Home > Articles > Web 2.0 @ Cisco: The Evolution

Web 2.0 @ Cisco: The Evolution

  • Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Cisco Press.
  • Date: May 4, 2009.

Chapter Description

This chapter offers a case study of Web 2.0 adoption at Cisco, detailing the evolutionary changes the introduction of Web 2.0 technology and tools is having on the company.

Connecting People, Information, and Communities

An important component of Cisco’s Intranet Strategy Group vision was recognition of a need to improve employee access to people, information, and communities, which led to Cisco’s Directory 3.0, Ciscopedia, and Communities initiatives. In 2006, Cisco’s Directory provided contact details, such as photo, title, organization, phone, email, and address for the global workforce, totaling more than 50,000. The organization realized the need to make it easier to search through this content, to find the right person to answer a question or assist on a project.

The Directory team studied a number of possible approaches to connecting people and the decision was made to add an Expertise section to existing Directory entries. This new release, called Directory 3.0, is designed to enable connections between people, groups, and information to facilitate teamwork, collaboration, and networking across the company. The Facebook-style pages enable employees to easily find the right person to answer a question, provide a product demo to a customer, or make a conference presentation, anywhere, anytime, in any language. The first Directory 3.0 employee profile prototype is shown in Figure 10-9.

Figure 10-9

Figure 10-9 Employee profile prototype for Directory 3.0.[11]

The Intranet Strategy Group developed mock-ups and held focus groups across the organization to obtain feedback on the new design and then began to implement it. Numerous additional changes were made to the user interface before Phase 1 of Directory 3.0 was rolled out in March 2008. Phase 1 adds an “Expertise” section designed to enable the workforce to enter keywords or phrases identifying business or technical knowledge so that a search of Directory 3.0 will enable users to quickly find people with the required expertise.

Directory 3.0 Phase 2, launched at the end of January 2009, offers new features and functionality, as well as improved performance and scalability, providing a powerful foundation that enables individual, information, and community connections. Directory 3.0 now offers enhanced search, enabling users to take advantage of the expertise section enabled in Phase 1. Users can search for and find people within the company based on keywords they’ve entered in the expertise section of their directory profile.

The keywords entered in the Directory expertise section are linked to topical information defining those terms in Ciscopedia, Cisco’s version of Wikipedia.[41] Where CA-pedia, mentioned previously, focuses on topics related to the CA organization, Ciscopedia focuses on topics of interest to the broader company. When the beta version of Ciscopedia launched at the end of January 2009, it contained over 540 Sales and marketing-related terms merged into Ciscopedia from Salespedia, a Sales collaboration tool described in Chapter 11. As a result, Salespedia is currently the most popular tag in Ciscopedia, followed by acronym and internetworking terms.[42]

The idea of Ciscopedia came about as Jim Beno, a user experience architect on the Intranet Strategy Group team at the time, began doing research on how experts felt about identifying their expertise in Directory 3.0. Jim discovered that many experts were concerned about being flooded by requests for basic information and preferred to write a summary on the topic of their expertise, providing links to key resources. The Strategy Group vision of Ciscopedia, an open encyclopedia like Wikipedia, where everyone at Cisco contributes to the content, was born![43]

According to Ciscopedia project manager, Nikki Dudhoria, Ciscopedia is

  • An online, wiki-based, topical information hub
  • A place for employees to share expertise
  • Information aggregated from multiple sources
  • Owned and governed by the entire Cisco community

Figure 10-10 provides an example of a Ciscopedia prototype page, developed by Beno on the topic of user centered design.

Figure 10-10

Figure 10-10 Ciscopedia prototype page on user-centered design.[11]

Like this example, each Ciscopedia topical entry is meant to

  • Educate users.
  • Share associated resources.
  • Serve as a “hub,” aggregating related information.
  • Enable users to easily navigate to other relevant sources of information on the Cisco intranet.

Figure 10-11 illustrates the types of information aggregated into Ciscopedia topic pages.

Figure 10-11

Figure 10-11 Ciscopedia topical information hub of employee-authored content.[44]

In 2006, research analysts from Butler Group, an IT research and analysis company based in the U.K, reported that company productivity can be reduced by up to 10% as employees waste time searching—or searching ineffectively—for information.[45] When fully realized, Ciscopedia will provide a searchable, centralized location for employee-authored content and knowledge-sharing by subject matter experts. Ciscopedia will enable users to quickly and easily find information aggregated from other sources, including blog entries, discussion forum threads, websites, bookmarks, and documents, increasing overall employee productivity.[46]

The Intranet Strategy Group vision also identified communities as a key piece of Cisco’s Web 2.0 strategy, enabling employees to collaborate with others who have similar expertise and interests. Figure 10-12 shows a prototype for a community page focused on Cisco’s Commerce Business Transformation Office. The community page contains information specifically designed to meet the interests and information needs of its members.

Figure 10-12

Figure 10-12 Community prototype page for Commerce Business Transformation Office.[11]

A key piece of Cisco’s Web 2.0 strategy is enabling more effective connections and capabilities based on the interrelationships between people, information, and communities. As mentioned earlier, Cisco Directory pages currently contain information about people and their expertise. These people-specific pages will evolve to link to their blog entries, rich media, such as videos and podcasts they've created, their interests and expertise, the communities they’re part of, their recent bookmarks, and other recent activities, such as discussion forum posts, presentations, etc. Directory pages will also contain embedded Unified Communications capabilities, described in Chapter 2, such as presence indicators, click-to-dial, click-to-chat, and so on, enabling the ability to connect and communicate with people in real-time.

Ciscopedia pages contain topical information, including an overview of the topic, function-specific content from sales and engineering, for example, and associated documents and tags. These information-specific pages will evolve to link to people who are experts in the topic, as well as related rich media, such as recent videos and podcasts. Ciscopedia pages will also link to other resources that are topic-related, including recent discussion forum and blog activities, links to associated communities, related content in WebEx Connect team spaces, and so on.

Community pages, which are currently under development, will also help tie together related content distributed in other Web 2.0 technologies and tools. Community pages will contain an overview of the community; provide the ability to access community members and content in real-time; and to subscribe to community updates created and delivered via store-and-forward mechanisms, email, or Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Community pages will also list top contributors and offer links to community related content, including rich media, such as video and podcasts, a community calendar, activities of community members, as well as associated documents, tags, projects, communities, and WebEx Connect team spaces.

One key advantage of stratifying content along the lines of people, information, and communities is that it can be leveraged multiple times through cross-references. Rather than creating duplicative and redundant content, aggregated and consolidated information sources can scale to serve as a reference to multiple interests. For example, an information page on Unified Communication (UC) will be updated and referred to by experts in the UC space. That same page can also be updated and referenced by sales and engineering communities focused on UC.

At the heart of this integrated workforce experience vision is the My Cisco view, which essentially renders the information related to me. It provides news and information in a single portal, including my profile, colleagues, communities, WebEx spaces, RSS feeds, messages, meetings, tasks, tags, and so on. The My Cisco view also enables contextual relational navigation, which means that from My View, I can click on and navigate to any of my related people, information, communities, and all the rich media they contain, including video.”

Cisco Press Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Cisco Press and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview

Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Cisco Press products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information

To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@ciscopress.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information

Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security

Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children

This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing

Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out

Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Cisco Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.ciscopress.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information

Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents

California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure

Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact

Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020