Cisco WebEx Connect Questions (Collaborative Thinking)

Recommendation: People should be examining Cisco's announcements this week more broadly that just a SaaS Collaboration/Web 2.0 play and/or as an update on its UC/video/telepresence efforts. The evolving puzzle pieces will lead to an maturing SaaS, PaaS (Platform as a Service), and Cloud play. Compare/contrast Cisco with those trends in the market.

Predictions:

WebEx Connect will need a strong IdM (Identity Management) play and will do so either through expanding what exists within PostPath or through an acquisition or a deep partnership. This will be a "cloud based" IdM play - not on-premise (to which it would federate with existing solutions). The cloud-based identity service will be key to expand on social networking aspects that will emerge around WebEx Connect.
More acquisitions - perhaps one of the mashup, or PaaS, or feed syndication platform vendors or a mobile player.
More partnerships - perhaps with Jive or other white label/hosted social/community platforms vendors.

Below are a random collection of questions in my head as I sit and listen:

DoJo Questions (Disclaimer: I don't cover Ajax/widgets per se so these questions are based on little knowledge and might be offbase or not relevant)

What is Cisco's position on OpenAjax Alliance?
Where will Cisco go concerning OpenAjax Metadata specification?
Where will Cisco go concerning OpenAjax Hub (secure mashup runtime)?
What about offline - does WebEx Connect implement Dojo Offline which is based on Google Gears?
Will Cisco deploy any Dojo widgets on top of Adobe AIR?
Will Cisco join the DoJo Foundation and participate/contribution to the community?
What's the open source licensing direction (GPL, BSD, etc)?
Managing the widgets built by third parties running on the platform - terms of service, gallery/store, etc?

Tooling

Wiki was mentioned but not the provider - open source or OEM?
Will there be a blog capability forthcoming?
Other social software tools such as tags/bookmarks, social networking, etc?
Productivity tools? Will we see a ZoHo or someone else jump on the platform?
Other SaaS players - will others move from their own hosted solution to Cisco to gain network effects? Maybe the hosted version of Jive Clearspace?
Will there be a UM story (Unity in the cloud)?
Workflow story?

Content Management

WebEx Connect includes document sharing but how far will it support lifecycle functions (check-in/out, version contorl, archival, records management)?
Will Cisco jump on the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) effort?
Discovery angles - organizations need to have confidence that they can react to various e-discovery demands - how supported by this platform?
What are the records management functions for content, email, IM, etc?

XML Feeds

Exposing RSS/Atom feeds is one thing but will Cisco include a feed syndication platform within WebEx Connection (ala Attensa, NewsGator)?
Will Atom Pub be supported within the underling application/platform services?
Synergies between XMPP/Jabber and Atom/AtomPub for applications and syndication of operational data form back-end systems?

Integration

Will SharePoint integration include Web Parts (similar to what Awareness has done with its SaaS solution)?
What about portlets for integrating WebEx Connect with other portal platforms?
What about integration with Lotus Connections, Lotus Notes/Domino, Lotus Quickr?
Support for OpenSocial? Microformats (e.g., hCard, XFN)?
Presence/IM federation - where's the gateway story for interop with AOL, Yahoo!, etc?
Will there be a workflow capability (even if lightweight)?
Development test environment - how supported? Organizations will want a sandbox before deployment?
Web services mentioned a lot - but what type of web services? Soap? Others?

Social Networking & Identity

Given the talk on profiles and social networking - where is the identity management direction? What about OpenID/OpenAuth?
Do rCards or XRI come into play over the long run?
What's the profile unification direction - how many profiles will Cisco be delivering within/across different products?
Will Cisco emulate the approach taken by Sun Project OpenSocial or Ringside Network to add WebEx Connect capabilities to be embedded within existing web properties that are not running on Cisco's platform (e.g., widget syndication)?
Will there be a layer of analytical services that correlates and infers relationship connections based on e-mail, contacts, etc (similar to IBM Atlas or Contact Networks)?
Cisco eventually needs an Identity Management solution. Does Cisco acquire its way into IdM or partner?

Cloud / PaaS / SaaS Ecosystem

What is the business model for third parties to build solutions on WebEx Connect from both a technical solution provider and an application/business solution provider?
Why should people consider Cisco as a cloud player? How does Cisco define its cloud (assumption: cloud does not equal WebEx Connet)?
Can other parties build solutions on the cloud without being involved with WebEx Connect?
Does Cisco see SaaS as equal to WebEx Connect? If not, what other SaaS solutions will be placed on the underling Media Tone Network?
Strategy for interoperability with on-premise systems (software and software as a service)?
Given the application lifecycle management capabilities - does this put Cisco into the PaaS arena (Platform as a Service)?
What type of marketplaces with this solution support for partners to open up their own "shops"?
Terms of service will be critical in terms of stewardship - what are the licensing terms for widgets - TOS for users and partners, will there be a way to disable or delete widgets (refer to recent Ning and Facebook issues) ...
Cisco seems to be evolving to compete with the likes of Google? Microsoft Windows Live? SalesForce? Others?
Implications from a go-to-market / channel / sales / brand perspective on getting people comfortable with the transformation into collaboration and Web 2.0 ... but this appears to be a 3-5 year journey so what's the roadmap, how is success defined, benchmarks along the way, training/support for partner transition etc?
Deeper partnerships needed in the professional services space - or does Cisco need its own professional services arm?
Developer community - key to energizing WebEx Connect - what's the application developer community program to compete with what IBM, Microsoft and Oracle had to attract/retain a loyal developer community?