Notes on Gender and the social web
(came in late) Women need to do the deal.
Technology conferences -- tend to be 10% women, If you aren't present at the conversation, aren't there in building the architecture. Example, gender isn't part of the whole online identity discussion. Social Networking
Experience around online organizing and politics. Women are better at dialog, actually talking to each other, not at each other. MainstreamMoms. What would it mean to have women drive social networking portion of organizing tools, allow for lateral and bottoms up communication.
All online communications tech will soon by dominated by women. Lisa tells personal story of leaving traditional journalist for internet journalist. Better home life. Later became head editor of http://women.com Women are better communicators because they are better listeners. The best way to engage women is listen to them. Picked Drupal because it would allow for multiple conversations. Have 60 editors, not just a few.
Katrin Verclas -- with mobile phones, even though industry is dominated by men, mobile is very accessible to women.
Audience -- Women dominate the online volunteering work. Offline, women and men talk differently about their time. Men talk about coaching or donating time, not about "volunteering".
Catherine Geanuracos -- women don't seem to be as motivated on advancing themselves as helping others.
Audience (running "youth noise" web site) -- a lot of what attracts difference gender audiences is presentation. Contrasts with Guerilla News site, using Army metaphor.
[Editorial note -- only session so far where I really saw members of the audience talking to each other.]
Christine Herron -- Backfence vs Bayosphere shows difference in gender attraction.
Lisa Stone -- Backfence feels much more like a safe place to comment. Not as much chest beating.
Christine Herron -- having a safe place doesn't scale up and
Erica Rios -- Myspace very sexist. Search engine defaults to searching for women. Profiles shown are most often women. How do we go from a place of apology to a place of assertiveness.
Lisa Stone -- Blogher is trying to empower women. First day is training in technology. What are best places for tech training?
Kaliya Hamlin -- I'm a Drupal user, I went to OSCON, I was the only women involved in the discussion about what Drupal was going to be.
[Lots more great conversation that I wasn't able to get in my notes.]
Christine Herron -- plugs Omidyar. Says that women involved in the companies they have invested in 1/3 of investments, thinks it is because 65% of people working in investment arm are women. Initial VP of Investments was gender open.
Lisa Stone -- Best way to success is to give up control. For Blogher conference, second day is all organized by women with good ideas who got support from the community.
Christine Herron -- "If you are having a good party, it is about who is on the guest list". Take a system level look at what you are trying to accomplish. Do the Systems Level
Two Drupal shops are women organized, floatleft.org, pinkvision.
Catherine Geanuracos -- Know you goal and make sure you are always headed there.
Fran Maier -- Do the deal, do the mentoring, and raise your sons well.
Susan Mernit --
Billy Bicket(guy) -- how is Blogher mobilizing "dudes that get it"?
Lisa Stone -- Lisa tells story about starting Blogher, and the question she gets about "Are Men invited to Blogher?". Guy Kawasaki -- asked when he would get to be the first man to talk at Blogher. The worm is turning. Join the website.
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Comments
Thoughts on gender session
This is obviously an important an ongoing topic.
My emotional reaction was turbulent--I was sad that after 40 years of working on these issues, people were still talking about being the only woman in the room, filters against hiring women etc; glad that there were feisty, smart, dynamic women working on these things. And at 56, I felt really tired--I already spent my years being the only woman in the room. And grateful that in much of the NPO world, this is less and less an issue.
My intellectual reaction was that we were using a simplified and distorting notion of gender--that there are men and women, and each had widely observed characteristics. IN fact, gender is a a continuum, includes lots of mixes of biology (male and female) and gender (masculine and feminine) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual). When we work toward maximum accessibility and participation, we need a nuanced understanding of these issues, not a simple duality. Only such a nuanced structure allows for "dudes who get it," women who don't fit stereotypes, and all the rest of us.
I want to encourage us to keep talking about these things, but to be as conscious as we can of the complexities of it all.
Cheers, Sandra Whisler, Managing Director, Compumentor
Thoughts on gender session
This is obviously an important an ongoing topic.
My emotional reaction was turbulent--I was sad that after 40 years of working on these issues, people were still talking about being the only woman in the room, filters against hiring women etc; glad that there were feisty, smart, dynamic women working on these things. And at 56, I felt really tired--I already spent my years being the only woman in the room. And grateful that in much of the NPO world, this is less and less an issue.
My intellectual reaction was that we were using a simplified and distorting notion of gender--that there are men and women, and each had widely observed characteristics. IN fact, gender is a a continuum, includes lots of mixes of biology (male and female) and gender (masculine and feminine) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual). When we work toward maximum accessibility and participation, we need a nuanced understanding of these issues, not a simple duality. Only such a nuanced structure allows for "dudes who get it," women who don't fit stereotypes, and all the rest of us.
I want to encourage us to keep talking about these things, but to be as conscious as we can of the complexities of it all.
Cheers, Sandra Whisler, Managing Director, Compumentor