Don't Swoop Your Ass in at the Last Minute and Minimize This Woman

Melinda's post on the conference hubub of last week pisses me off.

To take writing like I've done over this last week on the topic of male-only and nearly-only conferences, and to dumb it down to my post about getting your ass on Skype, does me a disservice. And I've worked too hard and am too long in this field to be done a disservice without speaking up about it.

Just for the record, you might want to check out the following if you're here looking for that Skype post. These are Other Things I Wrote Before The Topic Showed Up On BlogHer:

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The Biggest/Smallest Prick Award - wherein I call out by name the makers of some of the stupidest comments of the week.

Your Balls Are In Your Court - wherein I tell me who are my friends and colleagues, Fuck You, for endorsing a conference with (formerly--before we spoke up) 53 men and 1 woman.

Unfuck Stowe Boyd - wherein I tell how a real man might respond to a Fuck You from a woman.

Crunchnotes Comments - wherein I push back against the organizer of Yet Another Men-Only Conference with zero help from the ladies.

MORE LINKS inspired by this discussion over the last several days.:

  The Twelve (or so) Step Program for Conference Speakers and Organisers  

There's been a lot of talk the last few days about Office 2.0, a conference that brought gender inequality in technology to a new low. Fifty three speakers and one woman was the original unpleasant statistic, and a few people got very ...
posted by suw.charman@gmail.com @ 5:00 PM

  What not to do when organising a conference  

I was reminded of Dr. Ellen Weber article on performance lately, when I read some news coming out of the office 2.0 conference. Remember you’ll get what you ask for, and no more. The article talks about if you don’t have a metric to ...
posted by mgilmartin @ 7:41 AM

  Listening to Shelley Powers about women in tech  

all noise all the time: vive la difference"—vive la différence ars longa, vita herring Recent posts by Tara, Shelley, Jeneane, Denise, and Madame Levy -- though all are not talking about "the same thing" (whatever that is) -- make it ...
posted by chuquet@googlemail.com @ 2:01 AM

  vive la difference  

vive la différence ars longa, vita herring. Recent posts by Tara, Shelley, Jeneane, Denise, and Madame Levy -- though all are not talking about "the same thing" (whatever that is) -- make it painfully clear that there is still a ...
posted by clocke @ 12:01 AM

  Technology Changes How We Do Things  

Not. What. We. Do. Wanna better world? Be better people. Paying attention yet? Of course you're not. That's okay. We've got the rest of eternity. Hey, that's why it's called Groundhog Day.
posted by @ 7:37 PM

  88 Lines About 44 Bloggers  

It's a slow weekend in the blogosphere, so I thought I'd do another mock opera. With apologies to the Nails, here we go. You'll need to listen to the song while you read (it will stream from my blog, if not via the feed). ...
posted by @ 7:18 PM

  The Babes of VoIP  

by Phil Wolff. Ken Camp makes a call to Women in VoIP to gripe about the few females at internet telephony conferences like those run by Jeff Pulver and Rich Tehrani and Tim O'Reilly. In the last episode, the Office 2.0 conference had ...
posted by pwolff@dijest.com (Phil Wolff) @ 5:35 PM

  Whew?  

In the midst of the brouhaha over it the gender-exclusive politics over at the Office 2.0 conference, it occurred to me that I will be speaking at a conference this coming week, too. I hadn’t given the matter much thought before, ...
posted by AKMA @ 8:42 AM

  Why it is important to speak up  

This week, there was a big hullabaloo over the upcoming Office 2.0 Conference. The short story: the conference was dominantly male speakers, only one woman. The organizers were initially unclear as to a) why this was a problem and b) ...
posted by Susan Getgood @ 11:17 PM

  Where Are The Women: A Marketing Problem with a Marketing Solution

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And for the record, Part Deux, I don't consider myself a "feminist," because I have known too many self-identified feminists to inflict harm on women as they wage war against the forces they seek to undo in the name of women. I don't know what kind of "ist" I am -- I think I don't need a label -- but understand that I won't be quiet for a man; I won't be quiet for a women; I won't be quiet for anyone.

Thank you for stopping by.

SKYPE: jeneanesessum (no "s").

Tags: conferences, web2.0, blogging, tech, PR, business, Marketing, Advertising, Feminism, Gender, Women, Mother = Powered by Qumana

Getting Sober Getting Married

I wrote this in 2003 about our next-door neighbor, who, for years struggled with an addiction so solid and deep that few around him believed he would ever get sober. I stopped counting the suicide attempts--that is what they are when  your blood alcohol level climbs to .4 and your doctor tells your waiting family that you should be dead this time, but for some reason you're not.

My heart leaps and falls when they come to take him, me the first one to ever call 911 on his behalf after his frightened 12-year-old daughter clued me in, after a phone call in which he expressed to me his wishes to be left alone to die. I didn't let him. There have been times, in seeing the toll his living takes on his child, parents, ex-wives, that I think maybe I was wrong to call.

After a time of this going and coming, the neighborhood heaves a collective sigh when they come for him. We see him home from work. One day turns into two, then three. We see his parents stop by. We read their expressions. We see them leave without him. We ring the bell in our collective heads: ding ding, round 8.

Last month when the ambulance came for him was unlike any other time: they brought him out on a stretcher. I watched from the window as his head rolled to and fro with the bump bump bump down his front steps. I watched them lift him in. I thought to myself, I wonder if he's coming home this time.

He hit bottom in 2003. We've remained cordial as neighbors, but not close, and I've watched him, like a turtle settled on making the treacherous journey across a highway, make reluctant, and then fast friends with sobriety, a friendship that's always on the ropes, but one he seems committed to holding on to.

His journey to the bottom was marked by a divorce from a woman he loved--one who had had enough lying, hiding, and deceit. Over the last three years they've somehow remained friends, allies in this war on relationship terror.

As I write this post, our family is getting ready to go see our neighbor and his ex-wife, to go see them walk down the isle together and take new vows as they re-marry one another.

I expect to be bringing plenty of kleenex.

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get it?

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Unfuck Ross Mayfield

In a manly move, Ross has given up his Office 2.0 podium spot to his Social Text partner and co-founder Adina Levin. For that, he earns a David Weinberger Unfuck from me.

Shake, hug, arm punch. 

Tags: Ross Mayfield, Office 2.0, web2.0, the future of web apps, conferences, speaking, women 2.0, women2.0, blog sisters = Powered by Qumana

copyright

Denise, you are cracking me up over there, you mistress of the sandwich.

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notable 2.0

Another quote of note from RB in the 2002 Guardian Article:

"Capitalism has to engage with society. At the moment, companies don't have to look at social effects in their cost of sales. That thinking has to change. You know, if the whole fucking planet melts down, how good was your business plan?"


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Reverse Equity Investment

A Guardian article from 2002 wherein Chris Locke predicts youtube.

"Broadcast - broadband - some people think it's the same thing. Video on demand! It's a jukebox! But we still have this bottom up effect on the net, and the technology to create movies has gotten way cheap, dudes. So you are not going to be limited to Hollywood blockbusters, you're going to get lots of 10 minute videos - Atomfilms - and that's going to erode your market.

You can broaden the pipe as far as you want, but if everybody can play, it's not broadcast any more. There isn't that control of the passes. The channel is out of control and that makes it a different game."

Tags: youtube, rageboy, video, broadband, movies, broadcast, gonzo, web2.0, tech, marketing, business = Powered by Qumana

everything should be one click

after 17 gazillion years an e-commerce aficionado, there is a single customer experience still delights me, every single time, and it's amazon who does it right:

one-click.

One-click purchasing is the smartest, wisest, coolest, fastest, most-mania-feeding, shoperiffic feature ever invented. fuck checkouts, fuck carts, fuck double checking, fuck second thoughts. just one click. that's all.

and what if my one-clicks and your one-clicks mated. the baby is no-click. no-click ordering is commerce by default. oh happy joy! present me with what i need. i am open hands.

okay, maybe we're not there yet. but we can dream? isn't that what getting social is about?

For now, I want my life to be one click. I want one-click parenting, one-click work, one-click travel, one-click therapy.

But don't leave out the part where I can three-click cancel my one-click decisions.

Tags: one-click, amazon, CRM, usability, software, web2.0, design, marketing, advertising, business = Powered by Qumana

You see the good blogs thingy? I likey.

So I met Vern of TheGoodBlogs via email and he has some enduring love for the blog sisters, the first women's team blog on blogspot way back in the day, and still non-commercial after all these years, although posting has slowed to a dribble  as more popular women's communities have sprouted up and our sisters have become busy with all kinds of endeavors.

But but but but, don't count us out. Vern hasn't.

I like TheGoodBlogs; just take a look at my sidebar. They have a cool community feature for sites like ours and yours. What you see on MY thegoodblogs widget are the most recent posts from our active member blog sisters from their own blogs--how cool is that? Goes WAY beyond technorati faves. TheGoodBlogs lets me tell you which blog sisters are writing new posts on their home blogs.

I love that it opens the doors of the community, says read her here and go visit her over there too. What do they say about sending you away? Sending you away is a good thing.

You'll see it working over on Blog Sisters, and on Elaine's blog, and you'll see it popping up on other blogs.

More soon. Let me know what you think if you try it.

Tags: the good blogs, thegoodblogs, community, blogging, tech, marketing, promotion, advertising, web2.0 = Powered by Qumana

say what you say what you say

I love Rosie. I have always loved Rosie. I will love her tomorrow, too.

Her mother died on St. Patrick's Day when she was a kid. She was not the same after that.
My father died on St. Patrick's Day when I was a kid. I was not the same after that.

That means we're related.

I love what she wrote about Marie Tharp.

Tags: Marie Tharp, Rosie O'Donnel, St. Patrick's Day, Blogging, Writing, Media = Powered by Qumana

Meow woof

Tara points out a Pet-Loving Marketer's dream job. Get your allergy shots and get going. What a great opportunity. Except I don't think they need a marketer at all. They need a PRM Specialist. snicker snicker snicker. okay, can i help myself? no. I decided to write up some interview questions for the job so they can find the perfect PRM Specialist:

What would you save in a house fire, your laptop or your chewie?

What is your percentage of on the paper vs on the wood floor?

What do you see as the Internet's effects on the game of fetch?

Have you ever been dooced? Maced?

If you find a bug in our software, do you a.) report it; b.) fix it; or c.) scratch it?

Newspaper: Friend or Foe?

Tags: dogster, catster, jokester = Powered by Qumana

I love to watch the world wake up on skype...

There's not another IM/VM/hyperchat that lets me watch the globe roll awake the way skype does. I love it.

Mike Arrignton's blogging of my skype and cooties post had an unexpected good effect: Some cool people added me to skype and i got to talk to them. Now I get to watch them wake up too.

Again, I'm asking you women, why aren't more of you on Skype, and if you're not, get on Skype and add me: jeneanesessum. Visibility doesn't have to go beyond a blog post, but it can.

I want to watch you turn green.

Oh by the way? Here we go again...

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i never get tired of this

play the movie and watch what we can do.

Tags: gestation, pregnancy, babies = Powered by Qumana

OMG, Can she really have a career without scoble!?

Hmmm. Looks like Amanda's filming something... She sure looks good. Same old Amanda smile. Can't wait to find out more. Frank will be titillated. This I know.

Tags: Amanda Congdon, Unboomed = Powered by Qumana

Movable Feeds

CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Alden and the Rojo team. Good people and a good service. Chris Alden's a smart guy, and it will be interesting to see what he does in running Six Apart’s Movable Type group. Liz says Rojo was ahead of its time. Probably so. Not always a bad thing
.

Unless you count the migraines.

Mashups are nice. They make my heart pitter patter in a good way.

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all those chanels and nothing on.

Man, there isn't crap on techmeme today. Note to self: Do a death defying stunt like swimming with a stingray the day after Labor Day 2007. Blog it. Wear white.

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It's not as easy as it looks...

Josh Hallett has a killer post on everything you need to know about blogging a conference. And I mean everything.

The only addition I can think of is a drinking game. Every time a male speaker hits the stage, you do a shot of Grey Goose. That talk on Ajax-enabled-JAVA-HTML-and-CSS-based widgets will suddenly make complete sense!

For the AA-approved version of the game, do the same when a female speaker hits the stage.

ba-da-bing.

Tags: josh hallett, orlando, blogging, conferences, tech, business, marketing, PR, live blogging, how tos = Powered by Qumana

any web 2.0 fantasy football services out there?

you know, one that wraps friending with game rosters and schedules and photos and videoa and trades and win/lose/draws and paypal and podcasts and local gameday meetups.

all these social sites are nice, but we need little intranet versions of them...

like Myspace is to Music, X is to Fantasy Football...

tell me, kay?

Tags: fantasy football, social software, web2.0, tech, business, games, sports, marketing, blogging = Powered by Qumana

You have got to love a group...

of proud pirates. makes me proud to be an american.

2006-09-02-0001 Originally uploaded by Varjohaltia.

hey, well, alright

This weekend the ATL was host to DragonCon, the one conference where men AND women take a back seat to mighty warriors and super heroes.

As it should be.


2006-09-02-0009
Originally uploaded by Varjohaltia

girl cooties

Why is it that whenever you see Mike Arrington on a conference site you can be pretty sure there are no women there?

I mean, it's starting to look DOWN RIGHT WEIRD.

The only thing I can say that doesn't have more profanity attached to it at this late hour of the evening, and my eyes are failing me let alone my brain and potty mouth, is that the tech guys I work with communicate A LOT over IM. I'm wondering if part of the conversations taking place re: these conferences and opportunities are taking place outside of email and hyperlinks... More likely it's a skype line here, "Hey did you see this?" or a passing hello in the hotel lobby of X-random-conference 22, where there are already 408330 web 2.0 dudes hanging out.

So, look, i'm liking at the micro-level here, and I know it, not solving anything, but LADIES, please get on SKYPE, and while you're at it, yahoo IM and AIM - i'm jeneanesessum on skype and jeneanedsessum on yahoo. I hate AIM.

k.

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You had to be there? Oh no you din't

Thanks to RageBoy, who gave me quite the shout out tonight--and I have two rosy cheeks to prove it.

But he sort of omitted the context for my gut-wrenching guffaw. In my own defense, I only slip into unrecoverable, hysterical laughter 17 times a year (plus every third Tuesday). I mean, it's rare that I lose my shit. Ask anyone. That's why, once captured, I'm all for sharing it with a few million of my closest online friends.

But, BEFORE you click through here to go there, allow me to provide the context that I mentioned above... It's the least you can do.

The other evening I was chatting with RB on google talk, when the phone rang at his apartment. He IMed me to hold on… and when he came back he told me it was the same guy who had called two times in the last two days.

Each time, the guy says hey, I've been getting your mail, and I've been eating it.

And RB says, my mail, huh? wha? You mean my email? (as if THAT would put the whole thing in perspective).

And the guy says, no your mail. I've been getting your mail and ripping it up and eating it.

And then the guy hangs up. Holy cow.

Keep in mind that RB's little thumbnail graphic is this serious picture of Mr. Locke in his desk chair looking kind of slyly up at the camera, and so I'm reading about this caller, you know in that unfolding way that IM allows us to present ourselves to each other, one line at a time, looking at his serious picture, and hearing tell of this bizarre – Disturbed? Dangerous? -- individual who keeps calling to say he's eating RB's postal mail.

On the other end, RB thinks I am, perhaps, concerned, or worried, or frightened. Like a good friend would be.

So, I press the "Send Voicemail" button on Google Talk and record my reaction, which g-talk then sends to him.

CLICK HERE for "the rest of the story" -- plus the part that says I'm smart and stuff. Don't forget that part.

Tags: jeneane sessum, rageboy, blogging, tech, web2.0, advertising, marketing, business, cluetrain, google, gtalk, instant messaging = Powered by Qumana

battle of the bands

It takes a sage man to understand the subtle differences between men and women. okay, if not a sage man, then a rage boy.

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HyperblowyTM and the new new web

See, even before the Europeans awake from their soothing slumber, they somehow know that we americans have been busy being assholes. AH! We work even as they sleep! Gary 'splains about misappropriation, co-optation and hyperblowy here.

Tags: gary turner, hyperblowy, the new new internet, web2.0, tech, blogging, advertising, bubble = Powered by Qumana