Did you know that John Chambers had a video blog? That Cisco built its own version of YouTube behind the firewall for its employees only and dubbed "C-Vision"? And that usage of social network tools (blogs, wikis...) is spreading like California wildfires inside Cisco?
Well these and much more are the things learned here in Orlando, Florida, where the San Jose company is hosting its largest customer event, Cisco Live.
During this morning opening keynote, Chambers gave his "standard" visionary speech (3-5 years outlook, more new product more often, the goodness of telepresence, productivity increase of 10% per year for the next 10 years, Cisco market capitalisation versus its top 10 competitors combined...).
But what's really new is that Cisco's chief believes that "Cisco is Cool Again". Pointing to the company's extensive use of Web 2.0 tools internally and videos (what Chambers call Visualisation Networking), developing really impressive iPhone applications integrated with Cisco's Unified Communication platform and setting a goal to reduce greenhouse emissions 25% by 2012 compare to 2007 levels.

"You're no longer a cost center, so you need to stop acting that way. You need to say, 'Here's how we can enable our business leaders' and government leaders' visions in a way that no other department can".