Rob's Blog

I'm Retired!!

After 19 years at Johnson & Johnson, I just finished my last day! It hasn't really sunk in yet, though I feel a wave of relief as its been a difficult year. There have been a lot of changes at work, and though I've accomplished a lot, our department was moving in a different direction. Not that my work wasn't appreciated - they threw me a really nice party last night and I received a lot of praise, hugs and presents. I'm going to just kick back for a while, but I already have some potential consulting/video projects in the works. I really do want to relax for a while, but while most people retire from work to do what they've always wanted to do - I've already been doing that! I'm very fortunate to have loved working in video, which I have done throughout my career, at CBS and J&J. So, while I look forward to not working, and certainly not commuting, I'm interested in seeing where this stage leads me.

Where have I been?

Been a long time since I've posted. But social media is becoming hyper-social. You could spend all day on Twitter , Facebook , You Tube and I guess plenty of others. I think all those aforementioned platforms have become more popular than blogging, due to our obsession with multi-tasking, achievement, competition and measurement. You can only use 140 words in Twitter, and Facebook entries are similarly short. You can measure tweets, retweets, followers, likes, and now even your Twitter ranking on Klout. And of course you don't have to write at all with You Tube. And it's insidiously fracturing our lifes. It turns the riddle of "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?", to "If I don't tweet about it, is it real?"

But what have I been doing? Working a lot. Producing video from a series of "Mom blogger" conferences for J&J, asking Moms, and some Dads, "How are you using social media for social good?"  See highlights below. The last one, Mom 2.0, was held in New Orleans, where the weather was warm, the bread pudding superb and the mint juleps perfect!  I even tried an interview myself with comically horrific results. It was good to laugh though. I promise that I will blog some more. In fact, I'll try again after I tweet the fact I blogged, post the blog entry on Facebook, pinged Technorati, and had my third cup of coffee!

  

BlogHer 2010

Just returned from BlogHer2010, the premier event for women bloggers, who cover topics such as kids and family, relationships, "green" living, coupon collecting and fashion. Quite a wide range from the approximately 2500 "bloghers" who showed up at the Hilton, in New York City, on Friday and Saturday, August 6-7. For the first time, Johnson & Johnson had a booth representing the company. During the previous 2 years at BlogHer, we sponsored a SAFE KIDS USA booth. The theme of our booth this year was "Johnson & Johnson, A Legacy of Caring", which celebrates our 125 year history of helping people lead healthier and happier lives. We invited attendees to tell their own "stories of caring", which we videotaped and posted to the Johnson & Johnson health channel on you tube. We had over 50 stories over the two day period, focusing on caring about family, children, helping others, charitable giving, and even a couple about pets. All in all, it was a great experience and a wonderful way to connect with people, and we hope to have a continued presence at BlogHer going forward. Here's one of the videos recorded, by Mom, Vera Sweeney:

 

 

Random New Brunswick Women

Watch the video

the nursing GANG - NEVER STOP CARING

Watch the video

the nursing Gang™ performs an animated music video showing how nurses help care for their patients with empathy and good humor. For more information visit

www.discovernursing.com

Produced by Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc. © 2005

Vloggercon06 - Understanding Media

Vloggercon'06 is over but not forgotten. It was a great experience for networking, knowledge gathering and fun. There is such a groundswell of enthusiasm for the media by young people who might be the first generation of kids to have grown up inherently DISTRUSTING the traditional media outlets. They grew up not on Walter Cronkite, but on Comedy Central and MTV, so their bias is to treat "old media" with a healthy degree of skepticism. Even having graduated from "old media" myself, I can see their point, though the most interesting work produced is personal, funny, informative, educational. I find whatever explicit political commentary I saw as a bit heavy -handed and not as effective as the creative use of new media as an empowering individualistic tool of expression. As Marshall McLuhan said MANY YEARS AGO, "The Medium is the Message." He also coined the term, "global village." For an old media guy, he seemed to be pretty prescient! Understanding Media might be worth another look today.

Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are

"Ubunto", in Zulu, describes Johnson & Johnson's involvement in the community of South Africa for 75 years. Here's a brief look at what that means.

 

On location

   

Botshabelo Community Development Trust, Magaliesburg, South Africa

Interested "liestander" during a paws in the action

Camera Placement for Dummies

Some producers will go to any length to secure a good camera position, but this "sinks" to new lows! Singapore, 2002

 
On the other hand, this is the shot we got outside the window.