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Thank You, Dave Winer

I was waiting for Dave Winer to notice that women might be taking over his blogging turf. Although he credits me for Bloghercon, the idea originated with Elisa Camahort and Lisa Stone; I was merely the first to post about it, after Elisa  brought up the idea and I heartily endorsed it.

Well, my feeling is that until they integrate bathrooms in this country, women need their own pissing pot. The metaphor extends beyond the bathroom to the blog post, because women not only talk about different things on their posts but also they tend to write in different ways than men bloggers do. That's part of what Bloghercon is for: to explore how and why women blog, and perhaps establish new connections among the women who do blog.

Although we are all human beings, as Dave points out, it's also true that there are far fewer women in tech and far fewer women who blog. Bloghercon could address these issues. Are women intimidated by speaking publicly on the Net? Are they more vulnerable to being flamed? How can we encourage women to feel safe about blogging?

I would hope Bloghercon might resolve these issues. Of course, men should be welcome to participate as long as the focus of the conference is on women and the blogosphere. I'm sure Dave would have a lot to contribute, as a blogger and as a human being, who has supported many women, myself included.

March 13, 2005 |

Comments

Thanks Sylvia. This morning Lisa and I each posted a post to address some of the questions being raised about Bloghercon.

Lisa specifically addresses Dave's questions in her post:
http://surfette.typepad.com/surfette/2005/03/should_blogemhe.html

And I address other questions that have been raised here:
http://workerbeesblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/some-bloghercon-reaction-begs-for.html

Posted by: Elisa Camahort | March 14, 2005 at 08:58 AM

Shall I assume that you would have no issues with a male focussed convention? I'm not really into conventions personally, but I think it would be good for everyone going into this to clarify that segmentation is alright on many levels.

Posted by: Duane Gran | March 15, 2005 at 01:48 PM

Here's what I think about this -- it's a shame there aren't more women at the conferences I go to. I measure the success of the conferences I run to some extent by how gender balanced they are. I like women, the same way you like men Sylvia. I hope we don't end up with segregated conferences, that is not a win in my opinion.

Posted by: Dave Winer | May 03, 2005 at 12:29 PM

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