Apr 29 2010
For young people in the corrections system, frequent interaction with parents and other family members can be uplifting and have positive impacts on their behavior. Unfortunately, juvenile offenders in the Wisconsin correctional system are often relocated far away from their families to distance juvenile corrections centers.
In an effort to bring these young people back in touch with their families and help to speed their rehabilitation process, the state has recently turned to video teleconferencing (VTC).
The VTC system, purchased with a $1,500 grant from the state Office of Justice Assistance, connects the state’s three major juvenile detention facilities to county facilities in Dane and Milwaukee and other Department of Corrections offices around the state. This enables the families to show support and provide guidance for their children face-to-face, without the need for long trips to the juvenile corrections centers.
This is especially important because many young people in the corrections system are at a crossroads. The ability to interact and receive support from families is a positive step in ensuring that they avoid the path that leads to a life of continued behavior problems, crime and jail.
The use of VTC solutions in the corrections system isn’t just limited to the juvenile corrections systems, however. As we’ve written on Break Down the Walls in the past, VTC solutions have become a more effective, efficient and inexpensive alternative to many processes in courts and prisons.
With state budgets spread thin due to the ongoing economic downturn and decreased tax revenue, many states are turning to VTC for providing medical care to prison inmates. Others are conducting hearing and court proceedings with the accused appearing via VTC. This reduces the need for transporting criminals outside of prisons, which is expensive and dangerous.
Also, with the recent Supreme Court ruling that forensic experts must now be present at trials for cross-examination, many courts are now allowing experts to appear in court via video. This reduces the cost for states and the experts.
VTC is breaking down the walls between young people in the juvenile corrections system and their families and making the entire criminal justice system operate more effectively and efficiently. Now that’s a new way of serving and protecting.
Apr 28 2010
Our Navy men and women endure long periods of time at sea, with little contact with their loved ones. However, with the wide use of social media tools such as Facebook they don’t have to wait until docking at the next port to connect.
We just ready a good story on DoD Live that shows how much things have changed. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Outreach and Social Media (and former Google executive) Sumit Agarwal was on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to see firsthand the extensive use of social media on the vessel. We are sure it comes as no surprise that our favorite example is the Facebook page of crew members’ families that gets direct updates from the ship’s captain via video teleconferencing (VTC).
Kudos to the Navy for being so innovative helping our service men and women stay connected across vast distances with their loved ones.
Apr 27 2010
Many companies and government agencies that have been hesitant to embrace telework and video teleconferencing (VTC) got a real wake-up call over the course of the last few weeks as an ash cloud has caused more than a few travelers some heartache.
The problems started when the ash cloud, the product of an eruption from an Icelandic volcano, was declared a safety threat for air travel. The result was shuttered airports and grounded airplanes across Europe. The fear was that ash could clog important instruments and gauges, or could cause in-flight damage to engines and other parts causing mechanical failures.
Although safety is always a concern for travelers, the week-long delays are more than an inconvenience. Newspapers are reporting about individuals trapped at their vacation destinations with no additional funds to pay for the unexpected charges such as hotel stays and food. Business travelers are growing increasingly concerned about work and meetings missed. Overall, the entire air industry in Europe has grinded to a halt, costing those companies, and many others significant funds.
Although airplanes are once again taking to the skies, this recent incident is incredible validation of a point we’ve raised many times on Break Down the Walls … air travel for business is just so 90’s.
If business travelers and government employees stuck in Europe instead chose to meet face-to-face via VTC, they could still enjoy the natural communication experience of meeting in-person all from the safety of their own desks or conference rooms.
VTC enables the same collaboration and communication as an in-person meeting without the need to be in the same room. This means less air travel, and less chance of something like a randomly-erupting volcano in Iceland trapping employees in foreign countries. This also saves significant amounts of money by eliminating the need for expensive plane tickets, hotel rooms and other travel expenses.
In today’s economic and political environment, where the federal government is being pushed to cut expenses by the Obama administration, and where state and local governments are hard-pressed for tax revenue, that savings can go a long way.
Volcanoes may not have killed the dinosaurs (cigarettes did!) … but they just may kill business travel as we know it. VTC breaks down the walls between people and allows them to communicate naturally regardless of the miles separating them. Now that’s a new way of working.
Apr 22 2010
The TANDBERG Public Sector team just wrapped up the 4th Annual Federal Video Teleconferencing User Forum at the Dulles Hyatt in Herndon, Va.
This year’s event was expanded to include the entire federal government (DoD and Civilian representatives), and the result was a large and amazingly successful forum.
More than 175 participants representing more than 60 government agencies were present at this year’s event. Each one of them left having experienced the latest video teleconferencing (VTC) technologies, and learned best practices for VTC implementation.
Speakers from the United States Senate discussed their successful roll out of a comprehensive enterprise VTC system. Also, members of the Department of Veterans Affairs and United States Army Medical Command discussed their telemedicine solutions, which is the largest telemedicine implementation in the world. Appearing via VTC, representatives from the the Army discussed how their telemedicine solution is being used to treat and diagnosis wounded warriors and other patients across the world.
Also appearing via VTC from his office in Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, Colo., Major General Michael J. Basla, Vice Commander of Air Force Space Command, delivered the keynote presentation. General Basla spoke about how video is becoming universally accepted across the Department of Defense and has astonishing benefits in helping the warfighter accomplish missions and in saving lives. Brigadier General David Warner, AFSPC Director of Communications and Logistics, then interacted with Forum participants in an in-depth Q&A session.
Overall, the forum was an incredible opportunity for government thought leaders to network, and share best practices for the implementation and uses of VTC solutions. With multiple speakers appearing via video, attendees also got to experience just how natural and interactive video communication can be. This was especially obvious during Q&A sessions and when speakers interacted directly with their audience.
The one unifying thing the TANDBERG team heard from every attendee was a universal acceptance that VTC was a rapidly evolving tool that will increase collaboration and communication, enable agencies to operate more effectively and efficiently, and can save the government significant money by reducing the need for travel and saving time out of the office. Attendees understood that like email, and the telephone before it, video is the future of communication.
With TANDBERG now becoming a part of Cisco, telepresence solutions are taking another step towards becoming one part of the circle of unified communications services that all organizations are looking to embrace. Hopefully, this forum helped people overcome any fears of the implementation and use of VTC and will work to drive increased adoption of video across the federal government.
Apr 21 2010
There’s been so much coverage of telework lately, and that’s all for the good. Government needs to do a lot more of it, to become more efficient and to unlock the productivity potential of public sector workers.
A lot of the coverage focuses on the technology and/or the policy component to encouraging telework. But what’s it really like from the individual’s perspective? The New York Times has a good story here.
Apr 20 2010
As we say all the time on Break Down the Walls, video teleconferencing (VTC) is the future.
It enables users to communicate effectively and efficiently with anyone, anywhere, regardless of the distance and barriers separating them. It cuts operational costs, enables increased collaboration and increases the speed of decision making.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the public sector, where VTC is:
On Monday, Cisco completed the acquisition of TANDBERG, and it seems we have never been closer to the vision, dare I say, dream of VTC into every classroom, courtroom, office, government agency and conference room. Now that’s a new way of working.
Apr 16 2010
In a recent post on Break Down the Walls, we discussed the benefits of telework for government employees and how it can help keep the government working when weather, pandemic flu and other situations make it difficult or impossible for government employees to make it into the office.
However, it’s not always a natural disaster, disease epidemic or unprecedented storm like snowpocolypse that makes continuation of operations difficult for government offices. Sometime the government downright does it to itself.
Take the Nuclear Security Summit for example. The Summit was where President Barack Obama met with top leaders of more than 40 nations. Although historic in its scope and topic, the Summit created a security, transportation and logistical nightmare in Washington, D.C.
The result? Numerous convoys and buses filled with world leaders, their handlers and other important dignitaries crowded the roads, caused serious delays and made transportation in and around the nation’s capital move at a pace that could only make molasses jealous.
The delays were so serious, that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) advised federal employees to avoid coming into the office. They instead encouraged telework, commuting at different hours or just taking paid time off.
With so many government employees unable to get to their offices in downtown D.C., the potential for the government to come to a halt was high, and the need for telework even higher. However, many government offices have been hesitant to welcome the Obama Administration and OPM’s calls to embrace telework. Also, teleworking itself can create some problems for agencies when it comes to communication and collaboration.
A great way to combat these problems is to implement video teleconferencing (VTC) solutions, such as TANDBERG’s Movi solution which can turn any computer into a video teleconferencing solution. VTC enable government employees to communicate as if they are in the same room, which helps to combat issues that may arise with communication and collaboration. Also, since superiors can physically see their employees, they can feel more comfortable that work is being accomplished and that employees are properly supervised.
As President Obama himself recently said, work is what you do, not where you go. By breaking down the walls separating government employees and enabling telework, VTC ensures that the government can keep working even when it is its own worse enemy. Now that’s a new way of working!
Apr 14 2010
We here are Break Down the Walls are usually all about video, but we have to tip our hat to this story. Federal Computer Week reported last week on Text4baby, a MHealth initiative that gets care tips and reminders to underprivileged moms-to-be via text message. Here’s the story.
MHealth (“M” for mobile) is basically the wireless subset of telehealth and is starting to attract a lot of attention. When announcing the program White House CTO Aneesh Chopra noted that 90% of Americans have a mobile device, so text was a great vehicle for these important medical reminders.
Let’s hope we get wireless broadband right in this country, and maybe soon mobile video will be just as ubiquitous as texting.
Apr 13 2010
In previous posts on Break Down the Walls, we’ve discussed how telemedicine helps increase access to healthcare. This is especially important in today’s healthcare environment and in rural and underprivileged areas where the existing doctor shortage creates limited access to needed services.
Telemedicine has so much potential for helping patients receive better and faster care, that the Commonwealth of Virginia recently signed the “Telemedicine Bill” into law. The bill will enable health centers across the state to utilize video teleconferencing (VTC) and other telemedicine solutions for diagnosis, treatment and consultations. This will also help to increase the use of telemedicine in Virginia’s rural communities.
Virginia is one of eleven states that have adopted such telemedicine legislation in an attempt to force insurers to cover telemedicine services and further increase adoption of telemedicine solutions within their borders.
By embracing telemedicine and VTC, Virginia and other states can provide equal access to care for all of their citizens regardless of where they live, and ensure that they receive the care they need when they need it – while at the same time reducing healthcare costs for patients and providers alike.
We at TANDBERG are proud to see states breaking down the walls to effective healthcare. We’re also exceptionally proud to be providing the specialized solutions that enable telemedicine and provide a new way of caring.
