Old boys club is for losers, Anil writes

February 24, 2007 By

Ahh, more talk about conferences that are all male. Anil Dash writes that the old boys club is for losers. I’ll link to TechMeme, cause there’s a bigger conversation going on here.

Funny thing. Out of all the videos I’ve put on ScobleShow, the one that’s gotten on Digg is one of a woman. Shelley Powers deserves the credit for making me focus on this issue over and over. Keep it up Shelley.

Looking at ScobleShow the past two weeks, I have 12 interviews and five of those are with women. Maryam, my wife, and I are always looking for interesting geeky women to get on our show.

Who would you like to see interviewed? Rogers Cadenhead has a good list. We’ve had two of his list 10 Web geeks on the show, but that leaves eight we haven’t.

James Robertson’s comment, on Rogers’ post, resonates with me too: that the goal shouldn’t be just gender/race/creed diversity, but intellectual diversity.

It’s why I really liked the LIFT conference. It wasn’t just the same old boys club.

Filed Under: 1
  • http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/ Rogers Cadenhead

    When I was digging around to compile that list, the story that I’d most like to see told is how Derek Powazek and Heather Powazek Champ’s homebrew, Lulu-published magazine JPG became a newstand publication. Throw in The Fray, Mirror Project and their other efforts, and that’d be a great videocast.

  • http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/ Rogers Cadenhead

    When I was digging around to compile that list, the story that I’d most like to see told is how Derek Powazek and Heather Powazek Champ’s homebrew, Lulu-published magazine JPG became a newstand publication. Throw in The Fray, Mirror Project and their other efforts, and that’d be a great videocast.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Rogers: I’m trying to get Derek to come out on a photowalking. Almost succeeded, but he got sick. That’s a great idea, though.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Heather’s already been on my show, by the way. Would be fun to have them both on at the same time talking about JPG, though.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Rogers: I’m trying to get Derek to come out on a photowalking. Almost succeeded, but he got sick. That’s a great idea, though.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Heather’s already been on my show, by the way. Would be fun to have them both on at the same time talking about JPG, though.

  • http://www.winextra.com/ Steven Hodson

    one show idea you might think of robert is about geek better half’s .. the wives and husbands of those folks who are really into tech – especially if the better half isn’t geek in the least. how do they deal with the geekdom factor?

  • http://www.winextra.com Steven Hodson

    one show idea you might think of robert is about geek better half’s .. the wives and husbands of those folks who are really into tech – especially if the better half isn’t geek in the least. how do they deal with the geekdom factor?

  • http://jetsetshow.com/ Steve Woolf

    Color me biased, but it seems like Zadi Diaz is seriously flying under the radar. A female videoblogger with true tech cred, a hit show (that is also now profitable, btw), signed with UTA, and now working on bridging online and mainstream media woth some of the largest entertainment companies in the world — ? And a Latina, as well.

    Disclaimer: Zadi is my wife and business partner. :)

  • http://jetsetshow.com Steve Woolf

    Color me biased, but it seems like Zadi Diaz is seriously flying under the radar. A female videoblogger with true tech cred, a hit show (that is also now profitable, btw), signed with UTA, and now working on bridging online and mainstream media woth some of the largest entertainment companies in the world — ? And a Latina, as well.

    Disclaimer: Zadi is my wife and business partner. :)

  • http://jetsetshow.com/ Steve Woolf

    Follow-up: and Zadi was also a part of the group that discussed social media with NPR a few days ago in Washington, D.C., and she is moderating a panel at SXSW about Production Companies 2.0. Ok, I’m done campaigning now. :)

  • http://jetsetshow.com Steve Woolf

    Follow-up: and Zadi was also a part of the group that discussed social media with NPR a few days ago in Washington, D.C., and she is moderating a panel at SXSW about Production Companies 2.0. Ok, I’m done campaigning now. :)

  • http://www.melissagira.com/ Melissa Gira

    “one show idea you might think of robert is about geek better half’s”

    No, please, no. There’s so much female geek territory to cover first.

    More so than just hearing from more geeky women, I want to have the conversations that we geek women already have with one another to be covered within the larger geek conversation as well.

  • http://www.melissagira.com Melissa Gira

    “one show idea you might think of robert is about geek better half’s”

    No, please, no. There’s so much female geek territory to cover first.

    More so than just hearing from more geeky women, I want to have the conversations that we geek women already have with one another to be covered within the larger geek conversation as well.

  • http://www.melissagira.com/ Melissa Gira

    (And yes, Zadi would be a perfect place to start.)

  • http://www.melissagira.com Melissa Gira

    (And yes, Zadi would be a perfect place to start.)

  • http://www.ballpark.ch/blog Laurent

    That’s an important issue, me and my fellow conference organizers regularly catch some (diversely deserved) heat on this matter. I think things are getting better, and as I told Kottke it’s not just about women on stage, it’s also about women in the room.

  • http://www.ballpark.ch/blog Laurent

    That’s an important issue, me and my fellow conference organizers regularly catch some (diversely deserved) heat on this matter. I think things are getting better, and as I told Kottke it’s not just about women on stage, it’s also about women in the room.

  • http://maryamie.spaces.live.com/ maryam scoble

    Steven,

    Jill is already doing that. Here’s her blog and she is working on a documentary interviewing couples who are both geeks or one of them is a geek and the other is not. She already got Robert and me :)

    http://livingwithgeeks.wordpress.com/

  • http://maryamie.spaces.live.com maryam scoble

    Steven,

    Jill is already doing that. Here’s her blog and she is working on a documentary interviewing couples who are both geeks or one of them is a geek and the other is not. She already got Robert and me :)

    http://livingwithgeeks.wordpress.com/

  • http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/ lnxwalt

    As a Black male, I have to tell you, if I did have the money and time to go to a conference, an insular (all male, all White, all NorCal, or all ???) group of presenters or attendees might be enough to dissuade me from going. If you really want these things to grow and to *stay* strong, you have to do something different. I discussed this on James Robertson’s post, Anil’s post, and on my own blog: http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/industry-diversity-in-conferences/

  • http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/ lnxwalt

    As a Black male, I have to tell you, if I did have the money and time to go to a conference, an insular (all male, all White, all NorCal, or all ???) group of presenters or attendees might be enough to dissuade me from going. If you really want these things to grow and to *stay* strong, you have to do something different. I discussed this on James Robertson’s post, Anil’s post, and on my own blog: http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/industry-diversity-in-conferences/

  • http://miniaturemage.blogspot.com/ MiniMage

    I’m a black female, and I’ve had no luck getting ANYWHERE other than to free events and local classes in operating systems I’ve already been supporting (I still learned plenty, of course!). I’ve recently submitted a justification for TechEd 2007. With a new OS and new Office version to support, this year would be better than any of the other years I’ve requested to be sent. Wish me luck.

  • http://miniaturemage.blogspot.com MiniMage

    I’m a black female, and I’ve had no luck getting ANYWHERE other than to free events and local classes in operating systems I’ve already been supporting (I still learned plenty, of course!). I’ve recently submitted a justification for TechEd 2007. With a new OS and new Office version to support, this year would be better than any of the other years I’ve requested to be sent. Wish me luck.

  • http://raincoaster.com/ raincoaster

    Well Northern Voice was pretty diverse: I wonder why that is. I was there the first year, and it was easily 80% male; this year it seemed a lot closer to 60/40.

    I think one reason is that there simply aren’t as many female geeks as male ones, but that the NV conference also examines the social aspects of blogging, drawing from the non-techie and larger side of blogging. I mean, blogging isn’t technical, and the majority of blogs in the world belong to women (according to the Pew Institute).

    The session at NV07 which had the highest female/male ratio was the one on Internet dating, although my stats talk was pretty close to 50/50 too. Robert, your show is geek-centric, so you’re always going to be limited to pulling from the pool that’s there, but it would be a mistake to think that the geek demographic is identical to the blogger demographic.

  • http://raincoaster.com/ raincoaster

    Well Northern Voice was pretty diverse: I wonder why that is. I was there the first year, and it was easily 80% male; this year it seemed a lot closer to 60/40.

    I think one reason is that there simply aren’t as many female geeks as male ones, but that the NV conference also examines the social aspects of blogging, drawing from the non-techie and larger side of blogging. I mean, blogging isn’t technical, and the majority of blogs in the world belong to women (according to the Pew Institute).

    The session at NV07 which had the highest female/male ratio was the one on Internet dating, although my stats talk was pretty close to 50/50 too. Robert, your show is geek-centric, so you’re always going to be limited to pulling from the pool that’s there, but it would be a mistake to think that the geek demographic is identical to the blogger demographic.

  • http://www.henrietteweber.com/ henriette weber andersen

    Hi Robert, it really was a cool lift07 conference, I think you should try and talk to Tara Hunt, or Dannie Jost for an interview – ladies who makes impact in their own little ways…

    ohh and if you want to interview somebody about web apps, future and creativity – I would be up for it too *s*

  • http://www.henrietteweber.com henriette weber andersen

    Hi Robert, it really was a cool lift07 conference, I think you should try and talk to Tara Hunt, or Dannie Jost for an interview – ladies who makes impact in their own little ways…

    ohh and if you want to interview somebody about web apps, future and creativity – I would be up for it too *s*

  • http://miniaturemage.blogspot.com/ MiniMage

    TechEd 2007 ROCKED! I was the happiest tech in the world! I also chuckled every time I saw a line outside the men’s restrooms (anyone who reads this blog post knows why there was no line in the women’s restrooms).

  • http://miniaturemage.blogspot.com MiniMage

    TechEd 2007 ROCKED! I was the happiest tech in the world! I also chuckled every time I saw a line outside the men’s restrooms (anyone who reads this blog post knows why there was no line in the women’s restrooms).