WebEx: Ideas in Motion

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

Events for a Greener Age

Last week's panel on climate change and technology innovation from VoiceCon Spring 2008 illustrates on two different levels how use of collaboration technology can alter the travel and trade show experience. Trade show panels typically follow a formula of putting the three or four previous keynoters together on stage. How do those three or four make the cut? Often participation boils down to availability to both present and stick around for a couple more hours to participate in the panel. That doesn't always result in a great discussion.

The VoiceCon panel used TelePresence to bring together Nobel laureate Al Gore in Nashville, Tennessee, John Chambers in San Jose, California, ITN correspondent Lawrence McGinty, from London, England and Sue Bostrom from Orlando Florida. Rather than have to contend with schedules and time lost to traveling, the participants all sat down virtually VoiceCon and delivered an excellent panel discussion for the attendees. In fact, the only Sue Bostrom in Orlando needed to go through that extra panelist step of putting on and testing a microphone and wireless transmitter.

Here's an answer for the conference and trade show organizer looking to book the best available panelists and moderators but stymied by scheduling conflicts and distance.

For attendees, the panel offered an interesting wrinkle in that a group attended the event in London and had the same experience as the 2500 participants in Orlando. Watching the replay, those participants are visible over Lawrence McGinty's shoulder. A combination of TelePresence, web meetings and virtual events can be a way engage people that otherwise lack the time or budget to travel to a conference or tradeshow.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Will Unified Communications Save the Planet?

Not by itself, but according to Nobel laureate Al Gore, unified communications solutions like TelePresence and web meetings are good for both business and the environment.  Yesterday morning, John Chambers, Sue Bostrom and Al Gore hosted an interesting global debate on technology innovation, government policy and unified communications. Tipping points and market transitions were key themes as the leaders discussed the interplay between environmental protection and sustainable economic growth. Chambers outlined several Cisco achievements in recent years and all parties agreed that leveling the policy playing field for new technologies to compete is critical to encouraging innovation.

The event was a featured keynote at VoiceCon Spring 2008 and was open to the public as a free webcast. A replay of the event is available online here. Greenbang has also posted a really good podcast recording of the event just minutes after it finished.

The panelists joined the discussion from different locations using Cisco TelePresence and the group conversation was viewed by audiences around the world in TelePresence rooms and on the web. The panel was moderated by an ITN correspondent Lawrence McGinty, from London, England with Sue Bostrom onstage at VoiceCon, a leading conference for the communications industry, in Orlando, Fl., John Chambers joining virtually from Cisco headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Al Gore from Nashville, Tenn. By using Cisco TelePresence, the speakers avoid producing approximately 4.2 metric tones of CO2 emissions. Cisco has more than 185 Cisco TelePresence rooms in more than 25 countries worldwide. With an average use of 5 hours per day per room, compared to traditional video conferencing which is typically used less that 30 minutes per day per endpoint, Cisco estimates it has saved more than 16 million tons of carbon emissions since deploying Cisco TelePresence in October 2006.

You can read more about this historic event on the Cisco blog.

Want to figure out how much C02 you could save by meeting online, check out the WebEx Carbon Calculator and maybe sign up for the plant-a-tree offer.

It's a great way to save money...and maybe the planet.

Colin Smith, Dir., Public Relations, WebEx

WebEx Connect Named CODiE Finalist for Best On-Demand Platform

We've received some exciting news from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) - the WebEx Connect Developer Network was selected as a finalist in the 2008 SIIA CODiE Awards in the Best On-Demand Platform category.

The WebEx Connect Developer Network is a comprehensive program for developers building applications for the WebEx Connect Marketplace. It includes development tools, community resources and go-to-market programs, and anything else a developer might need to create collaborative business mashups. Over the last year the community of WebEx Connect developers has grown rapidly with more and more companies creating rich, robust collaboration solutions designed for the way business people work today.

The entire WebEx Connnect team is honored to be recognized by our peers in the software industry for the strength and sophistication of our developer program. Wish us luck in the final round of judging.

Colin Smith, Dir. Public Relations, WebEx