Meet Wayne DeNardi: Cisco Designated VIP in TelePresence
Wayne DeNardi is the Courtroom Technology Coordinator for the Courts Administration Authority in Adelaide, Australia. He’s passionate about Cisco TelePresence and enjoys helping others. “When I get home from work, rather than watching mindless stuff on TV, I’ll read through the forums and reply to a few posts,” he says.
Q. Tell us about your career.
I started working in government as a typist while studying for my IT degree. After graduation I continued working for the government—first in desktop support and later in networks and security. After 19 years I branched off into collaboration. For the last three years I’ve been part of a group that provides videoconferencing for courts and other justice agencies in South Australia.
Q: How do Australian justice agencies use Cisco TelePresence?
The primary motivation is to avoid prisoner transport for court hearings. Transporting prisoners on a 4-hour journey, for example, is costly and also poses a threat to public safety. Over a short period of time, video hearings have become the default, and transportation the exception. Even prisoners prefer video arraignments because they can just walk five minutes down the hall to the TelePresence room instead of being subjected to invasive security procedures.
Q. How did you get involved in Cisco Support Community?
When I first started working with TelePresence, I searched for information about our endpoints and discovered the community in the search results. I read through a couple of the posts and saw that the forums would be good learning tool. As my knowledge grew, I started answering questions. I mainly contribute to the TelePresence forum, though sometimes I look into the Video over IP and Jabber Client forums.
Q. Last year you received the Community Spotlight Award for Questions Answered and the Members Choice Award. How do you work it into your day?
When I get home from work, rather than watching mindless stuff on TV, I’ll read through the forums and reply to a few posts. I also check in during slow times at work or during my lunch break.
Q. What inspires you to be an active member?
I’m quite passionate about Cisco TelePresence technology. I enjoy learning about it, and I also get a kick out of assisting others. It’s a good feeling when someone thanks me and says I solved the issue. I’m always happy when I see that someone has marked my answer as correct. I like the acknowledgement that I’ve helped out someone.
Q. What do you like most about Cisco Support Community?
It’s a great place to learn and get answers to questions. As the saying goes, the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask! In addition, discussions that include a number of points of view on a topic provide good feedback to Cisco development teams. And the community is also a place to share disappointments and frustration with other people who understand.
Q. Have any especially interesting topics come your way lately?
Many people who are active in the TelePresence forum work in higher education. They often ask for advice on equipment for remote learning, and integrating with devices like cameras, microphones, speaker outputs, and screens. We have similar issues in the courts, and I find all of it very interesting. There are a lot of creative people out there who have interesting solutions and workarounds to problems.
Q. Any suggestions for your fellow members to make the community even better?
Please mark the correct answer to your questions and rate the responses that helped you. That way, people who have a similar problem in the future will know where to look. This feedback also encourages us to continue answering. Also, if you have knowledge about a particular technology, consider answering questions. With just a little of your time, you can help a lot of people.