Polycom and Internet2 Foster Video Collaboration between Higher Education and Business Markets

E2Bconnect enables colleges, universities and businesses to extend their reach and cooperate on business challenges and educational opportunities through visual communication

06 May 2010 : Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice communications solutions, and Internet2, the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium, have introduced E2Bconnect, a free, online professional networking programme designed to facilitate collaboration between higher education institutions and businesses using visual communications to address business challenges such as corporate training, and to improve educational opportunities. This new initiative builds on a longstanding partnership between Internet2 and Polycom, who has been an active member and collaborator in the Internet2 community since 2001.

"In the next 36 months, video will play an enormous role in linking institutions of higher education and corporate employers," said Elliott Masie, chair, The Learning CONSORTIUM, a coalition of 240 global organisations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies. "On a daily basis, students in classrooms, career centres and labs will be connected with experts in business. We are excited to see portals such as E2Bconnect that will provide the bridge between universities and employers."

E2Bconnect provides an easy way for colleges, universities and businesses with visual communication capabilities to work together around common needs and interests. Application examples include:

• Education to Education – In an era of constrained budgets and rising costs, visual communication creates opportunities for educational institutions to collaborate and share resources regardless of distance. Examples include distance learning programmes to expand course offerings, expansion into new markets through the ability to leverage resources and expertise across distances, greater participation and interaction between academic research centres, and shared faculty training and continuing education programmes.
• Education to Business – Colleges and universities can benefit through closer collaboration with businesses by gaining greater access to subject matter experts to enhance curriculum and by offering video-enabled corporate training, continuing education and executive education and mentoring programmes that can expand revenue opportunities. Business can also benefit through access to academic subject-matter experts, and through availability of cost-effective and convenient training, continuing education and organisational programmes for employees that can be delivered to any location via live interactive visual communication or dynamic, on-demand video content.
• Business to Business – E2Bconnect also creates opportunities for businesses to collaborate together around corporate training and education programmes by sharing resources and best practices, which can expand opportunities for employees while reducing costs.

"The rapid adoption of visual communications is expanding the opportunities for colleges, universities and businesses to collaborate in new ways for mutual benefit," said Mike LaHaye, director of technical services of Internet2, a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium comprising more than 200 U.S. universities in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories and other institutions of higher learning as well as over 50 international partner organisations. "Our partnership with Polycom on the E2Bconnect programme combined with the capabilities of Internet2's high performance national network will serve as a catalyst to bring these opportunities to life."

'We expect programmes like video recruiting to be popular programmes within E2Bconnect," said Marci Powell, global director for Higher Education & Training, at Polycom. "It provides a cost-effective way for colleges to create valuable job placement opportunities for graduates and helps organisations attract the best and brightest talent from potentially anywhere in the world."

E2Bconnect is available today and free membership is open to users of visual communications systems from colleges and universities and businesses around the world.

About Polycom Programmes for Education
In addition to E2Bconnect, Polycom offers a range of programmes to help educators leverage visual communications. Additional programmes include an online networking tool for primary and secondary school educators and administrators, a searchable database containing nearly 250 video-enabled content providers and more than 2,100 active programmes such as zoos, museums, authors, experts in a given field, etc.; an assistance programme to help new users arrange virtual field trips; free special events; and a grant assistance and E-rate information programme to help schools find funding for new equipment.

About Internet2
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community. An exceptional partnership spanning U.S. and international institutions who are leaders in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government, Internet2 is developing breakthrough cyberinfrastructure technologies that support the most exacting applications of today—and spark the most essential innovations of tomorrow. Led by its members and focused on their current and future networking needs since 1996, Internet2 blends its human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy revolutionary Internet technologies. Activating the same partnerships that produced today's Internet, our community is forging the Internet of the future. For more information, see http://www.internet2.edu.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.asia for more information and follow us on Twitter @PolycomAlert.

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Contacts

• Naomi Jackson
  Polycom, Inc.
  Tel: +61 416 541 544
  naomi.jackson@polycom.com