Making Real-Time Collaboration Mindnumbingly Simple

One of the programs that I run here at WebEx is "Samantha", the virtual meeting assistant. So what is a virtual meeting assistant and why do you need one?

For those of us who live and breathe collaboration every day, using on-demand collaboration tools is completely 2nd nature. Personally, I've been in this space for almost 5 years, first at PlaceWare and now WebEx and frankly, I could not imagine my life without real-time communication tools. I feel I would be back in the ice ages. Without my cellphone, blackberry, IM and WebEx, my life would be quite more complex. I can work where ever I have an Internet connection and phone reception. My team knows my presence info and how to contact me and frankly does not care where I am. I am available to answer questions, escalate issues and jump into a meeting, regardless if I am at work, working from home or on the road. And since I know where the off bottom is on my cellphone and my blackberry, my wife has only threatened to "do something big" to me a couple times. :-)

That's for those of us for whom web 2.0; office 2.0; mash-ups and collaborative applications actually means something. For everybody else, it may be fair to assume that they may be just a little bit uncomfortable with a web meeting. But as most of us know, once teach somebody to take their first steps, they will be running in no time.

So that's where Samantha comes in; a virtual meeting assistant who helps the user with their first web conferencing steps. I've developed several versions of Samantha and in the first 6 months of the program, we've seen some very impressive results. So feel free to let Samantha take you by the hand. We've even localized her for the Latin American and Spanish market; Bienvenidos Claudia!

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If you believe Samantha has helped you become a better WebEx presenter, leave a comment to this blog

--jan

Steam Pipe Explosions and Real Time Collaborations ... Where Is the Link You May Wonder

Guess where I was on Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 6:00 PM....

I just came out of the Bryant Park and 42nd Street subway exit in Manhattan and I look to my right and see a sea of people running towards me and away from the Grand Central Station area. Behind them was a large white smoke cloud. The pictures here and here give you some idea what it was about. This is not from the same vantage point I was at though. What I did see where many people who were covered in mud and who looked panicked.

So, why is this relevant to Business Continutiy? Well, I was in NY where I just presented at the Business Continuity forum, a conference focused on business continuity and disaster recovery. I will post a recording of this presentation later. I gave a presentation on why real-time collaboration services are also a good telework solution.

I thought that it was a little ironic that right after this conference, a major incident happened that reminded many people of Sept 11. Many companies in Manhattan's Midtown area will be affected for a couple more days and can't let their employees back into their offices. I guess they all wished they have implemented WebEx as their telework solution. They allow you to transform any business disruption into business as usual.

Let me give you a less dramatic example: Let's assume that you're on your way to work and suddenly you hit a traffic jam. You turn your radio to a station that has traffic reports (in the San Francisco Bay Area that could be KQED or KGO) and low and behold, there is a traffic accident and they closed down 3 of the 4 lanes of the highway. You're stuck in traffic and at 5 miles / hr you're going to be late for your 9 AM meeting where you had to present the project status to your management team. (Did I say you burned the midnight oil to get the powerpoint to look just right). Rather than panic and call into the meeting from the car to give them the 5 minute cliff notes, you get off the next exit, drive 3 blocks to the nearest Starbucks, log on to the t-mobile wifi hotspot, start your WebEx meeting and it's as good as being there in person.

Anyways, if you were in NYC on Wednesday and you were in Midtown and want to share your experiences, post a reply to this blog entry....

--jan