Worker Bees Blog

A few weeks ago Lisa Stone and I shared a long, interesting lunch in Palo Alto, and emerged at the end with an idea for a great conference: Bloghercon. Truth be told our first idea was Bloggirlcon, but as Lisa recounts here in her Bloghercon announcement, luckily she was presented with an even better moniker.

We've each been sharing our concept with a few women bloggers we know, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Lisa outlines some of her thoughts in the aforementioned post.

And here are some of mine:

If I was going to give you just two links to read, they would be: Shelley's recent and hysterical satire of men and their links and Chris Nolan's response to the Larry Summer brou-ha-ha.

Men, as well as women, have been asking, "Where are the women?" And we have been responding...we're right here. That the same question is being asked now as was asked one year ago or two years ago is frustrating, but the real question is: what, if anything, do women bloggers want to do about it?

There's room in Bloghercon for philosophical discussion on questions like:

-Is blogging genderless? If you didn't know a blogger's name, could you always tell their gender? And does it matter?
-If, as Shelley claims, links are the powerful talisman of the male blogger, and to women sometimes a link is just a link, then what do women want to get out of blogging?
-How can such a new medium already have an "old boy's club"? Or is this just a continuation of an existing club? Does certain content make a woman an acceptable mascot for that club, while other kinds of expression will keep us out?
-Do women marginalize themselves without any help from men? What drives us to do that?

Even more importantly, Lisa and I want to have a Bloghercon to take action:

-Do we care if there is and old boy's club-does it affect us? Do we want to be part of that club? Do we want to change the club?
-If we care, then how can women promote women, without being dismissed as a sewing circle? And should we? Is creating a women's network the answer, or do we really seek gender-transparency?
-Where are the other barriers? And what are we trying to break through those barriers to do?
-What would be measurable success? If we had a Bloghercon again in a year what would cause us to pat ourselves on the back and say "job well done"?

I am a bit torn personally. You see, every time I ask the question, "why are there so few women in the Technorati Top 100?", my next thought is, "Who cares about the Technorati Top 100? Is that a desirable measure? And if not, then what is?"

We can all acknowledge that there are different kinds of bloggers, and some will never care about links and traffic and being quoted...that's not why they blog. But there's a whole group of women bloggers who are creative and expressive, but also ambitious and driven about their blogging.

How do we all increase our individual satisfaction within the group endeavor that is the blog community? That's what Bloghercon will explore.

So, to echo Lisa's challenge:

"So: Do you want Bloghercon? And, if so, why and how?"

Visit Lisa and me and let us know a) if you're interested, b) if you'd like to help and c) what you'd like to get out of Bloghercon.

PS-Yes, this is the evolution of the bloggirlcon concept Sylvia mentioned in her blog.


Bloghercon