Friday, March 28, 2008

Cisco Web 2.0 Summit

Cisco Web 2.0 Summit: "

Web 2.0 is the rage and we, at Cisco, talk about it in terms of the 'Human Network.' But, the business side of Web 2.0 is clearly behind consumers on use and implentation of this technology and this 'movement.' Today, we hosted an internal Web 2.0 Summit to share best practices and learn about Web 2.0 technologies and architecture and embedding it more in the business. In one session, Blair Christie, SVP of Corporate Communications, interviewed our Chairman and CEO John Chambers on Cisco's vision and use of Web 2.0.



Some notes from their discussion follow (Note: I am paraphrasing...not quoting directly).



Q: When did you start thinking about the importance of Web 2.0?

A: I've been on the collaboration focus since about 2001...really during the downturn. We moved from selling boxes to selling solutions and we needed to move decision-making further down the reporting chain. Collaboration across business functions was critical in order to be successful. Collaborative technologies had to be utilized to work in this way. It is imporant not to get way from the fact that it is easy to get fascinated by the technology, rather than on what the technology can do.



Q: What are you seeing from the customer side of things?

A: There is a huge hunger for this technology, but also a void in the market...to really enable this technology, you have to rearchitect your entire business processes from the ground up. In baseball terms, we're really at the top of the first inning on the business side.



Q: (from audience) As demand for Web 2.0 increases we see ASPs crop up and we see businesses flock to them. This gets us ahead of the curve, but potentially puts our data at risk. What is right balance for ASPs versus building these tools internally?

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(Via Clippings.)

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