Media X - Cisco Workshop

Triple Helix Association 9th International Conference at Stanford University
Leaders: Martha G. Russell and Kaisa Still
July 14, 2011

Accelerating Trust Through Telepresence: Relationship Resources and Triple Helix Dependencies for Co-creating Innovation

Strategic value creation networks have become critically important factors in technology development and social change. Trust building activities are critical in developing the relationship infrastructure of people, organizations and policies. Trust builds on personal familiarity and shared context, which is facilitated by personal presence. High definition video conferencing is a tool to enhance presence and build trust – across education, business and government relationships.

The workshop was sponsored by Cisco and Media X at Stanford University and was held concurrently at four locations: San Jose, London, UK; Barcelona, Spain; and Skolkovo, Russia. The Birmingham Science Park Aston, 22@Barcelona and Skolkovo programs summarized the local and global context and goals of their programs, the network of human resources on which their programs are based and the activities of their programs that enable networking for global resources.

In Q&A session across all locations, participants discussed the types of remote meetings in which they see significant benefits from using telepresence. They also described each region’s particular cultural practices that can be used to promote trust-building for developing business relationships.

• From Birmingham Science Park Aston, a science park without walls, insights included using telepresence, in conjunction with the JANET Network and Tandberg, to virtually import management and investment participation in new startup companies. Of particular interest were collaborations for planning the new BSPA building, geography-independent mentoring, international speakers and conferencing without travel, connecting the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with school programs, and the International Investment Forum. The IIF brings angel investors and investment organizations from Silicon Valley and London into dialogue and regular communication with Birmingham entrepreneurs to promote exchange and growth, opening venture investment opportunities in micro-multinational companies around the world and creating an expanded playing field for investors and entrepreneurs.

• From 22@Barcelona, the objective to promote the interface of triple helix actors in multiple location – connecting the world. Talent is the raw material of a knowledge based economy; talent is looking for the best place for working and living; attracting talent requires not only environment and opportunities but also technologies like telepresence that allow local companies to work globally. Telepresence plays an important role in global business by providing continuity in relationship development, optimizing time and resource investment in travel, when it is most beneficial. Challenges to global collaborators include the psychological agility to transition mentally and culturally as meetings shift to a variety of locations around the world – one minute talking with Moscow, one minute talking with San Jose. The DNA of the knowledge-based economy requires that talent, and the role of 22@Barcelona includes attraction, attention (such as LEGO games), and retention. 22@Barcelona is working with the international communities in Barcelona to help entrepreneurs bridge path dependencies to bridge local to global relationships. 22@Barcelon used Telepresence was used to introduce winners of business plan competition to venture capitalists around the world. Local champions need professional-level global tools.

• From Solkovo, the objectives include diversifying the oil-based economy. The initiative includes building university and business facilities, as well as cultivating participation from academic, business and government groups. While the physical facilities are in development and to connect participants who live outside of Moscow, Virtual Skolkovo will be using Telepresence to enable networking, communication, and engagement among about 100 participant companies that are thousands of miles away from Moscow. Opportunities are under investigation to offer education and training across the vast distances of Russia and in connection to key global locations. The intent of Skolkovo’s initiative is to stimulate serendipity to arise from the foundational planning and institution building. Trust is strongly culturally dependent, even across the Russian regions collaborating through Skolkovo. Energetic excitement, sometimes through technology such as telepresence, can accelerate trust-building.

Michelle Sellinger described the always-on telepresence coffee rooms that Cisco is using to connect locations, such as London and Amsterdam. She also described Dialogue Café, a website connection that facilitates the ability for anyone anywhere to come in and have a spontaneous dialogue on an informal basis – movable walls. Cisco is advancing the integration of collaboration tools, such as Dialogue Café and Telepresence in combination with enterprise social software, to facilitate easy communication and networking for business development.

Stanford’s Dr. Renate Fruchter described principles of trust-building in collaborative relationships, mentoring relationships. In the context of a global workforce people from different backgrounds are more frequently required to co-create solutions. High-definition communication facilitates quickly understanding each others’ personal styles allows trust to form more rapidly and allows team members to advance quickly to participation, engagement and co-creation. Intentional and casual interactions across the informal to formal spectrum of communication are important for trust-building and are enabled through high-definition communications.

Distance disappeared as the participants in all locations gave each other high-fives at the end of the workshop.

The next meeting of the Innovation Ecosystems Network will take place at the end of September in Tampere, Finland.

The Connected Learning Exchange, sponsored by Cisco, is open to all to the broader education community.

A recording of the conversation demonstrates how high fidelity communication enables interpersonal presence, including the acceleration of trust and the ignition of laughter.

Participants:
Gordon Feller, Cisco
Jerry, Cisco
Victoria Ryan, Cisco
Michelle Sellinger, Cisco
Gary Serda, Cisco
Ian Temple, North America Sales Force, Cisco
Neil Crockett, Cisco
David Hardman, BSPA
Hugo Russell, BSPA
Alexei Beltykov, Skolkovo
Josep Pique, 22@Barcelona
Ricard Garriga, 22@Barcelona
Martha Russell, Stanford Media X and IEN
Kaisa Still, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and IEN
Jukka Huhtamäki, Tampere University of Technology and IEN
Neil Rubens, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo
Camilla Yu, Stanford Media X and IEN
Renate Fruchter, Stanford UniversityNatalia Prieto, Technical Consultant at Hewlett Packard in Spain
Kimi Iwamura, VBC
Mika Kautonen, University of Tampere, Finland
Mika Raunio, University of Tampere, Finland
Jim Zuiches, North Carolina State University
Henrik Riisgaard , Aalborg University, PLAAN, Denmark
Tim Jones, National Physical Laboratory, UK
Slavica Singer, J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia
Dzamila Bienkowska, Helix Excellence Centre, Linköping University, Sweden
Ingjerd Skogseid, Western Norway Research Institute, Norway
Geneflides Laureno, Co-Founder at G4Flex
Mads Graves Larsen
Morten Mandel Refskou, Chefkonsulent at Municipality of Odense - Mayors Department , Denmark
Gloria Niño, General Manager at Bismark, Columbia
Marcela Rueda, Commerce international, Gestion, Marketing

Media X is an affiliates program of the H-STAR Institute (Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute) at Stanford University, one of a handful of institutes whose interests can reach across labs and people in ALL departments at Stanford University.