration

Yesterday's TechWiseTV webinar on using Web 2.0 to improve collaboration and interact directly with customers has some excellent, practical suggestions for how to get started making the most of technologies such as wikis, blogs and social networking to accelerate your business.

Don Tapscott, coauthor of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything leads off the session with a brief overview of Web 2.0 via Telepresence. Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst Forrester and Robert Scoble, new Managing Director of FastCompany.TV get down to the nitty-gritty of working with the various technologies, from blogs to wikis. They both offer good insights as to the tangible benefits, such as better search rankings, companies can see through using the technology. They have some nice concrete examples of personal experiences as well as mini-case studies of successful corporate Web 2.0 initiatives.

Robert Scoble's example of how he saves time by calendar sharing with the masses, really rings true. Jeremiah Owyang's take on how to go about using Web 2.0 technology, through Forrester's POST methodology is particularly valuable. POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. Yes, do them in that order, find the right people, set goals, design a plan to a achieve said goals and find the right technology for the job.

Finally, David Knight, Senior Director WebEx Connect, shows how WebEx can help organizations securely collaborate in context, both internally and across organizations. 

Check out the replay between now and the end of the year.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Webinar: Web 2.0, Collaboration, WebEx Connect and Your Business

Want to know how Web 2.0 can boost your business? Join Wikinomics author Don Tapscott and a panel of online experts for a TechWiseTV webcast this Thursday at 10:00 am PT. The panel will discuss how smart companies are using wikis, blogs, collaborative mashups and social networks to create productive, collaborative business environments. Since this is Web 2.0, you can even join a live Q&A with some of the webcast panelists.

Panelist Details:

• Don Tapscott, co-author of "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything"
• Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research, senior analyst for social computing
• Robert Scoble, managing director of FastCompany.TV and author of "How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk to Customers"
• David Knight, senior director, Cisco WebEx

The registration page has some additional details. We look forward to you joining us tomorrow.

This clip gives you a good feel for the topic and tone of the webinar.

Colin Smith, Dir., Public Relations, WebEx 

Enterprise Cross Platform Support: Mac OS X to Mozilla

Last week Forrester Research released a report detailing the increasingly cross-platform nature of enterprise PCs. The report indicates that the enterprise market share of Apple's Mac OS X is growing as is the share of Mozilla's Firefox browser. According to the report, in 2007 Mac OS X share grew 3x to 4.2% and Mozilla nearly doubled market share to 18%. 

As the adoption of Mac continues to grow among corporate users, Cisco WebEx has increased its support for the platform across its suite and just announced full support for Mac OS X Leopard and Safari 3 users across its entire collaboration suite. Several Mac-focused media outlets showed their excitement about the news. Check out MacWorld’s coverage.

We've seen Mac OS X use double recently, and while 4.2% could be described as modest share, the growth is strong. Sales of Apple PCs, particularly in the notebook segment, continue to be strong according to this MacWorld article citing NPD and IDC research.   

Mozilla's share in the enterprise increased despite not having an official MSI package to simplify large scale deployment. Forrester surveyed the desktop and browser environments of 50,000 users at 2,300 large to very large organizations on a monthly basis throughout 2007.

Colin Smith, Dir., Public Relations, WebEx

Kudos for MeetMeNow and coverage of WebEx Mac Support

PC Magazine posted a comprehensive review of MeetMeNow by Oliver Rist. The review touches on all the core MeetMeNow features, including presenting, document and desktop sharing, remote control, integrated audio and video conferencing. The review also discusses the reliability and security benefits of the MediaTone network. Oliver Rist covers small business technology for PC Magazine and looks at MeetMeNow from the perspective of a small business looking to collaborate across geographic boundaries.

This week also saw considerable coverage of our announcement of expanded Apple Mac support. Earlier this week we announced expanded support across WebEx applications for Apple's recently introduced Mac OS X Leopard operating system and Safari browser.

Expanding Mac OS X support for Meeting Center, WebOffice, Event Center and Training Center follows on to adding Mac OS X to WebEx PCNow in January. PCNow also supports Apple's iPhone.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

More Meeting Effectiveness Ideas

NPR's Day to Day has an interesting, short interview on managing effective meetings. The interview with Steven Rogelberg Ph. D., Professor and Director, Organizational Science, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, discusses some recent research he conducted on people's attitudes toward meetings. The revelation isn't that most people don't like meetings. Rather, the interview has some great nuggets for fostering a good meeting culture. These ideas apply equally to web meetings and in-person meetings.

First and foremost, organizations should involve HR in teaching people how to run effective meetings as well as provide feedback on the way an individual runs his or her meetings. Next, reign in the habit of inviting excessive numbers of attendees. Limiting attendance increases the effectiveness for participants. While it can be beneficial to invite a broad group, organizations should make it acceptable for team members to decline or sit out of meetings when appropriate.

On an individual level, structure the agenda to discuss critical strategic initiatives first and save general announcements for last.

This post has some additional pointers and links to resources on conducting an effective meeting.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx