Scobleizer - Latest Comments in What I learned from BlogHer

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

fishing walleye — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 04:17:48 -0000

This is a fair amount of planning and we have yet to reach the water. Then there is the challenge of allocating quality time without negatively impacting personal duties of church, family and work commitments. The complications of scheduling time may increase (exponentially) as one adds fishing companions. As one famous fisherman quipped, "If your job interferes with your ability to fish, then quit your job." An ideal that many fishers strive for today while others fall short.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

vicctoriorus76 — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:31:52 -0000

Here are some links that I believe will be interested

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Jess — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 05:33:37 -0000

I don't know what BlogHer you attended, but the one I went to was not only about "soft subjects." We discussed technology, cool new gadgets, travelling, how much computer memory we really need, apple vs. ibm, american big beast cars ruining the environment, how to make blogher a more racially and sexually inclusive community, and the list goes on. It looks like BlogHer didn't teach you anything as much as it seemed to re-affirm your stereotypes...The way you begin your post by citing two men already suggests this...BlogHer was a chance for women using technology (in this case blogging platforms) to get together and discuss. And that's what we did. It would have been more academic of you to not generalise and situate your remarks within your personal experience of BlogHer rather than stereotyping all women.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

megan — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:45:48 -0000

I, too think that the "Be Jane" crap was absolutely ridiculous. So off target. So typical Microsoft.

Saturn was great - I loved test-driving the convertible and I, too, took pictures of it. Brilliant. And no sales-pitches, either.

The GM freebie bag had Crabtree & Evelyn products, but the condescending brochure about women and cars was quickly tossed out.

I have to disagree with you on vox. I love it. I'm a web/blog design who uses Movable Type, Typepad, Wordpress, and Blogger and I find this a really easy-to-use tool. I don't think it's condescending at all. I think it's a brilliant way to connect people.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Mindy — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:21:09 -0000

Hey! I was looking for you and didn't get the chance to say hi. (I'm Gil's ex-wife. Isn't that cozy? When I saw John podcasting last year's BlogHer I said, "Look, there's my ex-husband's ex-boss. And now current boss.")

Thank you for noticing what an economic force the women are. Decisions are made jointly, but as you heard, women talk and compare and shop it to death first. I was shocked when I suggested to one startup CEO that he create a car directory searchable by number of kids, car seat capacity, etc. and he responded, "But wouldn't I want to talk to the men?"

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Hannah — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:18:52 -0000

Now I'm finding digital photography such an intriguing innovation...

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Robert Scoble — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:17:11 -0000

Maggie: I wasn't telling BlogHer attendees that. I was telling product planners on MSN Spaces that.

And if Mena had pitched Vox like THAT instead of positioning it as for beginners, then that would have gone over very well (a pitch would have gone over much better if it fit into an actual answer to the question -- when asked for "vision" your first answer shouldn't be a product that people can use today).

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Maggie Mason — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:12:13 -0000

“improve your HTML quality” and “get tagging”

I'm actually kind of stunned that you said that. Were you talking to a group of super beginners? Everyone I knew there had been blogging for years. My girlfriends would have smirked at each other and rolled their eyes. I can't imagine a guy saying something like that at SxSW, for example. I know your intent wasn't be insulting, but I would have been annoyed had someone said to me, "There's this amazing and powerful thing you should be leveraging called... TAGGING!"

"Six Apart’s Vox product is doomed to fail."

Not sure who you were talking to, but in my slice of the Blogher community, Vox invitations are like gold. Women are digging the social networking aspect and the ability to whisper to friends instead of shouting to the whole world. I didn't see Mena's speech, but one clumsy (or overly excited) product pitch doesn't equal eternal doom for a product that has something to offer.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Mom101 — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:42:17 -0000

I think your assessment about marketers is spot on. Personally, as one of those "beginner skiers" I liked hearing from Mena. Your points are good but listening to her as an entrepeneurial young woman more so than a woman there to promote a particular technology, I found it inspiring.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Debra — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:39:07 -0000

Robert,

Recognized you running the video at BlogHer and thought "how cool!". I enjoyed a lot about BlogHer, but it fell short of my expectation mark.

I think some of the sponsors hit the mark, and MicroSoft?? Didn't even know where the target was.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Beth — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:59:18 -0000

Thank you for the video shooting pointers. I immediately tried to put them to use with this:
http://www.youtube.com/v/Gq...

I think I only made 1 out of the 3 mistakes (rule of thirds in terms of framing) ...

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

John C. Welch — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:07:31 -0000

Why is it depressing when four "amazing" women are on a closing keynote and nothing stunning happens?

The more I read the Blogher comments and articles, the more I'm wondering if that .25 of a chromosome is now giving women super powers. It wasn't amazing, and that's bad? If they weren't used to that kind of a situation, it's kind of inevitable that it's going to be less than stellar.

I think the last line in Fatemeh's comment (#61) is interesting. I've done sessions at Macworld with women in the audience asking questions, and I can tell you they were just as technical as any of the men. I've taught too many seminars where most of the audience were female IT managers. Trust me, they weren't asking for affirmations, and the only confessionals had to do with the evil things they'd like to do to their users sometimes.

I asked a few of my geek female friends about Blogher, (note, none of them went) and I got pretty much the same two answers:

1) It's too close to the WWDC/I have better conferences to go to
2) Who the hell wants to talk about that crap for days? They're not teaching me a damned thing other than what it's like to be a woman with a blog. I think I've figured that part out for myself.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Fatemeh — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 09:05:56 -0000

Interesting perspective from a male... In some of Saturday's sessions, I felt like several of the men who stood up to ask questions were actually shilling a product, which was interesting.

As for the closing keynote: the whole damn thing was depressingly amateur.

Four amazing women up on that panel, and nothing really impressive or eye-opening to walk away with.

My tablemates and I remarked that all the so-called "questions" from the crowd were either more like confessionals or requests for affirmation.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

littlepurplecow — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:28:17 -0000

Thanks for joining us. It's rare to get 750ish amazingly diverse and talented women in one place at one time. Lucky are you and the other brave men who came to listen and extend the conversation.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

cashadvance123 — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:22:18 -0000

i wish i could have went

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Kristine — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:12:29 -0000

Let me say this...if you can teach me...then you can teach anyone. What is the intent of the blog...to display, portray, sell, inform, all of the above, or just to share.

They call this an information highway. I want to cruise across country in a souped up convertable art car reading my poetry to anyone who will stop and listen.

And not to leave the men out...there's the fishing blog, car repair blog, and learn how to read a road map...or mapquest.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Kristine — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:57:24 -0000

Blogging for Beginners? It's really quite simple. Training wheels. This computer is a vehicle. Everybody learns to drive right?
Come on. I'll be the inept Guinea Pig...with wings, cause pigs can fly. If you have a few angels. Now the idea behind this is really simple. Get a bunch of folks together that aren't technically skilled, like me, and give them a guru that can talk the same language, advise, and offer assistance...without hunting allover the internet. Come on, do you go on the freeway right after you get your licence? Put this in the right perspective. See...it's simple really.

TRAINING WHEELS...Where saavy techs can help you GET BEHIND THE KEYBOARD and DRIVE ANY WHERE IN THE WORLD YOU WANT TO GO. Really.

So who wants to teach me...we can create a blog about beginning a blog with focus.
Lets see...there's the crafty mom bloggy. Or the super mom bloggy. The Granny Bloggy (photos and geneology), can you see this? I can.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

supa — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:31:20 -0000

Even for someone like myself, who can code HTML and tag with the best of them, Vox is a useful blogging platform. It's very like Flickr, and I think the functionality (such as making posts public to a select audience) and customizable integration with a boatload of services is a very big draw.

Your list of things we women should do (improve the quality of our HTML and tag more) is condescending and presumptive. Was it intended that way? Seems to me that women at a tech conference already know enough about those things to use or dismiss them as they see fit.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

shel israel — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:54:30 -0000

Wonderful review, Robert. I wish we had you writing for Conferenza.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Trisha — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:22:15 -0000

I would have to agree that nobody wants to be seen as a newbie. However, tools that make it easier for beginners are inherently useful. Easy is good because it lowers barriers to entry.

That said, I would question the implicit assumption that the tools are the main barrier to entry for non-bloggers. I think attitude is the bigger problem here. Keeping a blog can be a significant time commitment, and it's not one that everyone is willing to make. What is needed is something of value for those who take the time and effort to create blogs. By value, I don't necessarily mean monetization--it could be anything from social recognition to an easy way to share information within a community (or with the world).

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

LayZ — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:15:08 -0000

asking why a non-skiing family would want to go to ski resort is like asking why people who don't gamble would want to go to Vegas. Or why poeple that don't have kids would want to go to Walt Disney World. Or why people who don't swim would want to go to a beach resort. C'mon Robert. You can't be that tone deaf. Sheesh!

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Christopher Coulter — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:59:07 -0000

As for the GM marketing...well LayZ already said what I was going to say. I have a clone? ;)

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

Christopher Coulter — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:55:49 -0000

Why would a non-skiing family go to a ski resort?

Dude, think marketing, at some it's half an amusement park; lots of activities beyond skiing, and plenty of people outside of families go for Events, Parties and Functions and don't actually end up skiing. And tons of non-skiing families come for the non-stop Weddings, at least at Solitude it was non-stop, it's booked from here to eternity. I would say more than half (rough guess) of those families don't end up actually skiing.

Didn't mean to argue, as I agree with thy central point, treating people like total imbeciles, never works.

...the two women talking about it represented the product and themselves–like two valleychicks.

Technically that's not a problem, that's their target audience. But yeah, Microsoft culture sure ends up having tons of Valleychicky marketing spokespeople, I think the extreme geek nature pushes the dimblubs into marketing.

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

LayZ — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:03:27 -0000

Trish, your yadda-yadda-yadda reminds me of that classic line from Seinfeld: "my old boyfriend came over late last night, and, yada yada yada, anyway. I'm really tired today."

Re: What I learned from BlogHer

tish grier — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:31:53 -0000

Hi Robert...

well, I think this is the third conference that you and I were in the same place and neither of us introduced ourselves (but, that's probably beholding to me, as you're far more known and visible than myself...yet, at times I suffer from my own geeky-fear thing...)

On MSN Spaces: the registration thing isn't the problem. That's actually a good feature (as Maryam pointed out). The biggest problem, and where they definitely shot themselves in the foot at BlogHer, was how the two women talking about it represented the product and themselves--like two valleychicks. I was sitting with a group of experienced women bloggers, and we were horrified not only by the way the two "girls" were talking about the product (in a very sales-pitch tone) but how insulting they were. The way they talked about home improvement stuff was just downright awful and actually made them sound like they were simply reading from a script--not genuine at all...

but, when you're a woman, you kind of get used to being patronized and develop a nice little kill-switch in your head that makes it all sound like a bunch of yadda-yadda-yadda.

aside from that, it was good to see you not on the podium for a change ;-) and doing guy-stuff, like shooting video. and, eventually, we'll meet...