BlogHer quick update

I spent Saturday in Santa Clara at BlogHer. There were lots of overgeneralizations along the lines of "men do X, women do Y" - men are more argumentative, women are more "personal," etc. etc., which annoyed me (and others too - one woman made a comment about it to much applause). More interesting were the language arguments. What sorts of responses do women get, compared to men? How often are each attacked or validated, and why? Unfortunately, there weren't many answers other than anecdotal ones. Maybe I should make time to do that Slashdot study I wanted to do or something similar.

I tried to attend the morning BOF on photoblogging, but couldn't find the group and instead chatted for an hour with another attendee who also couldn't find them. After that, I went to a session on political blogging. In another session, we discussed the benefits and risks of "identity blogging." After a lively lunch (where most of the discussion to which I refer above transpired), I listened to a discussion on blogging in academia. The general consensus was that academia was threatened by blogging and wanted to censor it, which doesn't match my experience - but then again, both of my departments like the bleeding edge and Berkeley does still have some remnant of its free-speech heritage. The last session I attended was an instructional one on making podcasts and video blogging, where I hoped participants would discuss photo- and video-blogging, but they didn't, and I was starting to get very sleepy despite the cups of tea I had imbibed throughout the day. I skipped the closing discussion to drive home and get ready for my ballroom competition that night.