The Connected Mom

I am back from a brief hiatus from my blog.  It took a couple of weeks to recuperate from JavaOne.  Throw in a nasty cold/virus, my extended Memorial Day weekend,  workload catchup, and I am now woefully behind in blog postings.  

Speaking of JavaOne, I was happy to see the "working mom" as one of the consumer "personas"  they portrayed in the general session opening video.  I could not agree more. Lets look at the typical day in the life of a working mom, shall we?

The typical working mom wakes up around 6am, gets in an early workout/run (if she is really dedicated!), showers, gets dressed/ready for work, gets the kids dressed for daycare/school.  Makes everyone breakfast.  Packs lunch boxes.  Packs back packs.  Drops the kids off at school, heads to the office for an 8.5 hour day, then repeats the process in reverse in the early evening.  On weekends, replace the 8.5 hour work day with errands, kid's activities, chores and hopefully a spare moment to complete a full glass of wine and maybe...just maybe some quality time with the hubby.  Exhausting?  Yes!  How on earth does a mom stay connected with her family, peers and co-workers during these times?  Mobile apps and social networks, my friends.  Here's the working mom's toolkit:

iPhone or Blackberry Pearl:  If I ever lost my cherished iPhone, my mind would go with it.   I can check email, text my friends, twitter,  surf the web, entertain myself and the kids while sitting in the Dr's office...the list is endless.  It is the killer mobile device. 

Twitter:  what started out as a strange little application with little purpose has turned into a very effective "micro-blogging" tool that makes it very easy to send a brief update to friends and followers on "what are you doing?".   There is a huge and growing network of moms who effectively use Twitter to commiserate, share and converse.   Busy moms love Twitter and it is quickly replacing email and text as the best way to get the word out quickly to fellow moms.

IM/Text:  In the time it takes to look up a phone # and dial out, I can get a quick text out to a friend, family member to set up a meeting, playdate, announce a late arrival, etc.  And I can do this while herding the cats (I mean kids!) out the door.  

Facebook:  Great place to post Twitter updates and share photos/videos with friends.  Even better place to start a mom's club and ignite specific topics like "what's the best jogging stroller for junior"? 

YouTube:  When a friend mentioned that I could watch an old Muppet episode called "Manamana" on YouTube, my world changed.  I can now watch short Muppet, Sesame Street and singing kitty videos with my daughters. Provides hours of entertainment on demand and I can do this while checking email, web surfing, etc.  Warning:  make sure you preview all videos or you will take the risk of having to answer questions such as "Mommy, what was the elephant doing to the giraffe?" over and over and over again.

And that's only skimming the surface.  Every day new apps are created to help make mundane tasks a bit more manageable for us working mommies and help us improve our multi-tasking skills.   Hallelujah, sisters!

Posted at 04:40PM May 30, 2008 by kcelestre in General  |  Comments[1]

The Rock Stars of JavaOne2008

As a working mom of 2 young girls, I often find my work life and personal life on a constant collision course.  It is challenging to keep them separate, so I embrace the collision and try to apply my experiences as a mom to my role as group marketing manager and vice versa.  There is never a dull moment!

This week was a classic example of yet another intersection of my two lives.   My mother-in-law recently sent my 5 year old a bunch of Hannah Montana paraphernalia for her birthday.  As some of you know, Hannah is the rock star of the kiddie generation.  My daughter became quite the groupie this week with her Hannah concert tee and matching purse.

 A few days later, Sun announced that Neil Young would be making an appearance at our 2008 JavaOne conference in San Francisco.  Not to date myself, but Neil happens to be the ultimate rock star of my generation.  One can not mention the name Neil Young without reminiscing about the raw, genuine rock music that influenced so many in the 70's.  Even Gen Xer's respect Neil's amazing contribution to music.  Check out this awesome biography.

What does this all mean?  1 week. 2 rock stars.  2 generations. I could not have asked for a more perfect lead in to our SDN "Rock Star" event at JavaOne next Wednesday night!  We will salute all rock stars.  From Neil Young to Hannah Montana to the rock stars that make up our 3+ million members of the Sun Developer Network.  Rock on!

Posted at 03:11PM May 02, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

Confessions of a Twitter Convert

I have a confession to make.  I did not get Twitter.  An employee encouraged me to open an account a few months ago.  I obliged by opening an account and then ignored it.  I thought it was weird and a waste of time.  Months went by and I continued to question its relevance.   My final conversion to a Twitter user was solely for practical purposes.  You see, you can use Twitter to update Facebook status via a Facebook widget.   With Facebook gaining momentum on both the work and personal front, the ability to Twitter my updates to Facebook was a huge time saver.  It also gave me the ability to update via text messaging from my iPhone.  Now that I am an active user of Twitter, I have noticed a few compelling things:  first, I prefer Twitter to writing blog posts (hence my hiatus from posting here).  It is simple to use and enables me to post frequent updates throughout the day.  Second, I am quickly gaining "followers".  I don't know half of the folks who are following me, but that is OK.  I guess they are interested in something I have to say!  Third, I have noticed more companies using Twitter in innovative ways.  This CEO recently used Twitter to get instant feedback from his followers during a meeting with eBay.  Cool stuff!   Lastly, my own team has dialed up use of Twitter to communicate our JavaOne activities and give away free stuff.   Why don't you check out Twitter and follow us on our SDN@javaone08 channel?  Let me know if you get hooked, like I did

Posted at 02:11PM Apr 23, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

Our Future Target Audience

We did not make much progress with the kids' Leapster addictions this weekend.  Even our 2 year old is hooked!  This is our future target audience, folks.  They are starting at a really young age.  Even their product preferences  develop at an amazing speed.  The 2 yr old prefers to cycle through the mini-"commercials" that are preloaded on the Leapster.  The 5 yr old likes the "Color Coral" which is a virtual coloring book.  She also dabbles in Dora the Explorer and Princess games.  The spend their Saturday mornings getting "edutained" on the Leapster instead of watching cartoons. And even though the games are individually played, the two of them have formed a small "community" in which they share their best gaming practices.   Now if I can only get them to start coding in Java, we will be set!

Posted at 03:18PM Mar 31, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

Anyone can build a community...

Even an on-line tshirt retailer! 

This is really cool.  Laura Ramsey (our energetic and talented Java Marketeer), pointed us to this site today.  It is a "community based t-shirt company".   This means you can submit your personal t-shirt designs, have the community vote on it and get a chance to win cash and other prizes if you design is chosen for print.  The site also includes multi-media such as user-generated photos, podcasts and video.    Shop away!
 

Posted at 03:16PM Mar 28, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

Geek of the Week

The Blog of the Week post has officially evolved into the Geek of the Week! Geek of the Week will highlight brilliant marketing minds who utilize emerging Web 2.0 channels to effectively reach their audiences. This week, I would like to highlight a new Sun employee, Cassandra Clark. Cassandra previously worked at Dr. Dobbs and Jupiter Media. She currently manages outbound marketing for the Sun Developer Network, which by the way has a reach of over 3 MILLION registered members...but I digress. Cassie is into her 3rd week here and has oodles of creative ideas that will most certainly have a positive impact on SDN membership and registrations. Keep an eye on Cassie and if you run into her in the hallways, at a developer event or perhaps on the road (where we tend to spend a large percentage of time in the Cali Bay Area), give her the Stealth Geek salute! 

Posted at 01:34PM Mar 21, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

Did anyone notice I was gone?

anyone?...anyone? Well, for the few who frequent this site, I am back after a long hiatus from the blogosphere! A big thanks Gwen Coyne and Bianca Botello for helping me get back on track. I am now fully committed to keeping this as up to date as a full time, working mom of a 4 year old and a 2 year old possibly can! This was a really active week for the Emerging Marketing team. Heidi Dailey and Jenn Winger attended SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin and did an amazing job executing various social media. They YouTube'd , Twittered , Facebooked and Blogged to their hearts' content. Check it out and you will see why the Village Voice started to track their activities! I also had some awesome conversations with university students at the Marketing Network event on Tuesday night. Met some really enthusiastic and bright graduate students who were interested in starting a marketing career at Sun. It made me think back to when I was hired straight from graduate school into Sun in 1996. I thought I would get 2 yrs experience under my belt at a large company and then move on to a start-up (it was the beginning of the "dotcom" era, so who could blame me?). 12 years later, I am still here and just as excited to be at Sun as I was during my first interview. I am hoping I will see some of those eager faces around Sun campus in the near future and that they too, will reach that 5, 10 or 15 year milestone with optimism!

Posted at 04:47PM Mar 13, 2008 by kcelestre in General  | 

2007 Weblog Awards Nominations

Instead of highlighting my "Blog Pick of the Week", I thought I would draw attention to another big event in the blogging arena: The 2007 Weblog Awards nominations have been announced. I have not had a chance to really dive into the nominations, but found the Donald Trump blog to be pretty entertaining. Not a huge fan of the Trump, but you gotta love his East Coast attitude. I am originally from NJ so sometimes it is refreshing to read commentary that has not gone through the politically correct-o-meter!

Posted at 03:32PM Nov 01, 2007 by kcelestre in General  | 

Matchbox Duke

I think the best part of this video clip is the song!

Posted at 01:08PM Oct 26, 2007 by kcelestre in General  | 

Blog Pick of The Week

This will an on-going feature of The Stealth Geek blog. What better way to celebrate emerging marketing channels, than by highlighting the (sometimes) off-topic, engaging blogs that have been created by some of our most brilliant minds!? My pick of the week goes to the Manolo Shoe Blog "Manolo" (not the REAL Manolo shoe designer, btw) primarily covers topics that celebrate the good, bad and ugly of shoes. Check out his weekly "Whose Shoes?" contest. CAUTION: if you happen to own and/or wear a pair of Crocs, this may not the site for you. There is a lot of Croc-bashing that is sure to be off-putting to the loyal Croc wearers out there!

Posted at 12:08PM Oct 24, 2007 by kcelestre in General  | 

What is the point?

Using emerging marketing channels to reach our audiences can be fun, but controversial. Many of these channels are in their infancy so it is still unclear on what will stick. Second Life fits into this category. Second Life can take up an entire blog entry, so I will reserve that for another time. Some of the most common questions I get pertain to our social network marketing activities. "Why do we have a [enter social network site name here] page?" "What is the point?", "Is the [enter social network site name here] audience appropriate for Sun?" "Do we really want to have a presence among teens and high school kids?" "Shouldn't we continue to focus on Sun's traditional, core audiences?". The best answer I can come up with for all of these questions is that we simply do not know yet. Many of the activities we have on MySpace, Facebook, Second Life, etc. are pilots. Part of the goal is to test out various social network medium to see what features and applications ("widgets")folks use. To truly understand social networks, one must be part of the process. The other part of the goal is to establish a presence on these sites and see which messages and content resonates with our audiences. The cost is minimal to promote our brand and technologies on these sites. Our social network presence is a tiny part of our overall software marketing strategy and is meant to complement, not replace. Every little bit helps. And speaking of "every little bit", I was just informed that our SDN MySpace page increased by over 200 members over the past 24 hours. Someone out there is noticing!

Posted at 01:44PM Oct 12, 2007 by kcelestre in General  | 

Happy Blogday

This is a significant "event" in my 11+ year career at Sun. The birth of my very first Sun blog! Despite my status as a "late adopter" I hopefully will have some interesting topics to communicate on the Emerging Marketing front. Whether it is a Second Life pilot, or Videoblog promo, check back here to learn about the innovative (and often brilliant) marketing strategies led by our Emerging Marketing & Web Strategies team in Software Product Marketing.

Posted at 03:49PM Oct 10, 2007 by kcelestre in General  |  Comments[1]