Explicitly and without apology a marketing vehicle MaryMaryQuiteContrary

Zembly is a new platform for building widgets and social applications for Facebook, Meebo and other social networking platforms. 

The "I'm going to JavaOne" application that's all the rage on Facebook right now was built on Zembly. 

Just got word that the Zembly team is launching a blog contest that gives you a shot at two crisp C notes. Details:

Zembly Blogging Contest – Chance to Win $200!

To celebrate the public availability of zembly.com – Sun's next generation cloud development platform for web applications - we're holding a zembly blogging contest!

Whether you're new to zembly or already building Facebook apps, iPhone apps, mashups, and widgets, we want to hear from you. Simply tell us about your experience with zembly and you could WIN a $200 gift certificate! 

Learn More

Enter in Three Easy Steps!

1. Use zembly! - Create a Facebook app, mashup, widget or custom application.

2. Blog about it!
   Tell us about your apps, write a review about your experience, or even embed a widget inside your blog entry.

3. Submit your blog for a chance to win a $200 gift certificate!

Get Started!

Well? What are you waiting for?

Get buzy.

Then get the blog buzz buzzing.

:-)

Mary

I'm participating on a panel at 3DTLC next week in Washington DC.

Dr. Tony O'Driscoll, professor at the Fuguqa School of Busienss at Duke University is moderating and recently posted a quick three minute overview of what you can expect to hear at the conference to his blog.

I'm going to be sharing the experience we had in engaging with our industry analyst community to outline our datacenter consolidation experience, and the innovation that was born from it, which our customers are currently benefiting from.

It's sure to be an outstanding experience!

Later today, I'm doing a prep call with Tony and my co-panelists which include: 

- Tony O'Driscoll, Professor of the Practice at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (interviewer)
- Mary Smaragdis, Director, Sun News Network, New and Social Media, Sun Microsystems
- Keith Dugdale, Director of Global Recruitment, KPMG
- Tim Waters, Executive Director, Solutions Development, Pearson Learning Solutions
- David Klevan, Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 Our discussion will focus on:

EXTEND: Applying 3D Technologies To EXTEND Enterprise Range And Reach
A group of world-class experts will share their wisdom on how to create engaging and supportive Virtual Collaborative environments. Attendees will learn: the biggest mistakes first-timers make when they launch themselves headlong into creating virtual events or collaborative environments; the biggest barriers to designing compelling and “sticky” immersive events and/or communities; the top lessons learned in designing and implementing immersive learning experiences.

I'm excited. It's going to be a ton of fun and I'm going to learn so much. 

Check out the full conference agenda if you want to find out more. And meet me in DC next week for 3DTLC! I think there's still space if you want to register and attend.

:-)

Mary

Hi guys!

As you (regular) readers know, I'm w-a-a-a-a-y behind on my blogging. I've got so much lined up to tell you about and it's just been a bandwith issue lately. I've been s-o-o-o-o-o busy. Just not enough hours in the day and all that... 

But today is my day. Today is the day I tell you guys about what happened on Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day; this ultra hot new game I've discovered and the crazy set of circumstances that's resulting in me speaking at a panel at a conference in Washington DC later this month, among other things.

Today I've got the day off from work. 

It's spring break. The kids are out of school.

So last night we had a cousin sleep over -- my sister's three kids plus my three kids.

And today I've got all six of them.  No nanny, no grandparent, no other adult. It's just me and six kids.

So a (logical) non-parent might ask: "What on earth makes you think you're going to be able to get caught up with blogging when you're responsible for taking care of six kids today?"

Good question.

As anyone who's had more than two kids knows, the more kids you add to the mix, the more they start canceling each other out.

Six kids is SOOOO much easier to deal with than one kid or two kids.The only thing you need to worry about when you've got six kids is complete silence. When you've got complete silence, you need to hit the panic button. That means something's really wrong.

But as long as you can hear them, it's all good.

So brace yourselves, my friends. It's going to be a blog-a-paloza today. So much to get you caught up on...

Happy Friday!

:-)

Mary

:-)

While we're on the topic of twitter.... I mean on the twopic of twitter... 

Daniel Green (aka @dangjavageek) shared this with me

It made me laugh out loud.

Thought you might enjoy it too.

:-)

Mary

p.s. we've done work w/Current TV. I was lead on some work we did w/them around Take Back TV a few years ago...

Hey you guys! Come on! Let's go!

Let's take a ride on the "Wayback Machine!"

Wonder what the front page of Sun.com looked like in 1997?

What about this blog? Let's go back to 2004 and see what MaryMaryQuiteContrary looked like then, shall we? 

:-)

It's the history of the Internet, people.

And it's sitting on Sun's Santa Clara campus. It contained in the Sun Modular Datacenter -- and has the form factor of a standard shipping container.

This story is so hot. It's got a whole bunch of buzz going in the twitterverse.

(among other places).

very cool stuff. 

:-)

Mary

In the past couple months, I've spent some time getting in front of key Sun customers and presenting an overview of the work Sun does in emerging social ecosystems (social media platforms, user generated content spaces, virtual worlds.)

Some of our customers have shared that they're trying to understand this whole emerging social ecosystem space. And since we've been at it for a pretty long time (in Internet years), our customers want to know what we're doing; what we've learned; disciplines we've embraced and so forth. 

I present the work we're doing across the board -- not the stuff that I'm directly responsible for.

My two shining star favorite examples are OSUM (prononounced Awesome) that's managed by Gary Serda and Sun Forums that's managed by Linda Skrocki. And it goes without saying that I am the "hallelujah chorus" on the "Sun Blogs refrain," as that's the platform that gave me (and you) MaryMaryQuiteContrary.

:-)

I love, love, love it when I get to present to customers.

So much fun.

So I'm updating my slides so I can present to this Sun customer today and I'm thinking about Twitter...

We've got a bunch of stuff going on Twitter. (one example. here's another. there are more.) It's all super interesting. Some of our work is more successful than other parts of it... there's still so much we need to learn...  

But I'm thinking about the whole Twitter-mania that's sweeping the world right now. I'm thinking about all the opportunity and  hyperbole that goes with any mania....

There are two reasons that I'm a bit Twitter-Shy when it comes to architecting business-class social media strategies that use Twitter as an anchor point.

I experienced both of them yesterday.

Here's the first:

Here's the second: 

Personal communication to all those working girl marketing types out there who (like me) who are trying to figure all this stuff out... who are trying to understand what it means to how to do your job... what it can do for your company...

If you've got somebody telling you "Tweet Free or Die" and they're calling it the alpha and the omega of your plan, I'd urge caution.

Just a little advice that's worth what you paid for it...

:-)

Mary

p.s.

(I'm shameless. I know it. :-)

Oh, and have I mentioned I'm hiring? (see previous blog entry below)

:-)

something great is comming... 

I've got an absolute must-read for you today, folks. 

It's about the end of one season and the beginning of another.

Authored by Hal Stern.

Must read.

Mary

p.s. I've met Bubba. I can only hope and pray that I do so well raising mine.

We've got two paid internships we are hiring for!

One is for a technical student. The other is for a business/marketing/liberal arts student.

On the technical internship, I've got this deal going w/my friends in Sun Labs. The intern will work for Sun Labs but I'll be in the loop too. We'll give all the details to qualified candidates. Sorry to be cagy on it..  we're kind of trying to keep it under the radar because we think it's super cool and we don't want other people stealing our ideas. :-) There's a quick overview below and a link to it here.

Sun's virtual worlds team is seeking an intern to design and implement a virtual world using Project Wonderland, an open source toolkit for creating 3D virtual worlds. This is a great opportunity to help design a Wonderland project from scratch while being mentored by Wonderland core team members. Although working on a separate project, you would also have ample opportunity to interact with other interns working on both Wonderland and Sun SPOTs teams in a fun, fast-paced environment. Strong Java programming skills and experience with 3D graphics are required for this position. No travel or relocation support is available. Pay is competitive.

The second internship is to work in my group for Sumaya. That person will work on Social Media programs. Overview below and a link to it here.

Social Media & Community Development Intern The Global Communications Group at Sun Microsystems is seeking a rockstar Social Media intern in any US location, but preferably in the San Francisco or Menlo Park area. The intern would work 18 hours per week when school is in session and 40 hours per week during school breaks. We are seeking someone with a passion for Social Media and technology a Web 2.0 up-and-comer that enjoys and understands blogging, micro-blogging, user generated content, and online communities. The Social Media intern will be working across Sun teams and divisions to create, build, grow and manage Sun communities across various platforms. Additionally, he/she will be responsible for creating viral campaigns leveraging multimedia to extend the reach of existing marketing priorities, keeping up with the latest social media technologies and contributing innovative ideas for growth in new Social Media arenas. The Social Media intern will have exposure to a variety of internal meetings and will see how projects and campaigns are created, driven and executed. The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated track record in using social media tools to increase awareness and build community around areas of personal interest. He/She will be tuned into the social networking landscape and interested in how these landscapes are appropriately being used by businesses. The candidate will be a self-starter, excellent communicator, creative, ideas-oriented and a team player. He/She must also be extremely organized, place importance on project ownership, attention to detail, and have the ability to handle a quick pace.

Hot jobs, people! If you know any qualified candidates, pls send them my way!

:-)

Mary

Sun.com

Millions of people visit monthly.

So as the person who's responsible for the content that shows up there, you can bet your bottom dollar that I follow the trends around what folks are interested in very closely.

<Full disclosure>

John is really the guy in charge on sun.com editorial. But I kind of hang around and look over his shoulder all the time and generally get in the way.  Every once in a while he calls me "boss." (among other choice words, I'm sure :-)  But we all know he's boss and I'm "kiddo."

</disclosure>

:-)

I can tell you something without spilling any beans: OpenStorage is hot, hot, hot. 

So that's all really good.

OpenStorage = Big-time Customer Value = Big-time Shareholder Value

I love that equation.

But you know what else is really good?

Our storage offerings are at the heart of a non-profit organization whose mission is to capture the perspective of Holocaust survivors.

... who heard it from a friend... 

Coming to me from Subdoh via Marcy... 

The "Tweet-A-Watt" gadget won the Greener Gadget design
competition in  New York City. It's like a standard kill-a-watt
power meter, except with a built-in WiFi connection and an
embedded browser client that continuously tweets your
energy usage to all your followers on Twitter.

This is the ultimate in self-transparency so you can
constantly advertise to your friends how green you are :-).

http://design-milk.com/greener-gadgets-tweet-a-watt/

Pretty cool, eh?

:-)

One of my #1 all-time favorite bloggers ...

Dr. Chhandomay Mandal interviews hot shot techno celeb and president of Sun Microsystems Federal...

Bill Vass.

They have a quick but lively discussion about President Obama's appointment of Vivek Kundra as Chief Information Officer of the White House.

(Bill even shares the skinny around the conversations that he and the bigⁿ boss Scott McNealy had with the Obama transition team.)

Check it out.