Read the article in InformationWeek

Early integration partners include Sococo, creator of a unique bobble-head avatar collaboration tool; Five9, a provider of cloud-based call center software; and PGi, the company behind the iMeet and Global Meet virtual meeting services.

For example, according to a published case study, developers at Five9 used the SDK to leverage contextual data from agents’ headsets based on their availability at any point in time. With the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC, Five9 can intelligently sense the agent’s state, based on proximity to the work station, and forward the calls if the agent is away, according to Plantronics.

The Plantronics Developer Connection brings contextual intelligence and smart communications to existing applications so that they can benefit from information such as knowing the user’s headset state, communications capabilities, proximity, etc…

Read about the Sococo connection.

Microsoft’s keynote presentation from Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate VP for Office, casually referred to the product line that includes SharePoint and Lync as delivering a great social experience….Link to article

One of the best indications I had of the face phenomenon was a conversation with Sococo, a startup I like to think of as the bobblehead collaboration company. While hardly a household name, Sococo has proven it’s possible to create a sense of connection and intimacy even with a fairly abstract representation of remote participants. Each person is represented onscreen as a colored ball with just a bit of character. Essentially animated status icons, these avatars signal their availability for a call, videoconference, or impromptu chat visually–for example, by whether or not the avatar is wearing a headset or whether the door to its virtual office is open or closed. Sococo team spaces can also include screensharing and other modes of collaboration.

Sococo’s style of virtual collaboration contrasts with more literal, Second Life-style 3-D collaboration spaces, exemplified by products like Avaya’s web.alive (soon to be renamed AvayaLive Engage). However, Sococo president Chris Wheeler thinks incorporating people’s real faces might not be such a bad idea, after all.

“We are working on a way to overlay faces on top of the avatars. We haven’t done that yet, but it’s one of the most common requests,” Wheeler said. Possibly, the faces could be included in a pop-up contact card, or be displayed when the user hovered his mouse over an icon. The abstract avatars work as “a constant reminder of who is there, physically or virtually,” and as a way of organizing who is or is not available and who is included in which meetings, he said. “At the same time there is no substitute for the face.”

read the article by Eric Lundquist

Underlying all of these advances are models of machine learning. Often, these models are in turn based on mathematical frameworks created by Judea Pearl, professor emeritus at UCLA, that enable algorithms that incorporate real world experiences and human reasoning.

Today, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) announced that its annual A.M. Turing Award—generally considered the highest honor in computer science—will be awarded to Dr. Judea Pearl for his work on the partnership between humans and machines, part of what is generally known as artificial intelligence. In particular, Pearl is recognized for creating a framework for reasoning with imperfect data that has changed how people approach real-world problem solving.

Read the article by Michael J. Miller

Humans have always made inferences about causes and effects, sometimes based on scanty information. Many machines do now, too, and Judea Pearl is frequently cited as a cause.

The computer scientist on Thursday is being named as the latest recipient of the high-prestige Turing Award, which is awarded annually by the Association of Computing Machinery. It comes with a $250,000 prize, provided with financial support from Google and Intel.  Pearl, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Los Angeles, is credited by the ACM with developing key theoretical foundations in the field known as artificial intelligence.

To Vint Cerf, the Internet pioneer who now works at Google and helped lead the award-selection process, the importance of Pearl’s work is not artificial but extremely practical–underlying many kinds of widely used technology, including speech-recognition systems, machine translation and the way Google serves up ads to Web surfers based on partial evidence it gleans about their interests.

“Most significantly, his work was looked at with great skepticism by many colleagues,” says Cerf, a past Turing award winner himself. “But he persisted in the face of skepticism and ultimately the work was of stunning value.”

Read the article by Don Clark

RidePal, a company that recently began a pilot test of its service, would help smaller firms provide workers with business-class commuter shuttles as an alternative to public transit or personal vehicles. Shuttle times and pickup locations are established based on preferences and votes entered by users on the RidePal Web site. Companies enroll to reserve any number of seats on a shuttle and can choose to subsidize any portion of the fare for their employees. Riders sit next to neighbors who work for offices near their own, rather than sitting exclusively with their co-workers.

read the article in The New York Times

* Sococo: Sococo Team Space for iPad, which extends Sococo’s immersive business communications experience so that coworkers can stay–and feel–connected throughout the day, no matter where they’re located.

Said Eric Krafp: “The judges (listed below) clearly were impressed by innovative customer service/contact center solutions. I think one of the mega-trends we’ll see in communications over the next few years is the transition to true multimedia contact centers that integrate brick-and-mortar facilities with online stores, and that tie all the various media together. Right now, that’s still a nascent capability and contact centers aren’t well organized to take advantage of it. But that’s evolving, as our contest shows.

“Also, Vidyo is becoming a fixture on our Finalist list; they’re an innovative company and video has arrived as a consideration for all communications networks. It may not be on every desktop, but it simply can’t be ignored by anyone who’s charged with designing and building the enterprise networks of the future.

“Finally, we got some network management in the mix, which is great, because network management is so important and yet so often overlooked.”

Their judges this year were:

* Doug Carolus, Senior Associate, Pace Harmon
* Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst, ZK Research
* Marty Parker, Prinicipal, UniComm Consulting
* Sorell Slaymaker, President, Unified IT Systems
* David Stein, President, Stein Technoloy Group

“They’ll be meeting with each of the Finalists over the next week to hear about their products in greater detail, to help the judges pick a winner for this year’s Best in Enterprise Connect. The award will be presented at Enterprise Connect Orlando on March 28.”

To get a balanced perspective – and to stay on top of the issues – you need to hear what the industry leaders know. RSA Conference, February 27 – March 2, 2012 in San Francisco: Five days of learning, training, discussing, and networking, with industry experts, colleagues, and peers.

The DEMO Palo Alto Meet-up kicks off the DEMO Innovation tour where Matt and the DEMO team will travel around the country to connect with the DEMO community in search of  the best innovation to showcase at DEMO Spring, April 17-19, 2012.  We will host a party with with Kleiner Perkins and sponsored by AARP at the Dutch Goose Bar on February 9.

During the evening, the 10 companies we selected to meet with us during the day, from dozens of applications, will be given the opportunity at the party to present to you in the DEMO Alpha Pitch 90 second format.

We invite you to join us, DEMO alumni attendees and demonstrators along with local entrepreneurs and VC’s for a casual evening of cocktails and conversation. Complimentary drinks, thanks to AARP from 6-8 p.m.