WebEx: Ideas in Motion

Can ideas change America? Find out at the Rock the Vote health care event.

Join the discussion. Take part in shaping your future.

Rock the Vote in hosting an online event in conjunction with WebEx to get people talking. To share ideas – ideas like the ones below.

Register now.

While the debate about health care continues, you may feel like you don’t have a voice or you don’t understand or that it can’t possibly affect you. But you do, you can and it will. Health care will affect all of us – our parents, our siblings, our friends – and Rock the Vote wants to make sure you have access to information. So you can understand what it all means.

Join this event on Wednesday, Oct. 21st as we bring together a fascinating array of panelists including speakers like Heather Smith, president of Rock The Vote and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy.

Share your ideas.

Prior to the event, we want to hear from you. Post your ideas and stories at PasstheBall.com and we’ll share that information with the team prior to the event. Here are just a few to get the ball rolling (click on the link to see the idea-in-full):

Roll-over Minutes for Health Insurance: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have roll over type of minutes with your health care provider? Or some type of bonus if you don’t get sick or use your health insurance for a specific amount of time. The individual or family that’s insured could then donate those unused minutes or “bonuses” to a family of need or a charity.

Link to Heal: This social networking site will allow patients and their families to form virtual communities around specific topics of interest or medical conditions and let anyone, “from any part of the world” to be a part of this virtual community…

Re-instate the Lunch Hour: Corporations today, especially those in the high tech industries are promoting unhealthy lifestyles. Eating lunch is a thing of the past. If eaten, it is done while on conference calls at the worker’s desk. The negative implications on our physical and mental health are already visible. Corporations are rewarding those that do not maintain a healthy balance. 

Have an idea of your own? Want to rate what’s there? Visit PasstheBall.com and share, rate or just look around. And in the meantime, register now for this week’s event.

Online Event Details: Wednesday, Oct 21st at 4PM PST |  7PM EST

  

Register for the Event! Rock the Vote Advocates for America’s Youth

Rock the Vote is making things happen.

On Tuesday, October 13th, Rock the Vote and its allies in the youth movement stood with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress to announce the inclusion of a key provision in the final House of Representatives health reform bill: allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until the age of 27.

It was a major victory for Rock the Vote; they fought hard to get it included. A similar provision is in one of the Senate bills and they are also fighting to make sure it is in the final Senate bill as well. Rock the Vote is doing this work because 18-29 year olds are the most uninsured age group in America.

You’re invited to help “rock” health care – register for the event.

Join Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, Heather Smith, President of Rock The Vote, and others at this incredible national event on Oct. 21st to talk about how today’s health care decisions will shape your future.

Register Now.

Pete Wentz put together a short video about the event (can't see it? click here).

Speak up, be heard.

Prior to the event, we want to hear from you. Post your ideas and stories at PasstheBall.com. We’ll share that information with the team. It’s a great way to participate before the discussion. This event belongs to you and we want to make every effort to tailor the content to the issues that concern you most. You can also post your questions when you register to attend.

At WebEx, we believe sharing your ideas makes them better. So share them, rate them and join the discussion.

Register now.

Event Details: Wednesday, Oct 21st at 4PM PT | 7PM ET

  

Blog Action Day: Use WebEx To Help Create a Better Climate

Today is Blog Action Day - a single day of the year where bloggers from all over the world, all walks of life - join together to create a single voice on a single subject:

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. 

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. 

This year the topic is Climate Change.

Rather than try and come up with a new blog about all the ways WebEx helps people save time, money and cuts down on travel costs, we thought it might be easier to let you choose the story that fits you best - and we've thrown in a few that don't include WebEx! 

The founders of Blog Action Day believe that,"Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action." That's what we believe too and why we started PasstheBall.com. 

We invite you to come to PasstheBall.com and share you ideas about Climate Change in our Environment area. Ideas get better when then are shared.

What to join the conversation?

It's not too late to blog. And if you want to follow what else is happening today, go to Twitter and search on #BAD09.

  

Join Rock the Vote’s Online Event on Healthcare - Register Now!

Interested in Healthcare Reform?  Learn What’s at Stake for You

Join this incredible national event on Oct. 21st as we bring together a fascinating array of panelists including Heather Smith, President of Rock The Vote, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, and U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius (you may have seen her on The Daily Show).

Register now. 

At WebEx, our goal is to foster discussion  - in this case it’s about healthcare – especially among younger people who may not be aware of the long term impact of the decisions being made in Washington D.C.

You can’t afford to be uninformed.

Did you know 18-29 year olds are the most uninsured age group in America? It's true. And without affordable healthcare, many of us could be exposed to a lifetime of hurt. We'll discuss how reform will affect young people in particular, and we'll help answer key questions about what's at stake for you and all Americans. For a great example of how quickly the lack of healthcare can impact a young person, take a look at this very personal story supported by Pete Wentz. It got very personal, very fast for Pete.

What are your thoughts?

Prior to the event, we want to hear from you. This event belongs to you and we want to make every effort to tailor the content to the issues that concern you most. Post your ideas and stories at www.PasstheBall.com. It’s a great way to participate before the discussion. And when you register, be sure to include a question you’d like the panelists to address.

Register Now!

Event Details: Wednesday, Oct 21st at 4PM PT | 7PM ET

  

Steve Wozniak and You! Live WebEx Event this Thursday, Register Now!

On Thursday, September 24, Steve Wozniak will be on a live WebEx talking about his dedication to education over the last 35 years. You are invited to attend. Register here to reserve your space. And in the meantime, here are a few excerpts from a fabulous interview Wharton did with Woz in 2008. You can read the entire interview here.

Excerpts from an interview published February 20, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton. 

In the years following [Apple], Wozniak sponsored two Woodstock-like music festivals known as the US Festivals in 1982 and 1983, taught computing to grade-school students, and devoted much of his time and money to philanthropic activities. His current interests include playing Segway polo -- that is, playing polo while riding the Segway Personal Transporter in lieu of a horse.

Knowledge@Wharton: It sounds like you think this is more than just having a good time. In terms of education, you seem to believe this underlies teaching people how to be creative and inventive.

Wozniak: Exactly. Humor is closely related to the creativity and invention that we're born with. It's that spirit of thinking out something a little bit different -- making up your own jokes.

Knowledge@Wharton: When you taught computing part-time to fifth grade students after you left Apple as a full-time employee, you said that was the most important time of your life. How so?

Wozniak: It was a great time in my life for a lot of reasons. I'd been doing a bunch of philanthropy in San Jose. I felt very good about giving away my money to start good museums: Children's Discovery Museum, the Tech [Museum] of Silicon Valley, a ballet company.

I had wanted to teach my whole life. I just started up a class by inviting a few kids over the phone -- one year's class had six students only.

Then I moved up to 22 kids. Then I started doing multiple full classes of 20 and 30 kids. I enjoyed it so much. I was sharing something I was good at with the kids, and I was helping them make their homework better.

I was not trying to make them be computer people like myself. I said: I have to reach everyone in the class, not just a few who want to be weird little geeky people. I want to reach everyone.

So I taught the kids how to make their homework look good. If they were assigned [a report] I would say, "Let's do the report on the computer. Here's how we can choose the right fonts and make it look good." If they were assigned some history project [I'd say], "Let's do a timeline in the drawing program." Or, "Let's do a spreadsheet with some charts to show some data that you're analyzing."

I would take the real stuff they had in school, and after school I would do [it] in my computer class.

Education is so huge -- you can't have one quick solution. The solutions are very far in the future.

We technologists can figure out how to get more education at a lower price. That's a big key. But the amount of money for education is always going to be too low.

The government has a certain about of money to spend on things. And you think, "Oh, they're just going to determine the priorities: Here's what percentage should go to education, what percentage to the military, what percentage to forestry, what percentage to roads."

But those percentages tend to map to how many votes there are. And there's a little problem in the United States: A family of five gets no more votes than a family of two. So, the families with the kids, [for whom] education is a top priority, don't have a say [proportionate to] the size of their family. Kids aren't really considered in the votes and [in the] money for education, which is just backwards.

Every farmer gets to vote on farm bills. Every elderly person gets to vote on elderly issues. Schooling is a problem because young kids don't get to vote.

Register Now!

Event Details: September 24, 2009, 10am PDT  |  1pm ET  |  5pm GMT (-7:00)

  

Minnesota schools use WebEx to connect to the world

We are thrilled to see a school district using WebEx in such a creative way - allowing them to tap expertise and bring a rich educational experience to their students.

Anoka-Hennepin schools are using a $170,000 federal grant to make the sprawling district's world a lot smaller.

The grant is financing a still-expanding video and audio conferencing system that allows students, teachers and administrators to meet and study together, no matter where they are.

Patrick Plant, district chief technology and information officer, said the new computer Web service can allow groups to get in touch via e-mail, Internet, cell phone, regular phone, or television monitor. That, Plant said, will make it much easier for teachers in far-flung schools to hold conferences, for Superintendent Dennis Carlson to deliver important messages to the entire district and field questions from anyone who's plugged in, and for students in an entire school to invite an author or scientist more than 1,000 miles away into their classrooms.

The system, called WebEx and licensed from Cisco Systems of San Jose, Calif., can also be used to expand district course offerings.

"A college teacher might come over to teach economics," Plant said. "Now, we can bring a teacher in without those teachers having to leave their campuses." District officials are also hoping they can use the new system to tap into resources available in other Twin Cities schools.

"There might be courses we want to offer, but the costs are too prohibitive for us to be able to do that," Plant said. "Through a mechanism like this our students would be able to participate in taking courses collaboratively with another school district."

This is just a portion of an article that ran in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. You can see the entire article here.

Do you have a WebEx story to tell? We want to hear about it! Please let us know via comment on this blog or you can ping us on Twitter and we'll follow-up!

Guest Blogger: Use The Public Channel For Better Customer Service

This guest blog is by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist with 19 years experience and a great blog, AVC.. He helps people start and build technology companies out of New York City – which he’ll tell you isn't the easiest place to build technology companies, but its getting better. We believe ideas get better when they are shared – so does Fred. Check it out…

One of Mike Bloomberg's greatest achievements is the creation of the 311 service here in New York City. These 311 services operate in many large cities in the US and in Canada. The first one was in Baltimore in the mid 90s.

Apparently Bloomberg is a huge user of 311 himself and he calls all the time as he is driving around the city, reporting potholes and such.

We had a pothole in our neighborhood that I passed every day on my way to the subway. It was a big one and I'd watch car after car pound the hell out of their undercarriage as they made their way from Hudson onto Bethune street.  One day I stopped and snapped this photo with my Blackberry and posted it to Flickr (and then automatically to Twitter):

I added the following to the Flickr headline which became the tweet:

It would be great if you could twitter these in like: @potholenyc corner of bethune and hudson

Of course I could have called 311, like our Mayor does, and reported the pothole. But doing it this way does a bunch of things;

1) It saves the cost of staffing large call centers because computers can handle most of the processing of messages like this. There will still need to be humans at some part of this process, but the front end can certainly be automated.

2) You get an image of the pothole which should help the crews who fix them evaluate the worst ones and prioritize.

3) The photo and the twitter message is out there for anyone to see. Ideally this message would get routed, via something like our portfolio company outside.in, to the various local media in the neighborhood. If the messages have enough metadata in them, you could even create pages of local media based on the most common neighborhood issues (crime, infrastructure, schools, parks, etc)

4) The public discussion about the photo and related posts could be aggregated to create even more metadata and further identify the highest priority issues.

We see this "public channel" in action already with services like Comcast Cares on Twitter. Anyone can pick up the phone and call Comcast and tell them that their cable service isn't working. But the only people who know about that are the person making the call and call center rep taking it. When someone posts on Twitter that their cable service isn't working and directs the message to Comcast Cares, many people see that. Some of them may be other Comcast customers who might find out that their cable isn't working either. And as Comcast Cares elevates the issue, gets it fixed, and reports back, everyone gets to see that too. It's a huge win for Comcast. Anything that can make a cable company look better is a great thing and the use of the public channel is exactly that.

The public channel is just developing. It's in its infancy. Services like Twitter and Facebook are building key elements of it. But we need a lot more infrastructure to make this happen. I do not believe that the way this will happen is the creation of "enterprise services" that will be sold to local governments. I think we'll see things like GetSatisfaction and Uservoice develop that are consumer facing first and foremost that governments will be forced to adopt.

My friend John Geraci, co-founder of Outside.in, is developing a non-profit called DIYcity that is attempting to spearhead a movement along this idea. If you are interested in working on projects in this area, you should join DIYcity and start collaborating with others who are working in this space.

The public channel is the right channel for business and government. Most "customer support" issues are not confined to one person (just look at the comments on my American Express post for proof of that). So we should be using a public channel to talk to companies and institutions. They'll benefit and so will we.

Thanks Fred for a great post! We’d love to hear your ideas for making things better. Share then at PasstheBall.com  and follow us on Twitter. Ideas get better when they are shared.

Obama: "Cisco...Working With Community Colleges" on Job Training

On Tuesday, July 14th, President Obama announced his $12 billion American Graduation Initiative (fact sheet here) that focuses on using our community colleges to educate (and reeducate) workers for our future.

During his talk, he referred to Cisco as an example of a company partnering with schools to deliver programs that will train workers for new jobs. Here's a snippet from that speech.

If you are interested in learning more about the Cisco program, visit this site.

And if you have ideas for the President, corporations or others about what they can do to help train people, share your ideas with us. We want to hear from you.

If you don't have an idea but what to know what others are thinking, check this out. You can rate, comment or share the ideas you see there.

BART Strike? No sweat – you can still get your work done from home!

In the California Bay Area, there’s talk of a BART* strike that will have a huge impact on commuters who rely on public transit to get to work. But this situation isn’t unique to the Bay Area. In fact is a problem that faces everyone who has to rely on some sort of transportation to get to work.

But for those who need to collaborate with their team and can use a computer, there are alternatives.

We found two great ideas at PasstheBall.com, offer telecommuting as that alternative.

Idea: Tax incentives for business that support telecommuting
Nicole from York, Pennsylvania suggests we “give incentives for businesses that utilize telecommuting.” Her point is that “this would help save on energy costs for the company and would benefit the employees by allowing them to save on gas and possibly even daycare for children.” She also points out that, “This also benefits the environment because less people are commuting to and from work, and those that still need to be in the office will suffer from less traffic as there would be less people on the road during rush hour.”

Idea: Telecommute One Day Per Week
Janster from Sunnyvale, California, thinks we should “start a worldwide telecommuting day campaign.” She explains how it would work: “Employees would work from home one day per week. Imagine the CO2 and lost productivity reductions if there would be just 10% less commuters on the road each day.”

If it turns out the employees at BART do strike and you can’t get to work, we want to invite you – and anyone else who wants to work from home effectively – to give WebEx a try. It’s free and you’ll see why we get so excited about using WebEx to share ideas.

If you do give it a try, let us know what you think. Comment here or post a note on our wall on Facebook. Commuting to work should be as easy as WebEx.

*BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit. You can get strike update information here and you can actually subscribe to email alerts here.

Controversial Idea: Iran in the headlines - ideas create change

While the world watches the people of Iran struggle to find their way, I was touched to see that someone had taken the time to post an idea about Iran on PasstheBall.com.

I think many of us have been following what's happening in Iran and are interested in the role social media is playing in helping people stay connected, broadcast news as it happens and share ideas. Social media is giving voice to individuals who may not have otherwise been heard.

If you haven't taken a look at the conversation going on online, there's a very easy way to start - I use Twitter Search. There you will see hash tags (#aword) that are being used for trending tweets - things are getting a lot of attention at that moment in time. Just click on one of those tags and watch the conversation happen.

The ability to express your ideas and have others add comments to help you make it a better is something we believe has power.

The power to create change.