We have published two Gartner First Takes (Cisco Collaboration Shows Promise and Cisco Confronts Microsoft with Cloud Email Service ) on these announcements and there are more Research Notes on the way.

The things that struck me can be captured in three words: video, social, and software. It is clear that John Chambers believes in the power of video as a transformative technology and Cisco had some new offerings, such as Show and Share, that will allow people to have a corporate grade you-tube for the enterprise.

Social inferences were everywhere. Its ECP platform is its foray into Enterprise Social Software and Cisco already has its Salesforce deployed on that platform, which Cisco refers to as the Integrated Workforce Experience (iWe). Its new WebEx email offering features a new Ajax email client that can be configured to enable social features, which we describe as The Social Inbox. Cisco also showed off a concept called Pulse that enables expertise location and a slew of other Social Network analysis capabilities.

Finally, Cisco didn’t say it over the last two days, but the biggest thing they did was make a major shift into software, with products that enable on-premise or cloud based offerings (note, not all products do both). To pull all this off, Cisco also recently hired Debra Chrapaty, who most recently was a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.

Cisco still has lots of work to do, but it was clear their partners were stunned with the sheer number of products they introduced and also excited about the possibilities that they represent. We’ll be watching these developments as they unfold….

Yesterday was a major day for Apple users all over the world: an updated OS Release called Snow Leopard. While there is news about this release (see Gartner First Take), what is more interesting is how users are dealing with these and other related technology issues.

In many companies around the world, bands of users are supporting each other regarding how they use their Macs at work. Besides the fact that many of these users feel so strongly that they purchased their own Mac, the real story is how they support each other through discussion forums, wikis and even short emails.

In the last 24 hours, the story that has surfaced with a few of my co-workers is how easy it was to connect their Snow Leopard enabled Macs to our Email Server (Microsoft Exchange) with no help from anyone within IT.

There are also even more examples of users who jumped the gun and migrated to Vista themselves and those users support each other. Now it is happening with Windows 7 as well. See a related blog post from Gartner Fellow David Mitchell Smith.

This is signaling a trend with users. Technology like computers, OSs and applications are becoming less complicated and users are no longer afraid (to take risks). Savvy CIOs are getting in front of this trend (the empowered user) and are adapting their workplace policies (giving up some control, but also, by being more flexible, gaining some back).

Macs may not overtake Windows in enterprises anytime soon, but the iPhone 3G and 3Gs have exploded into the enterprise, because of demand by users. As I stated to some of my co-workers who use Macs, may the force be with you.

I recently moderated a five person panel at Cisco Live that featured CIOs from Intel and Kraft Foods. Intel CIO Diane Bryant and Kraft Foods CIO Mark Dajani both told compelling stories about how their respective firms planned and began to use social software tools. The fact that it was CIOs telling the story and not their business unit counterparts demonstrates that there is a new breed of CIO at work in major corporations. Fortress IT is dead.

Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby was also present, looking on while one of her staff, VP Sheila Jordan kicked off the panel with an in-depth overview of all of the work going on in Cisco to take Web 2.0 and Social Software to the next level.

Diane, Mark and Rebecca all represent a changing of the guard in IT. These next generation CIOs are driving change and they march in-step with their business unit counterparts.  Suffice to say the panel was a big hit with the executive attendees and I was impressed with the level of passion that all three CIOs have for finding the right uses for these types of technologies in their enterprises.

The excellent production value of this new movie reminded me of one recently about Google that  might seem dated (version below is 2007), but in a way it foreshadowed some things about the newspaper industry. You can watch the Google movie here: EPIC 2015

Which one do you like?

@JimLundy Windows PCs are the minority @ our company

Are Apple Macs supported in your enterprise or frowned on…. (via @JimLundy) Not frowned upon (a few around, incl my MBP. Not promo’d, tho

@JimLundy they are not supported. But 1/3 of IT are running on Macs. Everyone in the company seems to want one though Soon enough…

@JimLundy Macs at Cisco they are community supported.

@JimLundy (Macs are) SUPPORTED! WORD.

I found the response that IT are allowed to have them but users are not very amusing.

What is your enterprise stance on Macs? Are users clamoring for them? They sure seem to be out here in Silicon Valley.

You can follow me on Twitter: Jim_Lundy

Collaboration: work with others on a nonroutine cognitive task — that is, working together.

In a related research note, Tom Austin defined the four elements of Collaboration: Segment Collaboration into its Four Main Constituents for Maximum Return. The elements are:

1. Communication
2. Coordination
3. Communities
4. Social Interaction Facilitation

In 2009, everyone says they offer collaboration technologies, but not everyone defines collaboration or communication the same way. It used to be a simple world when phones were separate from computers. That is not the case in 2009 and that is where part of the problem is. Knowing how you want to collaborate and what technologies you want to use will keep you pointed in the right direction.

Summary
Successful communities result not from technologies, but from a properly defined business purpose. 

Below is the list of the seven characteristics.
1. Magnetic
2. Aligned
3. Low Risk
4. Properly Scoped
5. Facilitates Evolution
6. Measureable
7. Community Driven

To see the full details, login to Gartner.com and click on this link.

In Digital Paper: Is It Paper, a Display or Both?, Jackie Fenn and I wrote about the new medium that readers like the Kindle use. Here is what we said: “D-paper bridges the gap between traditional paper and display technologies. It has the potential to change the publishing industry, eliminating the huge barriers to entry in newspaper, magazine and book publishing. For the short term, signage will be the primary application. Web and hard copy content providers need to develop architectures that allow for content distribution via D-paper technology.”

The predictions from that Research note were:
By year-end 2004, electronic books will be the primary application for active D-paper (0.8 probability).
By year-end 2003, D-paper will be commercially available for a variety of output uses (0.8 probability). 

The two vendors we mentioned in the Research note were Xerox (Gyricon Media Inc., which was spun out of Xerox PARC) and E INK, which is now the defacto leader in this display technology.

In E-Book Proliferation: Critical Factors, Rita Knox, Alan Weintraub (former Gartner Analyst) and I wrote about: “Publishers’ worst fears about e-books are that the books will be downloaded to an array of electronic devices, reducing sales of traditional books. These fears may not materialize. The revenue generated from e-books may not only offset a possible decline in paper sales, but may cause an increase in sales by expanding the potential audience for books delivered in any medium.”

The things we said about Devices, Software and Content:

“Devices:  E-book devices include not just e-book readers (e.g., NuvoMedia’s Rocket eBook and the SoftBook Reader) but any output device that can present e-book content — personal digital assistants, digital audio, interactive TV, audio and Braille devices (e.g., the Blazie 2000 Braille display) — to multiple senses (visual, auditory, tactile and multimedia).

E-book devices must supersede the familiarity and simplicity of paper books. Content vendors must rethink what electronic content delivery can do for readers. The answers to this challenge will determine the relative value of different delivery devices. The advantage of electronic content is that it makes delivery of content much more flexible, since it can be formatted for different output devices. This flexibility will allow consumers to read (or listen to) a book conveniently in different situations (e.g., at home, in the office, traveling or driving) and in different environments, so that e-books can better match individual lifestyles, preferences and limitations.

Software: Software is the major aspect of e-books that Microsoft has targeted (see Note 2). E-book software serves content to the various output devices. The most successful software will offer the greatest flexibility, allowing a reader not only to access the content from different devices, but also to access the same content at different times and places as the opportunities arise (e.g., from a handheld device at home, to a car’s audio system and then on an office PC).

Software vendors must overcome an array of challenges centered around the management of digital rights. The ease with which electronic content can be copied and transformed threatens publishers and authors. E-book software must support various pricing models, give access only to authorized users and prevent theft of the content (i.e., unauthorized copying). These protections should not unduly limit the flexibility and convenience that will make e-book delivery more attractive than paper.

Content: Before e-books become widely available, publishers and authors must be comfortable making their works available in digital format. Unfortunately, this issue lies farthest from a satisfactory resolution. Publishers remain nervous because appropriate rules (e.g., for reuse) have not been formulated, so the required theft-proof technologies are not defined, much less implemented. The content providers (e.g., publishers) must define the rules for pricing and reuse.”

Instead of saving links or creating widgets, users simply highlight the item they want to refer to on a website and drag it to a ‘box’.  it is then saved there and it looks identical to what the user sees on the original website where it was originally viewed. It was very easy to setup and start using.

There are lots of possibilities here and it highlights what Gartner has been talking about regardng the portaless portal.

Besides collecting and grouping information, the real power of this offering is in its ability to link groups of people around a particular set of content.

We didnt’ highlight SimplyBox in our recent Cool Vendor report, but they are cool and one to pay attention to.

Google has 800 apps available for the Android based phones, but they have only had them available for a little while.

The question remains though is how many apps are going to be made available by the likes of Microsoft and Palm. Any takers on how many they will launch over the next 6 months?