BlogHer06

Interesting conversation over at Neville Hobson’s blog about gender. Neville started by stating that gender of a blog author doesn’t matter to him — what matters to him is the content.

Of course, content is what matters. Good writing, interesting ideas and original thought are what make you want to read, and continue reading past the first post. But gender does impact how likely it is that you will find a blog. As I commented on his blog, in a specific search, the odds may be a bit more even, but:

"Where it gets sticky is when you search a blog directory on a broad term like “public relations.” I just did it on technorati (http://www.technorati.com/blogs/public relations) and the first 9 results are written by men. And the 10th is Marketing Profs.

Same with the memetrackers, especially in the tech space – there does seem to be a male bias (see Chris Carfi’s post http://www.socialcustomer.com/2006/08/mr_rivera_tear_.html)

And then there are the lists. Sure there are blogs written by women on the various top-whatever lists, but they are predominantly (still) written by men. And when you look at who they link to, you should not be surprised if their chums are also lots of guys."

And the conversation continued from there, with a great deal of back and forth between Neville and me, along with comments by Kami Huyse, Yvonne DiVita, Sherrilynne Starkie and Carmen Van Kerckhove as well as a previous comment by Amy Gahran.

I’m not suggesting anyone should read a blog or link to a blog simply because it is by a woman.

Here’s the thing, though. We tend to "hang out" in an online community of like-minded people. I forget which one of my respected PR and marketing colleagues pointed this out (identify yourself and get the recognition you deserve) but our virtual communities, not unlike our real ones, are about 50-100 people. We read many of the same blogs, we comment, we make an effort to meet up at conferences, and so on. You may belong to one or more overlapping communities, and even some very dis-similar ones if you have wide-ranging interests. But it is quite likely that you’ll gravitate toward one. For  me, it is the collective group of PR/marketing blogs (big surprise there!). I read lots of other things too, but not as deeply. For example, I like the shows created by Joss Whedon, but I only read Whedonesque regularly.

In other words, in most subjects, I skim the surface, whereas in my chosen area, I take a pretty deep dive.

When we take that "deep dive" into a subject, in some subjects, like PR, we are likely to be finding blogs by men and women, and choosing them based on the content we find there, not the gender of the author. In other subjects, like technology, you will find women, but you have to look hard. The men have a far bigger profile. And there are not many women at the top.

When we skim, odds are  that our list will have more male authors than female, simply because the men are easier to find. I’ll use politics as an example: I scan about half a dozen political blogs. Four are "owned" or written by men, while only two are driven by women, Ariana Huffington, Huffington Post  and Chris Nolan, Spot-on.

Gender doesn’t make you a better writer or thinker. Gender shouldn’t matter in the blogosphere, or anywhere else for that matter, unless you are picking a mate, and perhaps not even then, unless reproduction is one of your goals.

But no matter how often or loudly we say that gender doesn’t matter,

it does.

And that’s why BlogHer (and other efforts to even the playing field) are so important. We aren’t proposing some sort of "blog affirmative action" where you must have so many women or minorities in your feed reader. That’s simply absurd.

What I, and many other women, suggest is that you examine your biases — conscious and sub-conscious — and make a choice. Stay in your comfort zone, where you know everybody and they know you. Or take a step out, a virtual "walk on the wild side," and look for new voices. Perhaps even ones that disagree with you. We could all use a bit more diversity and a little less "group think."

Gender doesn’t  matter when it comes to smart thinking. But it is an issue. So please, folks, open your eyes. I know it’s unpleasant to remember that we still don’t have equality of the sexes, but we don’t. Ignoring it does NOT make it go away.

You may think you’re being gender blind, but I’d tell you, you are simply blind about the issue of gender.

A final example. Some have wondered why we need a women’s blogging conference. We don’t have men’s blogging conferences, they say…. After I get through banging my head on the wall at that, I remind them, that’s because most conferences ARE men’s conferences. They just aren’t advertised that way. Bringing these issues to light, and creating a space where women (and like-minded men) could work on them together, is why BlogHer was founded and why so many women of different backgrounds embrace it. As Mary Hunt points out, we are part of a long tradition of women getting together to build strength in numbers. Susan B. Anthony anyone???

Be truly gender-neutral. Seek out the different voices. Not because they are women or minorities but because you understand that the system favors a dominant group (in tech, it’s white guys, sorry), and you want to push past that to meet some new folks with some new ideas.

Who maybe aren’t just like you.

Tags: blogher, blogher 06, gender, sexism, blogging, blogs

There has been quite a bit of criticism of BlogHer from women who did not attend the conference (Shelley Powers, Tara Hunt, Kathy Sierra), as well as some who did (Melinda Casino and others). Hugh Macleod did a cartoon, which as Elisa Camahort points out, didn’t link to women who had been at the conference and wrote positive posts, only to men and posts of varying negativity.

Now we are all entitled to an opinion, and in this country, we have the right to express it.  But, personally, I dislike criticism that doesn’t offer an alternative. Don’t like it, don’t go. Or don’t go again. There are things that concerned me during the conference — I wrote a bit about them in yesterday’s post, and I have some more thoughts here. But, offer the criticism with suggestions for improvement. Don’t just complain. Or if you think the situation is beyond repair for you, do something else, go somewhere else. No conference can satisfy everyone. To be fair, some of the women mentioned above have already said that is their intention.

The conference wasn’t perfect — no conference is. Some of the sessions were great, some were not. Some of the sponsors did a great job. Some less so. The hotel has really gone downhill, but I didn’t personally see any bugs, and the room was clean, so hey.  Internet access was problematic, but it was also free. And besides, it was a good excuse to get out in the sun and talk to people.

Of course  there was laughter and frivolous conversation. Pictures of  and anecdotes about children and partners were shared. There was also a lot of serious conversation and networking. Just like any other conference. Maybe a bit less discussion of golf handicaps…..

My biggest concern? Tech and business folks were definitely in the minority. While I do not begrudge the mommy/personal bloggers any of their hard-won success and recognition, I do not wish all women who blog to be characterized as personal bloggers.  We aren’t, and some of us for very specific personal and professional reasons. After hearing about the coverage in the San Jose Mercury News  and on c|net, I wondered if maybe the public impression of women bloggers was shifting too far to the personal, ignoring those of us who do not blog about our families, personal lives or food. Many of the very things I value in the BlogHer spirit — community, participation, dare I say equality of opportunity — were somehow transforming into something soft and girly, and therefore less serious. Apparently we don’t laugh, we giggle. And so on. Yet there is absolutely no a priori reason why these values are "girly." It is a filter applied because the conference is driven by and for women.

And of course, why we needed BlogHer in the first place. I know it will come as a surprise to some but sexism does exist. Not as overt as it was before Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, among many others, burned the figurative (and sometimes literal) bra, and told the world that "a woman without a man was like a fish without a bicycle," but it is there. And women face it every day, whether it is the disdain given to a stay-at-home mom for her choice, or the roadblocks faced by a young career woman who wants to get ahead without becoming "one of the guys."

The older I get, the more I realize that we need spaces that are women-centered because no matter how you slice it, our culture is still predominantly masculine. And why I applaud  BlogHer, and everyone — women and men — who participates in it.

The main BlogHer conference seems to be evolving into a place for the mom, the personal blogger, the solo entrepreneur. With BlogHer Business in New York in March 2007, we have the same opportunity to together build a vibrant community for women bloggers in the corporate space. Who aren’t worried about monetizing  their blog as much as they are about building the business case for social media in the enterprise. Who want to talk with others about how to do it, not be lectured at by someone corporate, white and probably male.

So count me in. It’s going on the calendar today.

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I met blogger/podcaster Nicole Simon at BlogHer. She had the best button: "Bubble 2.0." She also took a picture of me checking my email on my Blackberry during the Saturday reception as part of her ongoing research to prove that women have just as many tech gadgets as men. Yup, I’m a "crackberry" addict — even to the point sending an email to a client from Diamond Head in Hawaii last November. Here’s the evidence:

And finally, in the category of "you have got to be kidding me," just before the Saturday am session (you remember the Janes) a young woman went around to all the tables handing out little business cards for A NEW SHOW FOR WOMEN PREMIERING THIS FALL ABOUT LOVE, LIFE AND RELATIONSHIPS STARRING GREG BEHRENDT THE GUY WHO WROTE "HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU." Yeah, just what we need, another guy telling women how to fix their lives. Yuck. Well, at least we know he’ll be trying to be funny unlike the other guys who think they know what’s best. Calling Dr. Phil.

BTW, I don’t believe this was an official sponsor, just the energetic spirit of the show’s producers, so no fair tagging BlogHer on this one. Anyway, maybe it was something in the water Saturday morning……

Tags: blogging, blogher, blogher06, sexism, business blogging, blogher business

8/25: trackbacks turned off due to spam

Well, actually post-BlogHer, but hey, if I could have found the time (and WiFi) to post during the conference, I would have. Instead, I stopped worrying about Internet access, read my email on my Blackberry and enjoyed talking to people. You know — face to face 🙂

So here’s the report, in somewhat random order.

First, I think our session, Business Blogging Case Studies Unpanel, went very well. Every single one of our pre-conference volunteers made it, and they were all wonderful. The conversation and questions after the brief presentations were great — lots of good material, everyone answering each other’s questions, and asking new ones. We’ve got pages and pages of notes to distill into our "tips and traps" document. Watch for a draft sometime later this month.

Toby, Yvonne and I are very grateful to everyone who made it possible — the BlogHer founders Elisa, Lisa and Jory and all their support staff,  the case study volunteers, and everyone in the session, with a very special thanks to those of you who took the time afterwards to tell us how much you enjoyed it.

The conference itself. Last year, it was a bit of an experiment. This year, BlogHer is all grown up. It is a real, true, pink (not blue) blogging conference that happens to be focused on women bloggers. I think it was very successful, and certainly seems to have accomplished the initial goal, which was to let everyone know just where all the women bloggers were. Like any conference, it also had its good points and its rough spots.

Let’s start with the good:

• Last year, there was a great deal of tension from and about the Mommy Bloggers. This year, I didn’t sense that. In fact, it felt like the Mommy  Bloggers had really come into their own, realized their market power and were ready to flex their muscles. To quote the 60s anthem, "I am woman, hear me roar." To that I say, good for you. Ride it all the way, baby. The sponsors sure understood mommy buying power, didn’t they? (Subsequently I did read one woman’s anti-mommy rant, but while there I did not feel it, so I’ll stick with my comment).
• There have been some criticisms about the number of sponsors, the fact that they were given the podium before certain sessions that they sponsored and of course, the size small t-shirt from the condom company. Except for the Microsoft Janes on Saturday morning, and about them, I agree with Amy Gahran — blecchh, overall I thought the sponsorships and how the sponsoring companies were handled was well done. In fact, generally better than at most conferences. Sponsors got value for money, attendees weren’t hammered in the head by the sponsors, unless they chose to engage, and the GM cars were REALLY cool. BlogHer didn’t pick the sponsor’s t-shirts or the size, so let it go. Most importantly, BlogHer seeks sponsorships so it can have a great conference, with food and drink and parties and swag, while still keeping the registration costs down. Very few other conferences do that. If we have to put up with a little marketing to have a conference where full boat registration –all days, all events — is about $250, what is there to complain about, hhmm????
• Closing Keynote. One of the best keynote panels I have ever seen at ANY conference. Chris Nolan was a superb moderator, and the four women on the panel Arianna Huffington, Grace Davis, Mena Trott and Caroline Little were funny, open, honest, witty, wonderful. In fact, I hereby add them all to my personal list of Wonderful Wicked Women Bloggers even though I have only met Chris and Grace, and briefly at that. Lisa Stone has a great wrap-up.
• No more lists!! When asked by a "BlogHim" what men could do to help women bloggers, Mena Trott said No more lists! Speaking of Mena, she took a little blog-heat for talking about SixApart’s new VOX product when asked about the future. To that I say — what’s wrong with that? If that is what she is passionate about, and really believes in, what’s wrong with her saying so. Obviously SixApart thinks this is the right direction for the future, otherwise they wouldn’t have committed so much to it. And she was clear to say the product was not for the BlogHer audience, but rather for the large numbers of folks who just want to share among a smaller audience of family and friends. I think people just like to pick on her because she’s young and sometimes less polished than her older counterparts in the industry. Just my .02.

Now to the rough spots. This is just my opinion, and YMMV.

• Overall the sessions I attended were good. But, the technical sessions seemed perhaps a bit too basic, and there was even less "Business Blogging" content than last year. One of the reasons people told us they liked our Unpanel was that it was one of the few business-focused sessions on the agenda. There was quite a bit of talk about perhaps suggesting a second track of advanced or business topics to the BlogHer organizers, which I would certainly support. I’m also going to think about where else I can suggest this Unpanel format. It had an energy that I really liked, and I’d love to do more of them. But…. as I’ve said before, I do believe the session has to have some structure and a collective product. Otherwise, it’s just a chat.
• On a somewhat related theme, I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the mommy and food bloggers. There really weren’t that many of us "business" types there (except of course the "Hims" and I’ll get to that in a minute). Chicken/egg. Did business bloggers not come because there wasn’t enough value or was the audience predominantly personal/small business bloggers, so therefore the agenda was developed for them in the first place. I really like BlogHer but I also want to find an event where the topics I am most interested in (business blogging, citizen journalism, using the new tools in business, etc.) are discussed in the same open, participatory manner that I so appreciate about BlogHer. Some have suggested the New Communications Forum. I plan to check it out.
• In response to the same question mentioned above about how male bloggers could help women, Chris Nolan replied LINK LINK LINK. Which is why I was really disappointed this morning when I read these opening lines on Robert Scoble’s blog: "I think it’s interesting that I met two of my favorite bloggers for the first time at BlogHer (both of whom are men, Guy Kawasaki and John Battelle)." The rest of Scoble’s post was great, and it is his blog so he can do whatever he pleases, but it just kills to see it start with links to other A-listers after the conversation at BlogHer. Then, when I went wandering over to Kawasaki’s blog, I found that pictures taken of him with Scoble and Winer (3% of the Technorati 100) seemed to be what floated his boat. Again, someone I respect and enjoy reading but it seems like maybe he missed the point??? Apparently I am not the only one who’s noticed this — check out Chris Carfi’s post where he relates that about 70% of the BlogHer related posts on techmeme this am, starting with Dave Winer’s somewhat misogynistic screed, were written by men, while the percentage of male attendees at the conference was somewhere just north of 10%. Hhmm. The explanation from techmeme (in the comments) is that techmeme has a tech skew.  Again hhmm. Not good enough. It seems white men can’t dance, but they still can link. To each other. This is what has to change for interesting women tech and business bloggers to break through.

A completely non-comprehensive list of some folks I ran into/chatted with at BlogHer:

• Beth Kanter, shoe and handbag blogger extraordinaire;
• Robert Scoble. I’d never met him before and even though I kind of pick on him above, I was glad to meet him, and found him to be a delightful, generous person. After the closing keynote, I was chatting with Erin Caldwell from Forward Blog (and Edelman) about her sightseeing plans for the following day. Scoble joined the conversation and proceeded to give Erin some wonderful travel hints for San Francisco. I also chatted with Patrick Scoble in the buffet line (about how boys like watermelon — he agreed) and he seems like a really nice kid.
• Evelyn Rodriguez. I wish I had more reasons to chat with Evelyn on a regular basis. Her perspective really helps you sharpen your own.
• Mary Hunt, author of  In Women We Trust
• Tish Grier, my fellow Massachusetts and Corante blogger
• PR/Marketing pals Josh Hallet and Jeremy Pepper
• Nancy White who interviewed me in the podcast session.
• Elisa from Breakingranks
• Amy Gahran has created a wiki for BlogHer posts.
• Nellie Lide

Tags: blogher, blogher06, blogging, business blogging

August 25: trackbacks turned off due to trackback spam