Emerging Social
Ecosystems at Sun
Sumaya Kazi (@sumaya)
Senior Social Media Manager
June 2009

About Sun Microsystems, Inc (JAVA)
• Develops technologies that power the global marketplace
> Systems and Storage: SPARC, x64 Servers,
Servers+Storage
> Software: MySQL, Solaris, Java
> Services
• Ranked #184 on the Fortune 500
• Fiscal Year 2009 Q2 Revenues: $3.220 billion
• 30,000 employees worldwide
• Conducts business in over 100 countries
• http://www.sun.com
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What We See
Happening in the
Market
3

Power of the Groundswell
“A social trend in which people use
technologies to get the things they
need from each other, rather than
from traditional institutions like
corporations.”
Groundswell – winning in a world transformed
by social technologies
Charlene Li – Josh Bernoff
Forrester Research
4

Who is this kid?
• DeAndre Cortez Way, aka
Soulja Boy
• At age 16 he uploads his
•Crank That song/dance
• Six months later: #1 US hit
• for seven weeks
• The future is now
• psble thx 2 Netwrk
• Powered by Sun
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Exponential Human Expression
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Network: turning things upside-down
• On the network, consumers:
– create identity
– express affinity
– unleash creativity
• It's all about me
• Content is king
• The syndication of everyman
• Opportunity to radically grow brand
awareness, preference, affinity by
capitalizing on these trends
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New Models
New Communities
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Sun's Community Galaxy
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Sun's Community Galaxy
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The Bloggers
Overview
• 5,426 Bloggers
• 4,437 Blogs
• 135,000+ Posts
• 150,000+ Comments
• 2.1M page
views/month
• 846K unique
visitors/mo
Sun's CEO blog:
Celebrating 5yrs of blogging
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
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Wikification at Sun
Overview
• 71,000 Contributors
• 23,000 Pages
• 270,000 Revisions
• 2,800 Comments
• 797K page
views/month
• 142K unique
visitors/mo
Content is collaboratively
created by Sun Employees,
Partners, Customers & Invited
Guests
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Sun Forums
Overview
• 946K Contributors
• 355 Forums
• 920K Threads
• 4.1 M Messages
• 3.4M Page
views/month
• 1.1M Unique visitors/
mo
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Pronounced AWESOME
http://osum.sun.com
• 90,000+ members
> 2,500+ professors
• 1,900+ student clubs
• 1,500+ blog posts
• 100's of events
• 15,000 photos posted
• 600+ videos shared
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Sun Radio Network
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/sunradio
Socially Speaking – focused on high-level interviews & conversations about Social Media.
Shift Radio - latest in tech gadgets, video game and rich media industries.
Sun News Radio - highlights the latest news and views from Sun.
New Gen Tech - focused on Millennials, Tech, Jobs & Pop Culture.
66,000
listens
since April
2008
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Sun on Facebook Sun Fan Page
>10,460 fans (233%)
>Growing 2,000 monthly
>Syndicate news
>Promote events
I Love Java Fan Page
>20,400 fans (188%)
>Growing 3,000 monthly
>“Younger, hipper”
>Photos, videos
Duke – Java's Mascot
>1,100+ friends
>Photo tagging, poking, etc.
Other Sun communities
(e.g. MySQL, JavaOne, Sun
StudentZone etc.)
Over 20 Fan Pages Built
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Sun & Facebook Groups
Nearly 200 Communities Created
2,650 Sun and Non-Sun individuals have joined Facebook Fridays
to get weekly newsletters on Social Media. Largest destination for
Sun employees on Facebook. Serves as a launching pad for
announcements and new communities. 30 issues published.
1,200 members have joined the Sun Developer Network group to
gain access to a vibrant worldwide community of developers.
Members get the latest news, photos, and videos.
1,000 members have joined Friends of the Sun Microsystems
Foundation & Community Sun group to learn about Sun's
Foundation and volunteer efforts.
700 members have joined Sun's OpenStorage Community
Foundation group to learn about and discuss Sun's Storage
technologies.
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

Sun & Twitter
“I LOVE Java,
OpenOffice.org, and
VirtualBox OSE, among
other Sun products!”
- @romanv
• Sun Microsystems
> Corporate identity
> 5,240 followers (1600%)
> 1,000 growth/mo
> Publish breaking news, tweet
business priorities, promote
events, listen & engage
• Automated Handles
> IR, CEO Blog, News, Blogs
> 4,500 followers
• JavaOne Conference
> 2,600 followers
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only
> Live updates, conference comm.

Everything Is Measurable!
Facebook
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

SOCIAL + YOU Training
• Training Program
> Immersive offline and online
program for Sun employees
> Monthly Cadence
> Kick-off event
- Get Informed, Connected &
Involved on Twitter
- 150 employees in-person
- 440 watching live
- 300 radio listeners
- 600 downloads of presos
•
Agenda
- Social Media at Sun Update
- Visiting Expert Shel Israel,
- Interview style
- Hands-on training
- Measuring Impact
Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

Tip #1 Trust Your Contributors
Balance
• Policy
• Risk Tolerance
• Culture
• Benefits
• Trust
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Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse
http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp
• Conversational tone
• Short
• Easy pointers to granular policy
• Scalable to cover most community sites
• Comprehensively identifies do's & don'ts
• Recently revised to cover
− Anonymity
− Avatar appearance
− Community moderation
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Tip #2 Enable Users to Build Their
Community
• Consistently seed with + content
• Engage power users moderate
• Promptly address inappropriate
behavior
• Consistently encourage efficient use
• Provide user tools: instructional
videos, 101 sessions for & by users,
getting started content, FAQs
• Community alias & wiki for self-
support
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Tip #3 Guide & Nurture a Self-Sufficient Community
• Train
• Police
• Support
• Evangelize
• Grow
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#1 Challenges & Risks
Corporate analytics capturing community engagement
conversions to revenue. How do we measure
monetization?

$
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#2 Challenges & Risks
Old school behaviors resisting efficient use of new tools
> Group editing of email attachments instead of a wiki page
> Fear of transparency
> Long email threads instead of a forums discussion
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#3 Challenges & Risks
Employees not being aware of or fully understanding defined
guidelines & policy
> Sensible business conduct
> Export law
> Copyrights
> Privacy violations
> Trademarks
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#4 Challenges & Risks
• Enabling organic community growth vs Creating
communities
• Being authentic vs Being contrived
• Mitigate these via
− Transparency
− Active engagement
− Community moderation
− Responsiveness to needs
− Tool refinement
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Questions?
Thanks!
sumaya.kazi@sun.com
http://twitter.com/sumaya