If you are interested in learning more about the technology under the hood of LiveCycle Collaboration Service, I’d suggest reviewing this presentation by Ryan Stewart from Adobe:
http://max.adobe.com/online/session/272
Just wanted to put a few quick comments up here on this newest development from Adobe regarding the Adobe Connect Platform. These are exciting times. I remember years ago first seeing “skunk works” projects, if you will, of getting limited Adobe Connect functionality on certain specific mobile device that used very specific versions of the Windows mobile platform. Now getting some of the best parts of Adobe Connect Pro collaboration on an iPhone – Wow!
The definitive article on this from Alistair Lee at Adobe systems can be found here at the Connectusers.com.
Connect Pro Mobile for the Apple iPhone
I hope this is just the beginning of such developments and innovations around the Connect platform enabling users to communicate, collaborate and even learn in the mobile manner that best suits their needs.
These efforts truly go a long way toward making Adobe Connect Pro the tool of mass instruction and collaboration.
As I am a Blackberry user and not an iPhone user this does make me consider purchasing one or at the very least borrowing my wife’s iPhone and trying out Connect Pro Mobile once Adobe makes it available to the public.
I am sure as this effort moves forward more Connect Pro features and enhancements will be made available on this mobile platform. The mere idea that I can be involved in a Connect Pro meeting from my phone; in addition to my Mac, my tablet and Windows PC , just makes me smile. Having to cart around all these other much larger devices is not all the much fun. Besides, I always have my phone with me and it starts up a whole quicker than my computer too.
Connect Pro Mobile for the Apple iPhone
There are a number of exciting announcements happening at Adobe MAX this year, but one that is near and dear to ConnectSolutions is focused on Adobe LiveCycle Collaboration Service. LiveCycle Collaboration Service is the new name for what was once Adobe Flash Collaboration Service (and for early followers, CoCoMo), and with today’s announcements, it is now commercially available in two forms:
Using the Adobe® LiveCycle® Collaboration Service, organizations can easily build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) that include real-time, multiuser collaboration tools. This means that your organization can explore opportunities to:
- Easily integrate text chat, whiteboard, webcam, and VoIP functionality.
- Rapidly build and deploy applications with the complete SDK.
- Manage user and session data.
- Host applications in a managed environment.
A datasheet is available here from Adobe on the overall capabilities of LiveCycle Collaboration Service.
We are pleased to share the news that one of our customers, CO.NX, has been nominated for an Adobe MAX Award. The U.S. Department of State developed CO.NX to connect U.S. experts with international audiences to better teach the world about the U.S., its policies, and people. Included in their program has been internet simulcasts of President Obama’s historic speeches in Egypt and Ghana earlier this year that provide a way for viewers around the world to experience the speechs in real time and augment that experience with collaborative features such as chat, real-time polls, integrated closed captions, and sharing of web links.
President Obama's Speech from Ghana
CO.NX, who runs their Connect Pro implementation on the ConnectSolutions QuickConnect platform, has had over 10,000 participants attend the over 200 events they ran last year. We are proud to have CO.NX as a customer and applaud the new standard they are setting in promoting transparency through citizen outreach and open dialog in government.
The CO.NX project is a well deserved finalist for the Adobe MAX Award in the public sector category. We encourage you to take a few moments and learn more about their Connect Pro usage here: http://max.adobe.com/awards/finalists/#public.
If you like what you see, please take a minute and vote for CO.NX here: https://www.adobemaxsubmission.com/viewer/?projectid=121.
You can also find CO.NX on Facebook and Twitter and experience an upcoming webchat first hand.
For federal employees, telework is a mandated option (read more about ConnectSolutions support of FISMA-compliant web conferencing), and with the productivity gains combined with the benefits of remote work in the face of pandemic flu concerns, a very logical option at that. It is good to see the continued support for telework by Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra:
“When you think about it, the president is really the teleworker in chief. He’s connected wherever he goes,” Berry said. “Yesterday was a good example: New York City in the morning, Pittsburgh in the afternoon and Washington at night. While the president has a little bit of a unique position, and everyone can’t have all of his communications gear, the technology is catching up to that.”
Source
The reality is that everyone does have access to sufficient communication systems to empower successful telework. We’ve been doing this for quite some time with thousands of federal employees, and look forward to continuing to expand upon these services with ConnectSolutions Podium for large-scale events and communication efforts as well.
ConnectSolutions has had the opportunity to support a variety of webcasts for President Obama through its partnership with the U.S. State Department and its highly successful CO.NX program, but we’ll have to work on providing him with his own personal virtual oval office meeting room as well.
Not sure if it is the case in your neck of the woods, but ads for the Connect Pro Connect and Conserve campaign have been popping up all over the Bay Area. Saw this ad on the side of a bus yesterday. The neatest part of Adobe’s campaign is that they donate $25 to schools to help them become greener every time someone signs up for a Connect Pro trial. So now’s the time to spread the word and tell your friends and colleagues about Connect Pro and get them to try it for themselves. Not only are you finding ways to help make them more productive, but you’ll be doing something good for the earth and for our youth.
Connect Pro Ad
Bit off-topic here, but this was too funny to pass on. I was driving up 101N from our Burlingame to Oakland office this morning, when I came upon one of the most absurd uses of a huge flat-bed truck I’ve ever seen:
Yes…that really is a single bike being transported on a gigantic flatbed towards San Francisco. So much for lowering carbon footprints with bikes.
ConnectSolutions’ customer success over the past few years has been fueled by three key ingredients:
- No-limits Customer Service = From day one, our company culture has centered around extreme empathy for our customers, and the result is that everyone in the company has consistently demonstrated their willingness and motivation to do whatever it takes to make our customers and partners successful. Required reading around here is Jack Mitchell’s “Hug Your Customers,” and we draw lots of inspiration from other examples such as Zappos and others.
- Great Technology = Combining award-winning products from Adobe, with our own Engineering and Operations innovations, has provided organizations with an extremely reliable and scalable platform to support adoption and rapid growth. Reliable technology combined with passionate customer service is proving to be a deadly combination to our competition…
- Coffee…
That last bullet is what brought me to Starbucks this morning in Burlingame, CA, and resulted in a great reminder of how important exceptional customer service is for businesses of any size. I hadn’t been in that store for some time, and yet the manager said “Hello Michael.” No use of fancy CRM systems, just “WOW” customer service. Then, as I waited for my coffee to be brewed, I noticed this same manager quickly pulling all of the staff together in front of the line of waiting customers. Suddenly, they were all singing “Happy Birthday” to a man who appeared to be in his upper-80s, and all of the customers in the store jumped right-in with them. This man was almost in tears at the sound of 30 people singing to him. If that’s not “hugging” your customers, I don’t know what is.
ConnectSolutions Customers: expect a note from me looking for birthdays…
