Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

remeron — Sat, 27 May 2006 12:58:15 -0000

your blog is a gold mine of info, thx

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Kim Sacha — Fri, 26 May 2006 16:32:15 -0000

First off, we are talking specifically the tech blogging community as raincoaster pointed out. In the science blogging community, it is much more equal. So, I have a few points to contribute to this conversation...

Point 1: Most women I know really enjoy blogging and will blog about what makes them tick. Thus, to get more female tech bloggers, you have to get more female tech geeks.

Point 2: Men do play a huge role in this. In my experience as a university student, my math and physics peers treated me as an equal. Many university math departments have 50/50 male/female split now and I attribute it to the departmental attitudes. However, the men in my computer engineering classes were condescending and rude. They deter less confident, yet capable, women. If men were respectful of women entering the industry and not assume they are more capable it would create a more inviting environment.

Point 3: My own husband has commented that as long as men and women are doing what they enjoy, then it doesn’t matter if it’s cooking or coding. This seems to be a common feeling among men in the technology industry, but the point they miss is that having all-male dominated environments creates unwelcoming places for women who would like to join. So, even if women are interested in the subjects, they’re less likely to pursue them as a career.

Furthermore, for companies in the industry it is crucial to their business that they have women working for them. This is the best way to make products that appeal to all audiences. You can’t just spend an hour with a female focus group and think you understand the entire demographic. Women need to be an integral part of the design and implementation processes.

I’m really glad that you bring up this topic, Robert. It is really important and we still have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the sciences. By changing attitudes in the industry we can raise the standard of technology-related blogging through inclusion of all talented individuals.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

heathervescent — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:10:56 -0000

I'm a woman and a blogger and I organize the geek dinners in LA that are an offshoot from the LA Barcamp, where I was extremely involved. Check out: http://barcamp.org/BarCampL...

And yes, these dinners are open to anyone. Please come. Next one is June 13 in West LA.

Barcamp LA was heavy on women participants and the geek dinner is/was about 30% women and all tech.

If you're in LA and want to hook up with the LA Tech community (which I am trying to build branches out to) please get in touch with me.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

pamela — Tue, 23 May 2006 12:42:44 -0000

Not sure what your definiton of A list is- but there are many woman bloggers, that are well read, have a devoted following, and are making a difference in the world.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Christopher Coulter — Tue, 23 May 2006 04:09:47 -0000

I strongly encourage anyone who is cool or interesting to not go to geek conferences and to not waste their time blogging.

Ammmmen. Preach it from the mountain-tops!

And as far as real conferences that matter, NAB 2006 and not an "A-List Blogger" in sight. There be a whole world of conferences that geeks pass over.

PS - You know, Scoble, your comments are interesting and half vibrant again, now that you pulled back on your bozo-space-cadety 'Buzz Buggermanish' lucid-dreaming 'happy thoughts', and actually went 'naked conversational'. Amazed that Gobbels passed the trigger-happy censor button. Good show, tho. ;)

PSS - Warm film tone things on C9, you are going too Sony cameraish video bright white, you need to contrast warm film-tone darken. If in Vegas, click the Video Bus Track and insert the Fade to Color Envelope, double-clicking to get a point (other ways to tone and color correct yes, but that's one easy quick way). And Ultimate S 2's 24P Romantic Lips, ohmigosh, pretty as all out.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Billy The Blogging Poet — Mon, 22 May 2006 22:03:27 -0000

I'm curious okay. Just where is this so called "A List" and who's on it. I've seen the Blolibrity list, I'm even listed on their "C list" but we all know they're not for real, right? (I know several of the Bloglibeity A&B Listers personally and happen to know they're audiences are equal to and sometimes less than my audience.)

So where is the real "A List?" I've been at this blogging thing since 2002 and while I've heard lots of references I've never seen a real list.

And without a real list who's to say who's on it and who's not? I mean, I hear references to so called "A Listers every day that turn out to be people no one I know has ever heard of.

A shortage of women on the "A List?" What list?

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Dmad — Mon, 22 May 2006 21:04:04 -0000

I still have not seen what more women 'A-list" bloggers would solve. Nor am I suggesting that women are out of their element in the tech world. It just seems odd that geeks think more women geeks would solve some problem. Maybe it would be a good thing. Then again, maybe it wouldnt' make a difference. If someone has something interesting to say, then it shouldn't matter what their sex/race/creed/color is.

Some industries simply attract more of one sex than another. That is neither a bad thing nor a good thing. It just is. Again, how is the tech industry suffering by not having more A-list women bloggers?

Robert, obviously the two main themes in the "blogosphere" are tech and politics. There are some good women bloggers in the politics space... Michele Malkin, Arianna Huffington, La Shawn Barber, and Michele Catalano. For the best round up of progressive women who blog, take a stroll over to http://the-goddess.org/what...

There certainly aren't any institutional barriers keeping women from blogging either about tech or politics, so maybe the need for some sort of self congratulation or aggrandizment that seems inherent in blogging just doesn't appeal to women. Maybe they are above that. And you gotta admit the some of roots of newgroups and the general chest beating that happens with slashdotters and other geeks carry's over into the blogpshere and not something most women that aren't hyena-like commonly seek out.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

raincoaster — Mon, 22 May 2006 18:08:54 -0000

Did you see Polly Toynbee's display of blog cluelessness in commentisfree just a day or so ago? I'm far too lazy to look it up at the moment, but do intend to hand her her posterior in a blog post very soon. The idea that the blogosphere should be centrally controlled and polite is not uniquely female, thank god. The Guardian blogs bother me, too, in that they claim to decry anonymity and pseudonymity yet they don't allow links to your own websites. Reading someone's site is a great way to familiarize yourself with their ideas and the quality of their brain, and not allowing this is inherently anti-blog, to my mind.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Ann Handley — Mon, 22 May 2006 17:51:58 -0000

So how weird is it that on this day, suddenly this issue is getting some attention. I blogged about the lack of women in blogs on the MarketingProfs blog today, and then Sunny Hundal talks about it here:

Boy's Own
http://commentisfree.guardi...

Are their women blogging? Are they commenting on blogs? Yep & yep. But at the same time, women don't seem to be represented in the numbers they should be for such a connective, community-oriented space as blogs clearly are.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

raincoaster — Mon, 22 May 2006 17:32:27 -0000

Currently, the #4 most popular blog on Wordpress is nosysnoop, which is a female-written gossip blog. Whatever you think of the content, that's impressive. And Gawker and Wonkette did very well when they were helmed by women, didn't they? So it's really a matter of defining your terms.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

raincoaster — Mon, 22 May 2006 17:28:35 -0000

It really depends on your A list, doesn't it?

Nobody I know would call Jessica Coen a B-list blogger, but I bet she hasn't been to any of those gatherings. The tech blogging community tends to assume it is the ONLY blogging community, but that is not the case and hasn't been for ages. The writer who mentioned LiveJournal brought up an important point; statistically, the majority of people online are female. It's quite a substantial majority, too, and their use of social networking tools like blogs has driven the industry. It's quite possible that statistically women are the majority of bloggers (and yes, quite a few of us obscure our gender to prevent lewd comments).

That female bloggers do not drive the debate within the tech blogging community should surprise no-one really. All industry groups are in some sense ivory towers with far too few windows. Scoble is dead on when he puts the blame for few tech blogging A-list women on the dearth of women techies.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

MiniMage — Mon, 22 May 2006 17:20:56 -0000

Former sorority girl, here, and I've already given up my life to geekdom. Thank God!

Robert was on the right track with the "Send Jen" thing. I want to see more. I want to see a concerted effort by a large organization. Of course, I have ulterior motives.

I do want to be big in the blogosphere. I think I write well, but it isn't enough. Mostly, I'm clueless, but I need material. You see, I don't want to be the type of blogger who just visits other people's blogs and links to them. I could be totally wrong, here, but I think a good blogger has to be more original than that. So what have I got? Reviews? About once a year, I get a Tablet PC to review. Others buy things to do their reviews, but I can't do that on a PC tech salary. People send Robert stuff he doesn't want. I don't yet deserve to be sent stuff; I have to be a successful blogger, first...that seems like a vicious circle to me, but that can't be right.

People who know you give you inspiration in the form of news and review material. Perhaps that's where the networking thing (conference and dinner attending) comes into play. It doesn't hurt to have the chance to write about the latest conference you attended and the wonderful technology you saw there.

I have three blogs, and I don't write enough. I don't think I have much worth writing about. I'll figure it out someday.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Robert Scoble — Mon, 22 May 2006 16:54:20 -0000

I'm not the one who said being a blogger is cool. The newspaper did that.

Goebbels: I didn't say that. I said that relationships built in person are far stronger than ones built over bits only.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Andrea Learned — Mon, 22 May 2006 16:10:46 -0000

Women are blogging - they just go about it differently and perhaps, more selectively choose when/where they will participate/comment on other blogs.

(I posted on this earlier today myself, in fact - before I read your post.)

It may take a bit more reaching out to the non-A-list female bloggers, but if they see there is a conversation which could use their perspective - women will start to participate more often on the supposedly more geeky blogs.. and beyond! (See all the women who've responded here, for example.)

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Goebbels — Mon, 22 May 2006 16:08:05 -0000

Isn't it a bit bizarre and contradictory to claim that blogs form electronic networks and conversations, but that you can only build them by first meeting in person?

"Hey, hey... Nice to meet you. Now that we've got to know each other... let's get online and get (im)personal. Because I'm a cool geek incapable of holding a conversation beyond what's your name, email, and blog address."

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Goebbels — Mon, 22 May 2006 15:44:45 -0000

"Goebbels: What if we’re cool or interesting *because* we’re geeky?"

Whatever... but in that case, you are in these narrow little circles that Scobie loves so much so it doesn't matter.

Scobie is the one asking how to get women and cool people to give up their lives to geekdom and lame tech conferences (completely ignoring that Blogs are just a medium for all sorts of expression).

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

MiniMage — Mon, 22 May 2006 15:28:10 -0000

I'd go to conferences if my employer would pay for it. In asked to go to Tech.Ed 2 years in a row. I have just about decided to send myself next year: it should be tax deductible for a PC Support Tech, even if I'm female, right? It really needs to be tax deductible, because it will cut into the funds I have for technology next year.

I wonder what if anyone has done a study on a possible correlation between gender and employer willingness to send employees to conferences; my supervisor just got back from a SharePoint event in Seattle.

I'm just halfway serious, I am, after all, a lowly desktop tech. Who sends their support staff anywhere?

I am proud to be out of touch with the fashion slaves. If I'm buying Prada, dozens of pairs of pumps and war paint, how could I afford my precious computers? I'd rather have PDAs than pedicures any day!

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 22 May 2006 14:21:48 -0000

To quote something Melinda Casino wrote on her blog Sour Duck, which in fact does have some applicability to all Z-listers:

"There also seemed to be a taboo against admitting that women might have ambitions for anything other than the connecting with people online. For women to express the latter is, of course, socially acceptable - just like the new interest in knitting. This was a bit strange as it appeared that some of the women on the panel leveraged their careers with blogging. None of them could say, "Yeah, I like money. I like having it, and blogging has helped me get it, and I think women are ripped off because men have higher visibility through lists and hierarchies, and therefore gain more economically." Or anything remotely like it. Yet this is a fairly obvious point to raise."

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

SB — Mon, 22 May 2006 13:59:15 -0000

Power. Might I ask, what is this power for? What do you do with it, you A-listers?

I bet most of us blog because we love to write, or we have a passion we want to share, or we think better 'out loud', or we enjoy the contact with other folks who are far away but share some segment of the planet we care about --

So, to reinforce some previous points: tech should be about the ends, not the means. The means should be effortless and as invisible as possible.

And it's not only women who prefer it that way.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 22 May 2006 13:41:34 -0000

Goebbels: What if we're cool or interesting *because* we're geeky? :-)

Anyway, several comments seem to be pointing out that all the backscratching and fur-grooming needed for the high-level networking is hard to do for people who have other demands on their time. Thus, blogging is pretty much like every other (mainstream?) media hierarchy - those with the most access to power have the most chance at obtaining power themselves.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Goebbels — Mon, 22 May 2006 13:19:28 -0000

Maybe part of the problem is this: people with lives do not need to live through blogs... people without them think they are the greatest thing in the world and everyone should be doing it (because otherwise they have no contact with "real" people.)

Cool people, the hip people, the influencers you want, woman (who already have to deal with all sorts of come ons and those with families) are busy or not present.

So, yes, show up at a geek conference and you have 500 geeky dudes who spend half their day on their blog. Is that a good thing?

I strongly encourage anyone who is cool or interesting to not go to geek conferences and to not waste their time blogging.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Sharon Housley — Mon, 22 May 2006 12:50:25 -0000

Robert,
I think something you overlooked, is that female bloggers are reluctant to share personal details or photos etc.. for security reasons. Without the personality and personal details, female bloggers do not achieve the notoriety or popularity that many of the male bloggers do.
The world is a very different place for many female bloggers.
Sharon Housley

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Xwoman — Mon, 22 May 2006 12:41:08 -0000

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-xwoman

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Wendy — Mon, 22 May 2006 12:39:25 -0000

I'm not sure why there's not a lot of women at all these dinners, conferences, good ole boys networking events, etc., but I can tell you the reason that *I* don't show up - it's because I have three kids under 11 to take care of and a family to nurture. That to me is far more important than whisking away once a month to hear one more time why the A List of bloggers is so important and to berate myself as to why I'm not on that list.

I took a quick look at my feed lists, and I was happy to see that it's about neck and neck between men and women as far as subscriptions go. I subscribe to content, not gender or pecking order in the blogosphere.

Re: Contra Costa Times looks at women bloggers

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Mon, 22 May 2006 12:39:19 -0000

Some things to consider:
Women now make up 52% of the users on the internet
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFa...
Chat users with traditionally female names get 25X more hostile comments
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu...

To say that women represent fashion, asthetics, soft things etc is to essentialize them, to claim that there is an essential nature to women.