The Network as the Platform Will Enable People Around the World to Contribute to Creation

SYDNEY, Australia, October 3, 2008 – Cisco announced today that it is working with a leading artist to create the first online collaborative artwork based in Australasia. The project will showcase a range of Cisco collaboration technologies, which are also available to businesses to help them increase their productivity and innovation.

The project facilitator is Moshe Rosenzveig, an award-winning photojournalist in Sydney. Rosenzveig will work with a number of contributors for a minimum of three hours each weekday during the month of October. Every day he will ask participants (anyone with access to broadband and the ability to visit www.imagine-if.info) to upload photographs related to a chosen theme; these will inspire Rosenzveig’s daily artwork. At the end of the month, the individual works will form a single piece, which Cisco plans to auction.

Rosenzveig said: “I am very excited about being involved in such a unique project. The potential of this artwork is huge. Having the ability to collaborate with people from all around the world is a very powerful thing. I believe the creation will reflect the diversity of the different types of people with varying tastes and backgrounds that will be able to participate. The technology that is enabling the collaboration to happen in real time is quite extraordinary, eliminating the barrier of distance that would usually make this an impossible task.”

The collaborative art project comes less than a week after Cisco announced details of its collaboration portfolio. The portfolio is designed to integrate with business applications, existing network infrastructures and Web services, and it allows developers to create customized applications and network-based services. The new portfolio products include the following:
•Unified communications. Cisco® Unified Communications System Release 7.0 offers significant improvements in total cost of ownership, ease of use, and interoperability with business applications.
•Video. Cisco TelePresence Expert on Demand integrates the immersive Cisco TelePresence experience into the contact center for high-value, in-branch customer service and the ability to summon expertise directly during a Cisco TelePresence meeting.
•Web 2.0 applications platform. Cisco WebEx® Connect, a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, integrates presence, instant messaging, Web meetings and team spaces with traditional and Web 2.0 business applications.

Taking advantage of the network as the platform, Rosenzveig will use a mix of these technologies to help people to connect to and contribute to the project.

Peter Hughes, Cisco manager for Unified Communications in Australia and New Zealand, said: “There is no doubt that whether it’s in art or the community, or in business, health or education, the power of collaboration is real. Collaboration technologies are now capable, through a combination of real-time video and unified communications, to transform business processes to help enable better decisions involving the right people more productively. It is important that companies embrace collaboration and adapt to these changes in the way we work. This one-of-a-kind project we are embarking on illustrates what can be achieved when people work together and highlights how technology can power innovation.”

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