Cisco's Connected Home Event

In between the open source party and technical town hall meeting, I managed to hop over to the Cisco simulator to catch their Connected Home event. That sort of stuff is always interesting (at least for me), especially when it is about connecting devices. What the Cisco folks were talking about was just that - with one caveat that always catches my ear: open standards.

I was a little late (ok, 17 minutes) so I missed some of the talk - but I don't think I missed too much. I tossed out a question as to whether the connected home concept was also related to [t:home automation], and I was happy to hear that this is a long term plan. First, of course, you need to get things communicating. Funny how that works.

Conversation switched to the news of the open sourcing of the SecondLife client - and Cisco folks hinted at something that they are doing related to that. No details yet - they said they want to have it done first. Another thing which was discussed - possibly related - was VoIP embedded in the SecondLife client, something quite a few people have mentioned here and there.

I expect that there will be a transcript up from the event; if and when it is I'll post the URL here.

As it is, it seems like Cisco is using SecondLife in a pretty immersive way. The Connected Home event had a walkthrough home as an example. They are also doing training on their second simulator - a certified course (forgot the name), and plenty of information around. Perhaps Cisco, more than other companies in SL, 'gets it'. SecondLife appears to be an integrated part of what they are doing instead of a cancerous virtual outgrowth into another dimension.

It should be interesting to see how Cisco continues to develop presence.