Janet Stilson

A 'Wonder Woman' of Substance

It seems to me that the question we should be asking ourselves is not whether or not our glass is half empty or full, but rather: What is the substance inside it? And what does the glass look like?  

As I write this, mine is a long-stemmed glass filled with Chateauneuf du Papes, that queen of all Cotes du Rhone wines. Tomorrow, maybe it won't be a glass at all, but rather an earthen mug filled with deep, rich green tea from the hills surrounding West Lake in China. I have a treasured memory of sipping tea in a little restaurant there. Its flavor was enhanced by someone telling me, at the time, that green tea can actually improve your eyesight. I love the idea of that, whether or not it's actually true.

Occasionally I write a story about someone who seems to have filled their own drinking vessel with a very rarified substance, and as they tell me about their world, it is as if they offer me a delicious sip.

There was a bit of that feeling when I recently interviewed Rebecca Glashow, pictured here. She is senior vice president of digital media distribution at Discovery Communications.The media trade publication Multichannel News named her one of its Wonder Women, and asked me to tell the tale.

Our Fish Eat Fish World

Can you believe that some sharks have around 300 teeth? Or that every so often a shark gets pregnant without a male around? Those are just two of many facts I learned while writing about Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which has been riveting audiences for 24 years now, and gets underway July 31.

The big mama shown here is named Curly, the "star" of a new Shark Week special called Jaws Comes Home (Photo Credit: Discovery Channel). I really like that show.

My article will appear in a magazine called Delight!, which just published the first story I wrote for them, about Travel Channel's Man V.Food Nation series. You can access it here:  Download Delight - Man V FN - June 11

The primal world of sharks puts me in mind of the media industry, where companies are constantly shape shifting in hopes of climbing up to a higher rung on the food chain. I've been listening to many media deep thinkers in the last few months talk about how the business is evolving.

The Alchemy of Adaptations

Adapting content for the screen has been a topic that has intrigued me for years -- most especially because I adapted a short story into a film a few years ago and found it a very rich experience. But lately, it's risen to the surface because this last week I moderated a panel session on the topic organized by New York Women in Film & Television. And I also saw the Coen Brothers' rendering of True Grit, which is a very entertaining and artful road movie.

It's very common, when I speak with film producers, to learn that they're most interested in working on adaptations. And in fact, one of the panelists at the session this last week, Marsha Norman, said that she owes much of her career's success to work involving adaptations.

Marsha may be best known for her Pulitzer Prize winning play 'night Mother, but her adaptations include a movie version of that play, the book for the musical The Color Purple, the HBO series In Treatment (reformulated from an Israeli series), the musical adaptation of The Secret Garden (which won her a Tony) and the upcoming theater rendering of The Bridges of Madison County.

Putting Social Nets to Work

Second Life isn't just a fanciful way to pass the time at IBM. When new employees join the giant corporation, they are asked to create their own avatar. And they attend virtual gatherings on Second Life as part of the orientation process, meeting with other new recruits as well as their managers.

That's one of the things I recently learned when interviewing Jackie Alcalde Marr (top photo) and Mary Ellen Kassotakis (bottom) concerning how companies are using social networks to engage their employees.  Along with Arthur Jue, they have written a book called Social Media at Work - How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance.

In my line of questioning, I tried to put myself in the mind of a media company that had gone through a painful downsizing in the last year and which had limited resources for new HR tactics.  Needless to say, that didn't take a lot of imagination.

Alcalde Marr and Kassotakis rose to the challenge. And along the way, they provided examples of the interesting social networking activities that are taking place not only at IBM, but at Nokia, British Telecom and their own company, Oracle.