Executive Thought Leadership

The Nobel Cisco Initiative

The Internet inspires excellence in human achievement by offering people worldwide the opportunity to learn, communicate, and collaborate for meaningful achievement and change.

The Nobel Cisco Internet Initiative

The Internet is changing the world through education, communication, and innovation. By bringing applications such as e-learning to underserved audiences; contributing to innovation in technology, science and peace; and providing a global communication vehicle for aiding people, the Internet promises to play a role in improving social and living conditions worldwide.

In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes, last year the Nobel Foundation selected Cisco Systems as its exclusive Internet technology partner. As part of this long-term agreement, Cisco is providing the Nobel Foundation with the network technology and expertise to support its ongoing efforts to inspire excellence and promote greater public awareness of the many great achievements in science, literature, and peace that benefit humankind. Specifically, the Nobel Foundation launched a major initiative in partnership with Cisco to bring new content and capabilities to the foundation’s Nobel e-Museum (NeM) site . Through the Nobel Cisco Internet Initiative, Cisco provides the Nobel Foundation with network infrastructure and technology to help the NeM inspire excellence in human achievement.

The initiative upgrades the NeM's networking capabilities and allows for dynamic new content. In addition to infrastructure technology, Cisco is also supporting content development plans for physics in a new Science and Technology section of the NeM site. In December 2001, the Nobel Foundation launched new technology content on the site that focuses on sparking user interest, promoting student activity, and enhancing public understanding of the applications of scientific discovery. The site now delivers its vast archives and multimedia educational content to millions worldwide. Back-office network design and implementation is scheduled to begin early this year.

The Nobel Foundation’s commitment to using the Internet to promote public interest in science is a sign of its commitment to the Internet as a powerful vehicle for social change.

A recent study of Nobel laureates, conducted on behalf of Cisco by Princeton Survey Research Associates, confirms that this view is not just idealism. The leading scientists, teachers, and thinkers of our time predict that the Internet will play an important role in bringing information and education to people who have not previously had access to it. Moreover, 72 percent of the laureates surveyed believe that the Internet will play a significant role in improving living conditions worldwide.

Consider the impact we’ve already seen.

Economic Opportunity Through Knowledge

E-learning is a powerful testament to the potential of the Internet to improve people’s social and economic conditions. An emerging tool for schools, companies, nonprofit organizations, and nations, e-learning brings educational opportunities to people for whom money, distance, and logistics are significant educational and social barriers. For example, a promising partnership between Cisco, IBM, and the city of New York’s public school system is bringing new learning opportunities to students by providing high-speed Internet access to every school.

Ninety-two percent of the laureates interviewed for the Nobel survey view illiteracy and inadequate educational opportunities as two of the most critical issues facing the world and see the Internet as an enormously promising tool for solving those problems. In fact, 69% of laureates believe the Internet will play a significant role in improving educational systems so that children and adults can access the best education available, regardless of their socio-economic background or geographic location. Such access promises to improve the economic outlook for individuals by giving them the skills to seek out new and better employment opportunities. Laureates attribute their faith in the Internet to its unparalleled ability to spread knowledge and disseminate information, quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

Indeed, this rapid exchange of ideas and greater access to information are already having a profound impact on other professional endeavors. Cisco has applied its own technologies and expertise to the creation of the Cisco Networking Academy™ Program, a public-private partnership. This e-learning program provides updated Cisco curriculum to more than 8,000 educational institutions and 232,000 students in 133 countries worldwide. More than just a training tool, the program allows students in impoverished countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, and the Congo to seize new economic opportunities.

Forty-two percent of the scientists, educators, and thinkers surveyed for the Nobel study rate the invention of computers and the Internet as one of the greatest innovations ever—on a par with the invention of automobiles, air travel, and telephones. Many of the laureates who responded to the survey also feel that this sort of information sharing constitutes only a small fraction of the information sharing the Internet will enable in the future, when the majority of the world’s scientific and educational libraries will likely be available online. The ability to access and share scientific information can allow impoverished regions of the world to benefit from a worldwide pool of advanced scientific knowledge. Such access has the potential to improve the quality of people’s lives through better health care, new drugs to help stop the spread or debilitating effects of disease, better teaching and research methods, and the creation of new products and services.

Promoting Peace Through Social Change

Beyond its obvious impact on business and science, the Internet has also given rise to unexpected social change, offering a platform for swift information exchange and community building. Sixty-seven percent of respondents to the Nobel survey say advancements in communications technology have made the world safer by facilitating communication across national borders.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has used the Internet and e-mail to spread the “power” of the campaign to countries and governments worldwide through immediate and direct communication. By allowing the ICBL to spread knowledge swiftly and communicate directly with its member organizations in countries around the world, the Internet has enabled ICBL to empower people who have never had a voice in democratic change. The ICBL’s use of the Internet to connect and focus the efforts of its eight staff members and volunteers on three continents also allowed it to gain acceptance for and passage of the historic Mine Ban Treaty in a mere five years. To date, the 1997 treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines has been ratified by 122 countries and signed by 142.

The majority of laureates–72 percent–also believe the Internet will play a significant role in providing economic opportunities to people in less developed countries. NetAid , a not-for-profit organization created to mobilize support for ending extreme poverty, offers a good example of this. NetAid uses the Internet to give individuals, corporations, employees, students, and nonprofit organizations direct connections to local projects throughout the developing world that provide new opportunities for people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. By providing a more direct link to opportunities, testimonies, and expertise through the Internet, NetAid creates a personal sense of community, involvement, and accountability among supporters. Members can read accounts of people coping with extreme poverty; learn about issues related to access to education and extreme poverty; interact with other NetAid supporters through message boards; and target their activities meaningfully by donating funds to specific development projects or volunteering at local development organizations.

By recognizing the global impact of the Internet on education and society and its place in the pantheon of achievements that have defined our world, the Nobel Foundation and other organizations are building awareness and laying the foundation for even greater advancement through innovative use of this global resource. As a result, the Internet will continue to transform our world.