Gender and Netsquared

Only that you better tell me when it is:) That being said I have some reservations...

I mean if we are talking a nice two day conference where chicks get together relax, get to know one another and re-charge their batteries that's fine..

However, if we are talking about an event where the end goal is to discuss how to make positive change around gender issues in tech than here are my suggestions;

I think that gender-awareness, if it is going to play a role in making significant change in the ecology of web communities, should not exclusively take place in womens-specific events. A fem-barcamp should be open and advertised to anyone who wants to discussive progressive change on the WWW. Because otherwise there is an element of preaching to the converted.

Here's another justification; The main force of most patriarchal/ dominating systems hinges on networks. The accessability and visibility of the people in the network being generally obscure to protect their power and discourage you from obtaining any of your own.

I don't want to repeat the same mistake by making an awesome network of plugged in and forward-thinking ladies, but having it be exclusive and to all intents and purposes a little ghetto-ized. I want a bunch of progressives of any stripe getting together to talk gender and tech.

I would hope that even if you are not a girl you have gotten sick of the way you are pigeon-holed by your equipment and your basic social role on the web, as much as I have.

Okay I am not an idiot. Probably most guys won't care as much as me about gender, but then I see my role as also telling them why they should care and that just because my gender has historically gotten the shorter end of the stick as far as rights, responsabilities and respect is concerned that doesn't make it all my job to do the social -norm adjusting.

I also want people to think that being aware of gender equity and knowing how to enable progressive behaviours in your day to day life, is a charming and excellent end-goal from a political marketing perspective.

Okay enough ideological spit-balling. As far as practical guidelines for the gencamp; (femcamp? what kind of camp can we call this..)

- Make the structure of the sessions and the way they are conducted embody participative principals and don't limit who can attend.

Examples of participative principals in action include;

- make it clear how to register a session in advance, and solicit attendees to register early and describe their session descriptions early so people know what to expect coming in.

- make it very clear who is responsible for what and how people can commnicate with them. It's not bad to have leadership - it's quite good. It's bad when people don't take responsability for their leadership. (Short aside: The problem in many progressive groups is that no-one wants to be the "leader" because they think leadership = bad guy. Then there is this new problem created where no-one takes responsability for anything and that is just as paralayzing for change as not knowing who is making the decisions and how to affect them).

- Try to make the space accessible with good sitelines, amenities on the ground floor, good acoustics, and then use appropriate signage.

- Once at the site make sure the barcamp leadership do not stick in a tight group with only the people they know. Poeple who run the show need to circulate.

- Try not to have any closed door meetings about the event during the event. Do any prep meetings before and post the minutes of the meeting somewhere online so that poeple can read them if they so desire.

Leading a session;

- During the session encourage as many people to speak as possible.

- Stay away from single subject experts as leaders. Pick or encourage session leadership based on one's ability to communicate effectively with a large group. Have the experts be part of the group and provide their information as part of a larger discussion.

- If you are moderating or leading a session, make a collective list of goals for the session at the start so you know why your audiance has arrived. Try to achieve their goals not your own.

God that was long sorry, you did ask ;)

Also probably a bunch of this is stuff you already know from your own work, hope I didn't talk your ear off.

- mir

Miriam
The Flink ( http://www.flinknet.com/theflink )
"like harnessing a unicorn to harvest potatoes"

I think that the only thing that I didn't like about netsquared was there was definitely too much talking at versus conversation - particularly in the keynotes as well as the breakout sessions - notable exception the gender session and a few others. So, I think your comments are so right on.

In the session, Katrin Verlcas suggested a bar camp for nonprofit tech women - and I love the idea ... any advice, thoughts?

Conference envy kicks in.

I was at a Bar-camp a couple of weeks ago and it was a really interesting contrasted against the experience I had at Blogher.

Both were meant to be participative events as compared to your standard conference and IMHO one succeeded (Blogher) and one was less successful (barcampTdot).

That being said;

I think un-conferences need to happen in an inclusive way. A space doesn't have to be women-only to be welcoming to women, but I think a lot of techies/bleeding edge types need to start exploring really alternative forms of leadership and community building to their normal habits. And i do think social progressives (who have a larger representation of women) have been exploring those types of models a lot more then tradtional tech types have been.

I feel like up to now the gender discussion has been limited to a tokenistic thing; "How many women attended?" versus "What are we doing to make this conference more equitable, more accessible, and more responsive to everyone regardless of their gender?" I am excited by the potential to franchise the Blogher method. I don't want to be invited to a space just to up the chick quotient anymore, it doesn't satisfy my politics. I would rather be invited becasue I am known by the wide majority for the kind of work I do. That will only happen if the networks (techie and progressive) restructure themselves to listen to each other a lot better.

ps: I was also at a Drupalcamp event and it was hella-better than the barcampTdot. So much more information presented in a way that was informative to everyone and took into careful account their skill level their interest etc..

But I love Drupal so I am biased.

I know this is long.. but my final gripe about *camps vs confs in general. It appears that the answer to too much structure has turned into *no structure* when I think the really good idea Blogher has is *very careful structure* with clear delineations for; how to get involved, where to put your mark, and how to contribute your ideas.

Phewf. Guess I had a lot to get off my chest..

Miriam
The Flink ( http://www.flinknet.com/theflink )
"like harnessing a unicorn to harvest potatoes"

Beth - you are a tornado at conferences woman! Couple of thoughts based on your blogs and my experience there:

- You did a great liveblog of the keynote ( http://www.netsquared.org/blog/kanter/live-bloggin... ). I'm fascinated by Angela Glover's closing comment about how threatening and emancipating it is to work with technology that equips vulnerable people to speak for themselves. You blogged her as saying, "If we believe what we have been saying, then this is our most exciting moment. Test the legitimacy of what we're saying." Cutting edge, honest commentary.

- As I said in the chat, I thought Tara Hunt's presentation of Pinko Marketing was brilliant. Anyone looking for someone to speak on why and how a user oriented approach to product and market is different from typical marketing needs to hire her to come speak. Here's her wiki: http://pinkomarketing.pbwiki.com/.

- Congrats to Netsquared jefa Marnie Webb (full-disclosure: She's a BlogHer Conference Advisor) for leading a terrific conference. I got a ton out of it.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder ( http://www.blogher.com/member/lisa-stone )
Surfette ( http://surfette.typepad.com )