On the Eleventh day of UC the industry gave to me, the value of video, not hyping,
no more pagers beeping,
interface enhancing
CFOs bilking,
overuse of power dimming,
applications plug ‘n playing
five phone rings
the voicemail market girds
an AT lens,
what SMB loves,
And a clear definition of UC.

Its not that we don’t have video out there; we sure do and it’s a mind boggling amount. At Cisco’s C-Scape I believe the figure that was mentioned was something like 250 billion videos were produced in 2007. That is mind boggling. That includes videos incorporated into Web 2.0 applications such as YouTube, and social networking sites etc. Some estimates have Internet video increasing four fold by 2011. However, my day eleven wish is certainly not for that number to increase, although it will undoubtedly hit some mind numbing figure by the end of 2008. No, I’m wishing for businesses to “get” the value of video too, not just consumers, and for vendors to help them “get it” without the hype.

I just got a notice that two of my ‘Twelve Days of UC’ wishes - the value of video and going green - are being addressed in a first of its kind town meeting that is being shown to a live audience during Cisco’s keynote session at VoiceCon in Florida on March 19th. Former Vice President, Al Gore, Cisco’s Chairman and CEO, John Chambers, and Cisco’s EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Sue Bostrom, physically separated from each other by thousands of miles, will meet together in a virtual unified communications environment, to talk about how technology innovation can play a part in mitigating climate change. Using Cisco TelePresence, of course, these three will virtually meet on stage in front of live audiences in London, England, Orlando and several other places. Those attending the keynote will get to watch the live discussion via a TelePresence system that will be placed on stage, while others will get to see it in several other TelePresence rooms around the world. Those unable to attend can view it live as a streamed webcast session.

In April, Cisco announced a sales milestone of 500 TelePresence units ordered since the product was launched a year and a half ago. That might not sound like a lot, but we aren’t talking about cellphones or Barbie dolls, but really big video conferencing rooms and equipment. It also makes Cisco the current front runner in selling really big telepresence solutions, and it speaks volumes about how important this type of technology is for business. Companies are investing in video conferencing.