Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
– USA –
This past weekend I attended the third annual BlogHer conference in Chicago, Illinois. Participants networked, socialized, and attended presentations by successful female bloggers from all online spheres of life. This year’s event, called “A World of Difference,” is precisely what I found.
BlogHer was developed in 2005 “to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community, and economic empowerment.” The founders call it a “do-ocracy” that gives women online the opportunity “to help ourselves and work together to voice and achieve our individual goals.” It is no surprise that Blogher’s founders, Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort, and Jory Des Jardins are three successful internet pioneers who had the chutzpah to follow an intuitive hunch, and they have developed something great and important.
BlogHer ’07 was not my first blogging conference. Like most political bloggers, I am a regular critic of politics and of the dominant media. Since leaving the teaching profession in 2005 I’ve devoted a lot of time to alternative news websites and blogs. What I’ve noticed is that as these websites grow, gradually they mimic what they once abhorred. The same lack of diversity, lack of women’s voices, and narrow perspective persists and what is worse, political blogs often lack the depth that was once a basic requirement of journalism. There also appears to be little diversity of readership: bloggers essentially preach to a choir of like-minded individuals about issues on which they already agree.
From the first session last Thursday afternoon, I knew BlogHer was different. At past conferences, presidential candidates were keynote speakers and the most popular bloggers filled the hallways with their laptops, producing posts to be read by thousands of eager readers. In such a setting, it is hard to not be seduced by the glitz and glamour and to avoid a false sense of importance. This weekend’s experience cleared my mind about the bloggers’ roles and it clarified for me the true potential of the blogosphere. The bloggers I used to read complained a lot. But truly, what is the point of complaining to other bloggers and readers who share your point of view? Isn’t the greatest opportunity of the internet the opportunity to create a platform where people from diverse backgrounds can share their ideas, opinions, and beliefs?
In Chicago I was surrounded by a network of experts and social thinkers from all over this country and from a handful of other countries as well. Speakers included journalists, poets, comedians, CEOs, marketing executives, designers, lawyers, progressives, conservatives, and even mommy bloggers — all devoted to this online medium. I finally understood that a blog is not only a community — it is a conversation. And to truly become devoted to blogging, you have to want to have that conversation. And the blogsphere is open to everyone with access to the internet. With everyone participating, the internet can and will become a viable alternative for gathering and dispensing a wealth of accurate information.
Some would argue that men and women approach technology differently. I would add that women have a unique approach to blogging. At BlogHer I was surrounded by women who were not even trying to become the next dominant voice in media; rather, they used their blogs to empower others – whether they blog about healthy eating habits, child rearing experiences, encouraging civic participation, or education. BlogHer is a participatory community: it doesn’t rely on popular or famous voices to build readership. All the women I met are making important contributions; their expertise and concerns fall across all fields of life; just by generating these conversations, their voices will certainly make a lasting impact.
An equally important feature of the BlogHer conference is that the women were not all alike. There were progressives and conservatives, feminists and non-feminists, writers, teachers, techies, attendees and presenters, all from a diversity of cultural backgrounds. These women bring to the blogosphere intuition, fine-tuned sensitivity, and personal experiences that contribute to our understanding the totality of life.
I used to feel the need to compete when writing online; it was as if I was submitting my blogs for publication and my struggle was to be heard. Daily I was determined to scoop a story or write an even better rant. This became tiresome, very quickly. Blogging is really a conversation started by one blogger which is spontaneously responded to by many others. At BlogHer I was one among many participants joining in a conversation that had the power to connect all of us so that we were not only empowered, but could also build the bridges critical to inspiring real change.
And that is precisely what we are doing at The WIP: connecting individuals from different backgrounds through online journalism written by women offering their distinctive insights. What I felt on leaving the conference was a surge of emotion: I knew that I was a part of something new and great. Seeing the many ways those many impassioned, committed women were interpreting BlogHer’s mission reassured me that at The WIP, it is possible to cultivate dialogs that will inspire change.
Your are right Katherine, men and women approach technology differently and use it more constructively unlike men (this is just my opinion based on my observations on the blogs that have come across). Also still on the issue of technology here in the “developing world” its not many people are computer literate or have access to a computer and some of these challenges that our continent has. Women have so much potential here but have little and limited opportunities and I beleive that when women are empowered the world will be a much better place.
I agree, Katherine! It’s interesting that you came out with thoughts similar to what Annalee Newitz expressed about feeling that we were all on equal footing, and all participants — without having to elbow each other out of the way to climb on top of the blogging heap.
While I don’t think there is some essential sex or gender-related characteristic that makes men and women approach blogging differently, I do think that patriarchal systems reward hierarchical thinking, and men more often buy into that… which harms them in many ways as well as harming the greater conversation.
Kate, I really enjoyed reading this article. Unlike you, I have never been a “blogger” and before the WIP, I never read the news online. I don’t often leave comments; just writing this makes me sweat. Even though my favorite part of the WIP is reading other peoples comments, somehow I feel silly writing them myself. Yet when I read this article about the conference you attended I discovered the possibility for connection with people all over the world and I discovered the potential of blogging. I realized that there are so many types of different blogging subjects. Like Ms. Shoko said in her comment, access and literacy is a challenge in developing countries. Education is a gift that is denied to so many and I hope that will change, because the potential for a universal conversation is right here.
Kate, I loved reading your article. I realize more and more what the WIP is all about and its potential. Keep up the good work.
Kate–This is a fantastic article…What I enjoy most about the WIP is the access and insight it gives me to women from all around the world…I too believe that the WIP can “cultivate dialogue that will inspire change”…Sylvia
I was just reading Arianna Huffington’s post on her blog about the failure of the US dominant media to do basic journalism on the mine tragedy in Utah. No blog is perfect, but hers is a case of a woman using the medium to make a difference. Huffington was president of the Cambridge University Debating Society and can stand up to the parry and thrust in the verbal arena with the best of them. Even so, something of women’s values, qualities of Virginia Woolf’s “outsiders” still mark Huffington’s blog. It gives a voice to women and men who would be discounted elsewhere as well as to those who are taken seriously in the dominant society.
I reflect a lot on power. I used to think of it only as “power over” someone else, dominance in the sense of getting what one wants at the expense of others. Someone wins, others lose. I did not want anything to do with it.
Another kind of power is what I get when I plug the computer into an energy source, or the vacuum cleaner for that matter. Power gets things done. Using that kind of power means that it is possible for everyone to win. I want lots of that kind of power. I also want to see as many people as possible doing the world’s good work. I was struck by the remark in this post:
“At BlogHer I was surrounded by women who were not even trying to become the next dominant voice in media; rather they used their blogs to empower others…”
The WIP is a wonderful exercise of this kind of power. I admire the fact that while all the contributors are women, the focus is not narrowly on “women’s issues.” Women all over the globe have a perspective that is different from that of men. We have a lot to contribute in the public arena.
In Woolf’s day anyone who could get their hands on a printing press could publish books and articles of great merit that might not be published otherwise. She and her husband Leonard founded the Hogarth Press, giving much great literature to the world. Today, anyone with internet access can publish a blog and achieve similar ends. The WIP is making a fine contribution. Thank you.
As The WIP continues to grow and more and more women and men around the world participate in the dialog, the “power” in publishing diverse perspectives on the issues will really be apparent. When readers comment and a discussion ensues, I feel like we’ve been successful. I am learning everyday from our writers and from the commentary. I look forward to word of The WIP reaching even more computer screens and to the day when, together, we discover real solutions to the problems we face globally right here on the pages of The WIP.
Thanks to all of you for your dedicated participation here at The WIP!