Endless Knots

Yay, Russell! He really can dance!

And a bit off-topic...

Am I the only one who loves this show? I guess not as 8 million people voted but I'm a little surprised that the Boston Globe hasn't even mentioned that Roxbury's own Russell Ferguson won the "So You Think You Can Dance" competition last night. Russell is a krumper. No, I had no idea what krumping was until getting hooked on this show, thanks to extended periods of time on Lake and Finn's couch (click and ye shall see).

Russell may be a krumper but he is also unbelievably talented, the kind of dancer who takes over the stage, regardless of how graceful his partner is. (He injured himself in the finale and had to limp out to hear that he'd won, meaning that we never got to see his last performance on the show.)

Honestly, I'm not hooked on any of the other dance shows or Idol or Loser or Survivor Season 983...none, but this show snatched me. I even voted for Russell, something I've never done before. Yes, he's a neighbor (of sorts, go, Boston) but mainly I voted because this is one major talent.

Last point: the show's host, Cat Deeley, is superb. She oughtta have a talk show. Her resume doesn't do her justice. She's funny, smart, and compassionate - never mind that she's stunningly beautiful (though, as a mom, I am tempted to send her a basketful of cookies - eat, honey!).

Collaboration with Confidence Across Companies--Live BusinessWeek TV Video Webcast

Once again, delighted to  appear on a BusinessWeek TV/Cisco live video webcast, "Collaboration with Confidence Across Companies," tomorrow, Thurs, December 3, 2009 at 11am PT, 2pm ET, 7pm GMT.

Our panel, moderated again by Jim Ellis of BusinessWeek, includes Bill Hills, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Collaboration Age Associates and me (both live), and Jeff Stamps, Chief Scientist at NetAge, who will provide expert advice online.

Register here. And please ask lots of questions.

Here's the promo material from BusinessWeek:

Benefit from rich, reliable and secure collaboration across town or across the globe.

This webcast will provide best practices to help your company realize the full potential of collaborative technologies:

• Communicate efficiently and effectively in real-time.
• Exchange information securely across borders and time zones.
• Operate seamlessly with distant partners, suppliers and customers.

In this live discussion you will be able to participate in an interactive question and answer session with our industry experts - all from the comfort of your desktop.

Trip report: A brief foray into the future

 

Several firsts at once for a keynote I gave last week for Cisco, topic, appropriately enough, "Virtual Leadership:"

1. A truly global audience--from California to London to Singapore and many spots in between, with about 90 people in all.

 

In this picture, London, Raleigh, North Carolina, and me, the invisible photographer in Massachusetts

2. Everyone attended virtually. Everyone.

3. We used Telepresence, Cisco's technology that provides hi-def, interactive videoconferencing.

 

I could mute the mike on my desk

4. Telepresence was then combined with Webex and transmitted via Cisco IPTV, which meant that people could see me, see my slides, send questions...and probably multitask all at once.

 

When I was on mute, there was a screen icon to remind me

According to the host, Cisco's VP of Worldwide Inside Sales, Jim Blum, it was only the second time Cisco tried anything like this, the first being in May of this year.

And, as per above, it was my first time.

 

When my time was nearly up, a stopwatch appeared on the screen, first at 10 minutes, then again at 2 minutes

It worked perfectly, with no glitches technically.

Going back and forth between me and Jim, while with a slight (perhaps a second or two) delay, was seamless.

So...what is Telepresence and how is it different from normal videoconferencing, the herky-jerky, irritating, low-resolution, out-of-synch, wish-it-were-always-better technology? It's really hi-res, the screen is huge (see picture), the audio is perfect, and it really does feel almost-sorta-like you're with the people. Very different from Skype, iSight, the built-in video on my Mac...really different from any video conf I've ever done.

It's not just that you're seeing a really clear picture, i.e. watching the news on TV, but the newscaster is talking back to you. Quite phenomenal.

And low impact in a number of ways. No one traveled except to their local laptop - and in the case of Jim, his direct reports, and me to a Telepresence room. Now do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much this meeting would have cost if 90 people had been convened. Instead of coming together for "three intense days," as Jim said they did last year, they came together over about a week with highly focused, highly interactive virtual meetings.

Good for reducing stress on people and on the planet.

If this is the future of virtual meetings, sign me up. Presenter evaluation, meaning how I'd rate the environment--and the preparation--provided by the client? A+

How (not) to behave on a video conference

Stella, who's keeping up with all things telecommuting-wise, points to "Videoconferencing Etiquette," a NY Times piece about how to behave on a videoconference. Good, basic advice, including this, the drum beat of our time, as per my last post: "Don't be distracted: Checking your Blackberry every couple minutes or looking around the room can distract other participants. Focus on the meeting and don't try to get other work done."

This article reminds me of a videoconference I once watched when Digital Equipment Corporation was the dominant force in Massachusetts industry: A bunch of execs were participating in a cross-Atlantic conference, including the head of DEC in Europe. Alone in his office, sitting behind a very big desk and very elegantly attired, he, on mute, answered the phone, spoke with people who came into his office, and generally ignored the whole event. This is not the way to do it.

Tom Atkins and cable TV

There have been many wonderful pieces written about Boston's first African-American at-large city councilor, Tom Atkins, in the past few days, including an editorial in The Boston Globe this morning. Tom died of Lou Gehrig's disease last Friday. All the stories mention Tom's pioneering work in civil rights and his role in bridging the racial divide in Boston. What I remember Tom for is something else: in the early 1970s, a small band of committed futurists (including us) became concerned about the potential gold about to be buried beneath Boston's streets, i.e. the stringing of coaxial cable. Back then, cable enthusiasts saw it as what the Web has become, a many-to-many (and one-to-one) communication medium without precedent. Tom was on the Boston City Council then and proved an astute observer of what cable might bring to Boston. At a time when Boston politics was still dominated by the predictable suspects not particularly known for their vision, Tom had foresight and insight about the future of telecommunications.

Jon and the General

Remember Frontier 6, the blogger who said that soldiers should be allowed to blog and post to YouTube? Well, now he's made his first appearance on Comedy Central. Last night, Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, recently the face of the military to the press in Iraq and now head of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, was the guest on The Daily Show. Caldwell was there to talk about the new field manual for the Army, which I mentioned here and in a piece for The Standard called "The social general." Jon Stewart was his inimitable self, kidding Caldwell about the dry prose and the very thought that a soldier would pick up the field manual in the heat of battle. Caldwell held his own, explaining that its purpose was for training, not the quick look-up while in combat, and that it contains a different view of the soldier's role than has been prescribed before. Caldwell's best moment in the interview came when he talked about the true multi-tasking that soldiers have to do now - building a road one moment, taking sniper fire the next.  His appearance on The Daily Show is part of the Army's campaign to market the new manual and its revolutionary contents, which say that diplomacy and nation-building must be held up as equal to "offensive and defensive operations." You can see it for yourself.