As I have mentioned, I missed Susie Bright’s panel  (Let’s Talk About Sex) at Blogher.  TW recorded it and I had the pleasure of listening to it this morning.  Here’s the file: Download blogher_sex_panel.mp3

Technorati Tags: blogher, blogher06, bloghercon, letstalkaboutsex, audio

The only bloody panel I really wanted to attend with a passion and I missed it.  Susie Bright. (with other cool women – Halley Suitt, Melissa Gira, Logan Lewkoff —  but Susie BRIGHT).  Gah.  TW recorded it but I haven’t listened.  Maybe tomorrow while I’m suppose to be writing a report.  Heh.  Nah, tomorrow on my lunchbreak.  I deserve a lunchbreak, right?

This is what I missed….

The far more brutal issue, in women’s blogging, isn’t whether you have the sense to refrain from advertising your teenager’s puberty, or your husband’s nose hairs— it’s the fact that gender bias will paint you whore-red. It’s gender bias that will condemn you for your impudence in speaking on female passage.

In her post, here, she mentions attending a panel (I was there live blogging it) and a man kept interrupting (you notice I did not mention this in my liveblogging – he gets enough visiblity, so I left him out! heh.)

The Q&A began… and each time a woman in the audience asked a question, one lone man sitting at a nearby table, rose to answer. He cut off the presenters, he cut off everyone. He had to be the first, and he had to have the last word.

He was blind to the eyes rolling around him. Eye-rolling all we did— no one said to him, "Dude, shut up already." He was indulged and allowed to sail off without realizing that he had alienated every last person in there. I doubt anyone from his mother on out has ever given him a clue, because our deferential postures. I feel ashamed of myself for sitting there and writhing in silence.

I think a lot of us are sort of use to this gentleman, he’s very knowledgeable about the topic and he’s very bright.  I was bugged because I think he took the session if not off topic then into areas  that didn’t need to be addressed at that time, in that particular session.  I don’t think most of the women in the room were in need of that sort of discussion about the topic.  Most were like Susie and trying to simply figure out what it was all about or how they could do it better.  And I think they didn’t get that information from the panel, partly because this very well-known person jumped in over and over again, and took it where it didn’t need to go.  His input didn’t answer either of those two questions, they just muddied the waters. Notice in my liveblogging, in parenthesis I mentioned we needed Badger and her post it notes – I think that would have really worked for the beginners in the group.)

I missed Susie Bright, man that just stinks.  Elisa, it’s all your fault!  😉

Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06, susiebright, sex

I am still traveling and have very little time to write but I’m getting really sort of annoyed and troubled by some of the blog posts I’m reading regarding Blogher’s cliques, celebrities and queers.

DnW – people are celebrities because we love them, we read them and we are thrilled to meet them in person.  What is wrong with that?  Why would you want to see it diminished and just how would you suggest we go about this?  Would you prefer it if those women who write wonderful blogs, wrote less well and acquired less success and fame?  I don’t get your point.  In fact worse than that, I’m really upset by it. 

The women who were flocked by their fans and their friends deserve the attention.  They work hard at what they do.  They write well.  They tell stories that we love reading.  They are women worth meeting and worth flocking to.  Haven’t you ever wanted to meet someone you respected and admired for their work?  Haven’t you ever squealed with delight when you were able to meet someone like that?  Or have you never felt an attachment of that nature so you simply can’t understand it and so must try and convince others that their feelings are somehow wrong or even harmful?

SourDuck (who I was thrilled to meet in person, by the way – straight white woman that she is) – ahhh so many things to say but really really no time to say them.  I’ll start with this – those dykes you met who were troubled that they didn’t meet any other dykes, did they attempt to start a Birds of a Feather group for queers?  Did they not realize the initial BOF groups were started based on the surveys filled out by Bloghers and there simply weren’t enough people who said they wanted a BOF for gays?  That didn’t mean they couldn’t start their own, I most certainly started my own group, as did many other women.  Oh wait, since I’m a lesbian I should have felt some responsibility to create a group for those poor queer folks, right?  My bad.  Next time I’ll be happy to pigeonhole myself into that group, just to make sure these women don’t feel like they’re being ignored.  Since obviously, I should only be interested in talking about gender or orientation issues.  I always forget that, someday someone is going to take my gay membership card away.

Did those dykes not go to the Identity panel where a woman stood up and said am I the only lesbian here and a room full of hands went up?  And did those dykes realize that the identity blogging issues being addressed by the women of color, multi-racial families were very similar to those of queer women?  If you attended the Outreach panel then you know that I did mention  my orientation.  I’m pretty sure, (though I wasn’t able to attend), that the sex panel would have been more than happy to hear from the dykes in the room.  The naked blogging panel, also a good place to present naked blogging of orientation issues.   There were plenty of opportunities for lesbians to make their issues and their feelings and their personalities known – if they didn’t do that, then why is that "Blogher’s" fault?  The opportunities were there.   

I met several lesbians, completely by accident, simply by talking to women sitting around me.   I certainly never felt unincluded or unwanted or unaccepted and I didn’t feel I got less out of the conference simply because all of the dykes weren’t plopped in a circle, holding hands and chanting gay pride chants while the rest of the Bloghers looked on and cheered. 

Sour Duck says that she knows of at least four lesbians and bloghers who have made a large contribution to Blogher… and we’re all suppose to feel like we "didn’t count" … don’t count me as one of the four who felt this way, because I felt like I counted as a woman, as a human being, as a blogger, a blogher, a panelist and a PERSON and I felt respected for who I am, completely, by every single person I spoke to.  The very fact that you’re suggesting I should feel "like I don’t count" or shouldn’t have felt like I fit in is insulting to me.  I fit in, very well, thank you.  I was respected and appreciated.   

The swag is swag, Blogher got sponsors and that’s the swag we received.   The majority of Bloghers in attendance are appear to be straight, they were white, and many did appear to be mommies.   So freaking what. 

If you don’t like the baby bib, toss the freaking thing to a mommy who will like it or donate it to a shelter.   Sour Duck complains that TWO out of the huge number of gifts were targeted to reproduction and heterosexual sexualities (FYI if you’re a dyke and you’re playing with sex toys and non-monogamous, that condom could actually come in handy.)  – TWO out of dozen upon dozen of items, (actually there was also a PBS wipe off calendar, Sour Duck overlooked so 3 and then pasties, obviously a queer woman would never want pasties, someone ought to tell that to my partner.)  What would gay friendly swag have looked like and who would have been the sponsor who provided such a thing?  Dental dams along with the condoms, would that have made you happy?

Should Blogher completely ignore the parents in the group because we wouldn’t want to offend the childfree or the lesbians or those unable to conceive or adopt?  Swag isn’t a political statement or a social statement.  Some dykes and some feminists and some women want to make it such, but don’t count me with you.  There are bigger issues than what came in the swag bag.  The attitudes of some women attendees and non-attendees trouble me a lot more than the swag.

Dykes – get off your high horses and quit looking for insult where there is none and stop whining about your mistreatment and start appreciating ALL women, because if you had given the straight white mommies half a chance, you’d have learned a little more about the life you’re living in – and I’d be a lot less annoyed by my sister lesbians than I am right now.   And any straight girls offended or offended FOR the lesbians – please.  I don’t need anyone offended for me.  I don’t need anyone making sweeping statements for me.  I don’t need anyone telling me I should feel like I don’t count.

updated at 1:45 ET

Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06, lesbians, celebrity, alist

Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06

Yes, there were some not so great moments at Blogher.  Life is like that, so why should Blogher be any different?  Luckily the things that weren’t so great were pretty unimportant.

Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06

Names of people who signed up (all of these did not join us – if your name is here and you attended, could you leave a comment here please and include your blog url if you have one.  If you joined us and your name is not on the list, again leave a comment w/ your url so I can add you. If your name is misspelled, leave a comment, please.  Some names were difficult to read on the sign in sheet.)

Lianne

Kim

Barbara

Liz

Steve

Barbara

Cynthia

Anne Marie

Laura

Laurie

Judy

Gena

Marisa

Topics mentioned or discussed

-Using blogs to help ESL students maintain their language skills (specifically someone who taught English in China)

-Using blogs in corporate world (GM and their children’s information area)

-Using blogs to bring information and discussion to the generation who has music videos, advertising, tv etc… books aren’t getting the message to this generation

-Connecting blogging at all levels of education – from elementary, to middle school to high school to college. 

-Blogging for learning disabled and special needs kids (and their parents)

-Teaching people who are afraid to use the "back button" on their computer to use blogging tools

-DOPA – extensive discussion about what passing DOPA would mean now, and in the future (breeding a second class group of citizens)

Here are some links

Further contact

I have email addresses and urls for some of you, but not for others.  If you would like to connect with someone from the BoF list, please leave a comment or send me an email at dtanton @ gmail . com  I also have some ideas for a few of you, know people who might have an interest in your topic.  Please contact me and let me know if you’d like to be connected. 

Technorati Tags: blogher, birdsofafeather, edublogging

Blogher Chat is Up and I am in there at the moment.  I’ll probably go in and out all day.  🙂

I love chat.

Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06, chat

Tagging, Tracking, Structured Blogging  Charlene Li and Marnie Webb

What is tagging?  a keyword or a label given to something (photo, link, podcast, blog post) to help organize material online.  Assigned casually, not as a part of a formal taxonomy that you have to rigidly follow.  Adhoc nature of tagging, sort of like your bookmarks – where did I put that link? which folder did I use?  (a bookmark folder is like a tag for organization)

What’s the difference between a category and a tag?  A category is a type of tag.  "Tagging" allows a deeper level of categorization – he tags house, she tags home.  (you can have a recipe category and then tag specific recipes based on what type of recipe you’re focusing on)

Jess (just say jess/chirky) – is it possible to put an invisible tag on your site (keywords in typepad can do)

Video doesn’t have text that can be searched, so if you add tags the video then becomes searchable.

Tag clouds?  Navigation – most popular tags.  ordered alphabetical and then size of words indicates most popular "tags". 

Metadata – if tags categorize one piece of content, metadata is data about data.  Keywords tags together form metadata.  iTunes  has metadata, type of podcast, duration, author, explicit content – structural info about an item.

Delicious = social bookmarking.  Public bookmark folders, sorted by tags or keywords.  Richer way to organize bookmarks.  You end up with 200 tags and you forget how you tag – use mom once and then mother another time.

Are there any conventions about dealing with synonyms.  Different words for the same thing is good – conveys information about the topic.  (Saying coke, pop and soda makes it hard to find content but the fact that there ARE multiple words and phrases for something is important. )  Search engines are beginning to build in synonym toggles.  "Related tags" often helps with this.

Keywords can be tags, tags can be keywords – it depends on how you’re using both.   

Argument about keywords and tags.  Context of tagging is IN and keywords is OUT – keywords is isolation, tagging is socialization.

(Can I just say this is fun?  The whole keyword tagging frustration thing is fascinating.   I think we need Badger in here with her post it notes to teach tagging, because these folks just don’t get it – and adding keywords in is causing more confusion and even mentioning categories is muddling things.)

Amy Gahran has a dream – to see a search engine that pulled together all of the tags on the internet.  Technorati does to a small extent.  Try Tag Fetch.

Here’s the link to the technorati tag bookmarklet

Charlene liks Furl – (I prefer spurl but I also toss my spurls into delicious).  Furl saves a complete copy of the web page which is something spurl does not.   Furl (and spurl) allow you to hide links private – apparently delicious has this too. 

Marnie likes del.icio.us because it is serendipitous – she has fun exploring topics, watching the folksonomy, following hidden pathways.  Not organized search, meandering activity particularly in new topic wanderings.  Use a tag that a her "group" knows – they all ues the tag to share data.  (like nancy white uses communityindicators)

"Structured blogging – microformats" – microformats is the standard used to map content.  structures blogging is the front-end.  How do you create microformats?  Templates offered on sites.  Mashups.  Yahoo local, Judy’s book, Meetup Edegio use microformats.   

hreview creator – paste the code onto your site.  (Charlene doesn’t recommend) Plugins for wordpress and moveable type.  Find them at structuredblogging.org

Technorati Tags: blogher, tagging, bloghercon, blogher06

Lisa posted writing assignments for this panel.  This room has had connection problems so I may not be able to post.  We shall see.

Lynn D Johnson (who I love – and had the pleasure of photographing in the convertible, heh)

Words are power.

Beth – having trouble moving from tech writing to blog writing.  What is blog writing?

Elke (I’m not 100% sure this is who was speaking, I think it was though)- anything you want it to be.  Techy writers, politics, daily writing (it’s her email to everyone, her party chat) no rules, tell as much or as little as you like.

Dina – conversations with dina – it’s about conversations.  I write like I’m talking to people.

Cross Left. Org (progressive Christian Site) … I write because I can because I want to because I must.  Passionate about … change we want to create in the world.  Through words we have the power to create change and inspire people.

Ten Types

Readers

Presentation

Word choice

Conversations

Headlines

Attribution

Link blogging

Essay Blogging

Question and answer

Reviews and how tos

~~

As a publisher, you know what you want your words to "look like" but people are using various types of devices to read you so your words aren’t going to look the way you want them to look. But you want to think about the reader.  The layout and presentation are important.

Writing on the web art or science? Both – words are the identity. 

Readers – how effective are you?  your readers know – ask the readers, ask for feedback, listen to the feedback.  Keep it in perspective.

Word choices — choose your words for clarity, professionalism, voice, punctuation, profanity, buzz.

Do you want to have a conversation, or not.  If you don’t want to let people’s voices be heard, then why have comments?  If you aren’t going to interact, then why have comments?   Colleen Lemasters – legal made her close comments and won’t let them screen and then post.   They worry due to winery, alcohol (Sutters Wine) – 21 or older, but they still worry.   Visitors can email her and she’ll reply via email.   

Annette  (I think this is audio that Professor Kim did with Annette) – Rosie & Star article.  When she visited Rosie’s blog, she wanted to see the comments she got about her comments regarding Star.  Rosie closes comments so she thinks it’s cowardly.   

Verymom – if you’re writing a personal website and you get mean people that say awful things…. when I turn them off, I miss the friendship and interaction. But sometimes it’s just too much so you have to close the comments.  Lisa is talking about people who’ve put up blogs that are anti-Rosie, in response to what she says on her blog.   

Ane Marie – Citizen Mom’s family journal… not a real blog.  No comments.  "Dupont" – people can email her and will sometimes send emailed comments – but it isn’t blogging because there are no bloggers.  She’s totally gotten rid of the childfree people on her personal blogs.

Chris foreman? I think is an author – she wasn’t aware that all blogs need to be a conversation…. does a blog have to be a conversation?  Reading an author’s journal, is that still a blog without comments?  Is that a website or something else.   Lisa says as long as you set reader expecatations, you’re ok.   

Amy Garhran is talking about conversational media now…. organizations, including news organizations, and they are really scared about comments.  They don’t like conversation – it’s we talk, you listen.  You don’t have to have comments to have a blog, but you can open up occasionally or in small situations – ease your way into comments, pick and choose your topics that allow comments.  (this was a big discussion and it was stopped before it really ended, because of time constraints. )

Minnie says curse when it’s appropriate and when it isn’t.  (So when is that?)  Having fuck in your headline is not going to bring people to you for the content you want them to come for, unless you’re blogging about fucking (sorry, no profanity rule broken today).   

Grace Davis says that using fuck, takes mommybloggers and parenting to another level – it breaks boundaries, its’ not about gingham and teddies.  Amy Gahran – listening to the Scoble podcast/Naked Conversations = Shel and Robert had to adjust the language on their blog to deal with the word naked and the comments/traffic it came. 

Someone else (?) -saying the word "shit" made her feel powerful long ago but now it just doesn’t.  Jory says Scoble named it Naked Conversations because he knew it would get traffic.  A music blogger says writers/musicians insist they have to be able to curse.  TW says she was reading a corporate blog and saw the word "ass" and she thought "can he say that????"  if it had been on a mommy blog she wouldn’t have thought twice but on that blog, was it appropriate?

Lisa Stone – how to write – once upon a time… and then one day, an event happens… (you can say as many "and then one days" as you want) and then there’s some resolution. And that’s how you write a story.   Chris Nolan – future of media.  Dana Boyd – columbine, myspace in her future of media.

Now Lisa’s "assignments" – writing headlines. 

Technorati Tags: blogher, blogging, writing, styles