:: Netwoman ::

:: Friday, October 31, 2003 ::

What is Spam?

I received an email today from Joan Korenman to tell me that my ISP provider has once again added the Women's Studies list to the spam filter. This is the second time this has happened to me - apparently, it rated 9.0 spam points. My ISP also added the AoIR list to the spam list. I believe they use SpamAssassin.

Don't get me wrong, I hate spam. Even through the filter, I still received numerous emails about enlarging certain parts of my body (that I don't have) and making 'it' worker better and longer.

"SpamAssassin is a mail filter to identify spam using text analysis. Using its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text, to identify "spam", or unsolicited commercial email."

I don't understand why the internet research list is on there. However, I can see how the Women's Studies list would make the spam filter spin. Consider the vocabulary that is used - sex - gender - women. Hell, we may even discuss p o r n and its implications on women. Who knew?

I had something similar happen to me in the past. When I started an information website in 1996 on women's issues concerning domestic assault and sexual violence, a reader emailed to tell me that Net-Nanny had banned my website because of the content. I found this interesting and disturbing at the same time. Here I was trying to 1. put some content on the internet that was pertinent to women (very few sites like this in '96) and 2. get women and girls to read this for education and support. My site also included legal advice and phone numbers for crisis centres. The Net-Nanny however, thought otherwise and presumed that this was an 'adult' site, meaning there was a good chance that young girls could not obtain the information they needed.

A presenter at the AoIR (I think Elaine Lally) talked about how young girls will turn to their school computer for information about sex education, STDs and so forth, but are not able to do so because the school 'locks out' these sites. Young women who may not feel comfortable searching the internet at home for this information (under the watchful eye parents), are not able to do so at school either. Alison Powell mentions in her AoIR paper that people often use cyber cafes to view sites they can't at home (for various reasons)

Spam filters and Software for protecting children need to be re-examined. The wrong material is being flitered out.

Net Nanny Examined here
"While the Banned Books page and Femina.com are blocked because the URL's exist as entries on Net Nanny's blocked site list, more Web sites are blocked because they contain keywords which activate Net Nanny's word filter. TIME journalists reported in an August 1997 article that Net Nanny blocked the National Organization for Women Web site (which was the source of much more controversy when the same Web site was blocked by CYBERsitter). A Friends University professor also described being denied access to information the Episcopal Church's position on homosexuality, at an unspecified Web site. "

:: Netwoman 9:11 AM [+] ::
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The Internet for Women?

iVillage claims to be the internet for women. What does that mean? I had a look and here are some topics:

-discuss: Dating a younger man: How young is too young?
-NEW: Bedroom makeovers on a budget, breast cancer
-Q&A: Halloween poll: What's your child's costume?
-shop: iVillage Market, CatalogCity, Sex Boutique, coupons
-fun: Dream Dictionary, horoscopes, free stuff, quizzes, daily crossword
-Makeover-o-Matic
-Measure your emotional intelligence
-Find the right diet plan for you

I am not sure how much more gendered and class specific, heterosexist this site can be. It is not the internet for me, and "ain't I a woman?"

:: Netwoman 9:11 AM [+] ::
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Women DO Play Games

Gamegirladvance blogs about the "Where the Girls Are" article in the Wall Street Journal (all about marketing of course).

26% of electronic game-players are women over 18
21% are boys 6-17
12% are girls 6-17
38% are men over 18

Jane ends with this:
"I wonder if all this mainstream feminizing of gamespaces will alienate the original women who colonized them. Current female gamers may be disgusted by the fact that they can now get astrology and love advice in their gaming. Will we see an increasing divide between the female old guard "OG" - original gamer - and the fluffy newbie lured in by Cosmo quizzes and virtual fashion design aspirations?"

Check out some of the 'interesting' comments. hmm.

:: Netwoman 9:30 PM [+] ::
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The power of the media - will bloggers respond?

Kaye told me that she was watching television last night, and there was a lot of media coverage of women committing more crimes. Being the good researcher that she is, she Googled it, and promptly emailed me.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, this seems to be a good example of the power of media (and the media interplay as kaye went from TV to internet to email to IM) and also about how the media (television, newspaper and the internet) can shape how we think about and perceive the social world.

I checked one of the articles and have some comments (of course) because I think that the media can create a problematic perceptions (and incomplete stories) - in this instance - of women and crime.

-the article notes that crime rates have not gone up, but more women are arrested: this doesn't mean that women are committing more crimes, it means they are getting arrested more. We need to investigate why this may be this case.
-The article notes that women are on par (in terms of equality) with men because they are in the workforce more, yet forcible rapes are 4.7% higher - this does not jive. Rape is about power, and if women and men were indeed 'on par', than rape rates would drop.
-the crimes that women and men commit are gendered; men = violent offenses, murder, robbery, whereas women = embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, drug abuse, vagrancy and liquor law violations. No account is taken in the media articles of why this may be the case.
-Arrests of women for aggravated assault climbed nearly 25% over the decade. This does not take into account several things. First, changes in criminal acts that force police officers to charge both women and men in domestic assaults. Second, that more women are physically retaliating (see literature concerning the Battered Women's Syndrome) to domestic violence. Also, that given the backlash (outcome = women who 'batter'), more men are reporting 'the flying frypan' incidences.

My hope is the blogosphere will respond to these media accounts in way that reflects a social analysis of what is really going on. Statistics can be misleading if they are not discussed within the context of the occurrences. Hopefully blogging will fill some of these gaps.

:: Netwoman 10:37 AM [+] ::
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Wednesday's Featured Blogger: Rebecca Blood

Every week I am going to do a blog-feature on a woman blogger. I have been toying with this idea for awhile now, and Feministe's entry the other day sparked my desire to do this again. I am really interested in what women have to say about blogging and their experiences in the Blogosphere.

This week, my featured blogger is Rebecca Blood. I think it is appropriate to start my series with a woman who started blogging back in April of 1999. Rebecca's book "The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog" has received excellent reviews.

TK> How do you think you became an 'A list' blogger?

Longevity, mainly (I've been doing this since April, 1999 - before there was software to do it for you). Additionally, I think my essay "Weblogs: a history and perspective" put me in front of people early on. And then the book, but mainly, I think it is just that I was in that first wave of bandwagon-jumpers.

TK> Why are there so few women deemed to be 'A list'?

I think it depends on which cluster is making the list. I think there are plenty of clusters where women are the stars. As far as media attention goes, journalists tend to link to - and write about - other journalists, and for some reason there tend to be more male journalists maintaining weblogs. After the september 11 attacks, the media started paying attention to the warbloggers, the vast majority of whom are men. bloggers had been writing about politics forever (in fact, two of the earliest to do so were women: myself and Lyn Millet), but 9.11 made the subject - and that particular spin on the subject - quite sexy, and the media didn't have the background to put this new permutation into context.

Some media attention has been given to the "tech bloggers", a term the warbloggers coined to describe every weblog that ever existed before they did. in fact, tech weblogs were a small subset of all those weblogs that came before. The tech weblogs tend to be created predominantly by men, but again, that's just one cluster among many. Of the early tech bloggers, many were about the web and web design, and many of them were done by women. weblogs about more general topics - pop culture, current events and politics, and the like - have always tended to have a healthy representation of women.

So I think a lot of this is a matter of media perception and who is getting media attention; and also the result of the very egalitarian intersection of individuals writing about the things that interest them most, and bloggers linking to the weblogs that interest them most, and readers reading the weblogs that interest them most.

TK> What are your thoughts on the blogosphere as gendered space?

Like the Web in general, weblogs have always felt pretty egalitarian to me. A recent survey bears out that instinct: there would appear to be more women blogging than men.

TK> Have you ever had any negative responses to your blog?

Sure, there have been several occasions when people with differing political views have dismissed my opinions on their sites, but only a few times, and most of them have basically been trolls, so I ignored them. There was one female blogger who repeatedly slammed me on her site, supposedly because I collect linen, but again, as far as I could tell, it was basically a troll designed to elicit a heated response - and link - from me, and I declined to do either.

TK> I looked at the Perseus results, and yes it would seem that more women are blogging than men. But it does seem that the blogs that get the most attention are men. Certain types of material get more attention than others. What are your thoughts about this?

As I said before, I think it's largely a matter of media attention combined with the subject's readers, journalists, and other bloggers are naturally interested in. I don't think it has much to do with gender.
---

Thanks Rebecca for your feedback. Check Rebecca's latest essay on "Weblogs and Journalism in the Age of Participatory Media "

:: Netwoman 12:10 AM [+] ::
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Assorted Blog Bits

Hilde blogs about an article today about Women on the Net.
"Deborah Wheeler tells that only 6 % of internet users in the Arab countries are women. In EU only 25% of internet users are women. In Latin America the number is 38%, and in the US it is 50%. There are some big differences." She also talks about how in Arab countries, it is understood that decent women don't IRC.

Misbehaving and Feministe comment in the recent BBC article "Cyber women test what's real".

"The beauty of many of the images in the (London) exhibition is striking. But their impossibly perfect limbs, lips and looks, are still pretty far removed from what a "real" woman looks like. "

So much energy is put into making virtual women look more 'real', and less like a computer simulated image. But their notions of what is 'real' is a bit disturbing. 'Real' women don't look like this. "...as soon as you pan down her body, it is obvious she has borrowed a few diet tips from Barbie. They are the "hyper-reality" of women who only exist in a plastic surgeon's dream. " This is not going to help women's poor self image folks. Why are we surprised that women hate their bodies?

Recent NYT article "How to Make Your Telecommute Work"
I thought these suggestions were interesting. I have read some literature about women who work from home so that they can (presumably) work and still spend time with their children. This article doesn't jive with that, and is clearly about a certain 'class' of telecommuters. Apparently working form home will be the wave of the future.
You will need:
-solidly reliable child care
-separate office space
-DSL or cable internet connection
-a second phone line. Belkin found that her 5-year-old had fielded a call from the governor of New Jersey (I guess she didn't get child care)

:: Netwoman 10:32 AM [+] ::
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How does blogging change women?

Ms. Lauren has an thoughtful post today about how blogging has changed her as a writer. Though given her comments, it seems that blogging has changed her in other ways as well. Bits of blog:

"I never thought that moving around charged particles on this plastic box could create community or help me grow as a person."

"I've grown exponentially as a writer since I began blogging."

"I now favor intellectual discussion over bashing opposition with four-letter words and personal insults. I never knew how to rhetorically argue a side of debate until I was exposed to a blog."

"I've become a perpetual critic. Nothing is sacred: restaurants, movies, television, culture, pop culture, and especially politics. I even find myself criticizing my own politics. "

"I've become more involved in current events and politics, reading and paying strict attention to the news as I never had before blogging, and developing fact-based opinions about current issues and hot topics"

"I value my own opinions more, and am tenfold more willing to defend them, even to those whom I know are more qualified to speak on the topic."

"blogging and reader feedback has added to my confidence as a writer and as a thinker, something I would have never predicted when I began blogging. "

"I feel as though the internet has been opened up for me, made smaller by the community of bloggers that I read regularly and the ones I find through blog-surfing."

I think it is important to understand why women blog, and how it is significant in their lives. Value is contextual and differs from person to person. We need to hear more stories like this so that we can see the diverse value of blogging for different people. Blogging changes people, but people's lived experiences and social world certainly shape and frame the blogosphere as well.

:: Netwoman 9:52 AM [+] ::
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Gender Bending

Terra Nova blogs about a post at Daedalus Project.

"The demographic that is most likely to gender-bend is not male teenagers, but men over the age of 25. There are several ways one could explain this. One explanation is that male players are probably more tempted to gender-bend because restrictions on crossing gender boundaries are far more stringent for men in real life than for women. And younger male players are probably less secure about their own gender identity to gender-bend."

:: Netwoman 12:02 AM [+] ::
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Misbehaving Backlash?

Comments are surfacing about the new Misbehaving blog about women and technology.

Alex asks - why only women?

Others ask - why was I excluded? and here too.

Kevin Marks points out there are more women on the Top 100 then Halley thought. Some women are included in group blogs with men.

Others are happy about the site - here, here , here and here.

I don't recall this much commentary and discussion when Crooked Timber started. hmm.

I am still glad to see the site, and have submitted my link to the authors. Something like this is much needed, though we have to keep in mind that there are others blogging about women and technology that may not be A-listers. Developing a network and community of women (academics, students, community workers and so forth) is important.

:: Netwoman 1:03 PM [+] ::
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Identity: Negotiating the Self

Marcelo Vieta of Technology, Self & Community Blogged about a paper in his panel at the AoIR by Janne Bromseth entitled "Betrayed: When truth becomes fiction, nothing is for real"

Veita writes "What was interesting about Bromseth's piece was the resistance amongst some of the members towards admitting new transgendered members: Does knowing the discourse of the female gender make one automatically a female? If, as Haraway states, the female body is the site of oppression and the cyborg offers liberation from that political mine field, what was occuring on Bromseth's group to make the lesbian members resist transgendred members? "

:: Netwoman 11:37 AM [+] ::
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Oh Happy Blog Day

I found a goodie on Jill's Blog today. A new blog called Misbehaving.net.

"misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology. It's a celebration of women's contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women's contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field."

Can I tell you how elated I am?

Here are the contributers (most are already on my blog list)

danah boyd
Caterina Fake
Meg Hourihan
Liz Lawley
Dorothea Salo
Halley Suitt
Gina Trapani
Jill Walker


I am really looking forward to reading this blog.

:: Netwoman 9:44 PM [+] ::
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Halley Beat me to it

She really did. I have been emailing Rebecca Blood about female bloggers, and talking to Kaye about a paper I am putting together about women bloggers. Today Halley beat me to the blog.

Halley talks about The Politics of Male Blogging

Halley has been looking at the Perseus results that says that more women are blogging then men. Looking at BlogStreet's Top 100 Bloggers, she notices that there are few women on the list. I am not surprised of course.

I have been saying this along - that A list bloggers include few women. But really, it takes an A list female blogger to make the point. Why? Because more people read her blog than mine of course! This is exactly the point. Liz Lawley talked about culture capital at the AoIR and I mentioned to her that it is not only links that give one cultural capital in the blogosphere, it is the type of material you are posting as well - the hot topics for the A listers. The stuff that people read and consider worthy of linking.

But Halley's list of female bloggers taken from some blogrolls (and there a few) are not on the top 100 and she wants to know why (and so do I). There is something more than content and links here I think. Heck, Halley gets an average of 688 hits a day, and has more than 195,000 hits. Why isn't she on the top 100?

Moore's Lore makes some excellent points, "here, in the blogosphere, politics rules the day... Your audience consists of people whose take is similar to yours, who are looking to validate something lacking in their own lives by nodding their heads in agreement with you...You don't exist, in other words, without your audience. It's not about balance or fairness." Very true.

He also says that popular blogs "get their audiences from that frisson of recognition, from their willingness to take on the other side and skewer them. If you're blogging about reason, taking a calm middle-of-the-road position, no one is going to care."

This is also valid, but as I have commented before, often when women take the other side of the debate, they are perceived as angry feminists - and it's written off as such anyway. They may be read, but there will be consequences. So what is the solution?

:: Netwoman 11:46 AM [+] ::
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household robots are starting to take off

From Alex to Piquepaille I found out that Robot Sales Are Exploding.

"Robots also are coming to our homes. At the end of 2002 more than 50,000 autonomous vacuum cleaners and lawn-mowing robots were in operation. By the end of 2006, a tenfold increase is predicted."

Domestic technology with a new spin.

Here is something similar on Relevant History, referring to an article in the Guardian. Relevant History talks about A yen for high-tech life.

The future of technology has some serious implications for domestic life. Robots that do your housework, look after your kids, make your coffee and so forth. While it may seem very appealing, we should consider what this might mean. Will women's work in the home be devalued (further) because of this tech? What kind of social stratification will we see between homes that are wired and those who are not? Will this change or challenge the domestic division of labour in the (rich) homes (though these people are likely already hiring minority cleaning women anyway). Will we see the replacement of service jobs (again) because of this technology - taking more jobs away from minorites and working poor in the service industry? Many many questions.....

I really don't feel like vacuuming, I have a dissertation to write - can someone lend me their robot?

:: Netwoman 9:09 AM [+] ::
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Snipits from Susan Herring Lois Scheidt and Elijah Wright's Presentation at the AoIR:

Gender of blog author varies according to blog content:
-Personal journals & other: 60% Female, 40% Male
-Filters, k-logs & mixed: 15% Female, 85% Male
Age of blog author varies according to blog content:
-Personal journals & other: 60% Teen, 40% Adult
-Filters, k-logs & mixed: 5% Teen, 95% Adult

Added:
It would seem then that more men are blogging about news and such, whereas women are still 'journaling'. Press Action asked a similar question back in January - Where are the news-and-views websites run by women?

One of the things I took from the AoIR conference is that much more research is needed about blogs - not only why people blog, but also why they blog what they do and what does their audience think about the content. Why do men and women blog differently? Can we generalize based on gender? Sounds like a good dissertation topic.

:: Netwoman 11:50 PM [+] ::
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Making IT Work for Volunteers (MITW)

is a collaborative, cross-sector initiative that encourages and supports the effective use of Information Technology (IT) by charities and not-for-profits. MITW creates opportunities for the high-tech sector and the voluntary sector to assist one another to bridge and ultimately close the digital divide.
The Ministry is Citizenship, with ITAC-O (Information Technology Association of Canada - Ontario Region) are involved in a partnership initiative on this project.
Project website

:: Netwoman 9:26 AM [+] ::
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The AoIR has now concluded, and I have taken my point form notes off my blog, but they are still available here. I have left the comments that I made about the sessions. I am happy to see that there are other people out there researching the 'isms' on the internet. It was refreshing to listen to other people who share my research interests.

*I also changed the look of the blog, as per request from my 'fan mail'. I hope this is easier to read. Still finishing it up. Now if I can just get RSS......

:: Netwoman 9:53 AM [+] ::
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Youth Creating Digital Opportunities (YCDO)

Talk to Her: A Dialogue to Action among Young Women in ICT
Understanding Challenges, Identifying Needs and Building Communities of Learning

From October 24 until November 21st 2003, young women from across the globe will connect in an electronic forum to discuss strategies for the integration of gender dimensions and empowerment of young women and girls at all levels of the ICT for development field.

Their goals will be to identify challenges, prioritize needs for support and uncover strategies for building communities of learning that will allow young women to begin or advance their engagement with ICTs.

Background documents and case studies will supplement the discussions by summarizing the involvement of young women and girls in policy processes such as the World Summit on the Information Society, and by examining the existing global and regional communities available to young women in ICT for development.

:: Netwoman 8:44 AM [+] ::
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Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market

Game Girl Advance blogs about a new book by Sheri Graner. Here is an overview about the book from Amazon.

"Women and girls of today are more tech savvy than ever before and research shows that they currently make up over 52% of Internet users and 70% of casual online gamers. Why then, is the game industry still producing computer games that primarily target males ages 13-25?
With this tight focus, game developers are not only sharply limiting their possible total income, but they are losing sight of the bigger picture. The games industry is currently growing faster than the target market. To keep the industry strong and growing, game developers must start looking at expanding their market, which means designing titles that are accessible to the female audience.

Successful entertainment industries have sustained growth for decades because they have considered the diversity of their audiences. Today’s blockbuster products, be it movies, recordings or books, are most often the ones with elements that directly appeal to many market sectors, while containing very few barriers to access for others. By understanding the issues and barriers connected to gender, the game industry can benefit from a similar growth strategy.

Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market addresses issues that help designers and developers understand the real differences between how the genders approach and resolve conflicts, and what their entertainment criteria and responses are. It also explores the differences in reward systems, game play preferences, and avatar selection criteria, and how these issues all apply to game design, regardless of genre. By understanding these differences, designers can apply this knowledge to the traditional genres that make up the contemporary computer game industry and begin tapping the future market. Perhaps the real question developers need to be asking themselves is, "but what if the player is female?"

KEY FEATURES
* Provides guidelines for designing games that reach a larger market without compromising quality
* Includes useful insights into gender factors in game development and how they can be addressed
* Details the differences between male and female entertainment criteria and reward systems, which can apply to a variety of technology and entertainment fields
* Adds vitality and diversity to the gaming industry"

:: Netwoman 1:04 PM [+] ::
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With all the AoIR stuff going on, I haven't been reading my daily blogs as much. I almost missed this.

Techno\culture blogs about Men like gadgets, women make-up: "In cyberspace, no one may know you're a dog, but it's depressingly easy to tell if you are a man or a woman, depending on the internet sites you visit".

The sites that women and men visit reflect gender roles. Women are visiting pet sites and diaper sites, where as men are visiting sites dedicated to finances.

Karlin is suprised by this. I am not. We have to remember that when people are online and using the internet, they are not divorcing themselves from physical spaces. Take a look at the daily routines of women and men (which are clearly gendered). Why then are we so surprised that women are looking to get diapers cheap and easy on the net when they are responsible for childcare? Men are looking at financial sites because they are often responsible for investing and money managing in the home.

:: Netwoman 5:20 PM [+] ::
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Day Three of AoIR proves to be just as good as the first two.
I am sitting near the door in a session so that I can have wi-fi access. Clancy just walked in (our first F2F meeting). Apologies for the bizarre characters in the notes (I am pasting from word)

Online/Offline Intersections

Andrew Clement, Jane Aspinall, Ana Viseu and Tracy Kennedy (me)
The Everyday Internet Project.

Alison Powell
Alison's paper won second prize for the student paper award. Her talk was excellent as well! The message from this paper is that Internet cafes permit interactions along two mediums that continue this notion of anonymity to sociability. Technology can facilitate both online and offline communication, therefore internet cafes are important places to consider public life both on and offline.

Helena Sarkio
Helen gave a paper about female teenagers online. This was interesting for various reasons. There is much backlash from the f word, and many young women and women are resistant to it (I'm not a feminist but...). The internet can be seen as a way of empowering women. However, online magazines often purport anti-feminist and stereotypical notions of femininity.

Lauren Squires
Lauren talked about the use of IM among college students. Email seen as a management tool (professors etc) but not for social communication; IM is seen as a conversation tool and a multi tasking tool with several conversations at once. IM is done with daily contacts whereas email is not.

Blogging : AUTHORS AND CONSEQUENCES

Zizi Papacharissi
Kaye blogs about the conference too, and here about Papacharissi.

David Park talks about the particular bloggers who situate themselves as part of the audience, when in fact, they are often part of the media journalists.

Clancy Ratliff talks about creative commons license.

:: Netwoman 3:33 PM [+] ::
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Day two has concluded at the AoIR conference. The great thing about conferences (aside from meeting great people), is that it gets you thinking about your own research work. For me, I really started putting the pieces of my dissertation in my head after hearing the Domesticated Internet panel.

I received a copy of a paper for a speaker that I missed. "Constructing the Computer at Home: Competence, Gender and Domestic Spaces" by Jari Aro and Virve Peteri. The authors are a part of the Media and Everyday Life Project at the University of Tampere in Finland.

I also purchased the book At home with Computers by Elaine Lally. Here is a brief description:

"New Technologies are profoundly reshaping the world around us. Home computers— unheard of two decades ago—now play an intimate role as personal possessions in many people's lives. They can represent, work, play, relaxation or a means of socializing.

This book is the first sustained examination of the revealing role computers play in our domestic lives. Do computers cause or help to resolve arguments? What role does gender play in negotiating their use? Who spends the most time with the computer? How does the importance of home computers change as we move from childhood, through careers to retirement? Drawing upon topical theories from material culture, technology and consumption studies, Lally traces the social life of these machines and provides unique insights into the many different ways in which they are transformed into highly personal possessions. The result is an absorbing account of everyday life in the information age." Book review is here.

:: Netwoman 7:30 PM [+] ::
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AoIR - October 17th, 2003

First Session:
"The Domesticated Internet: Networking Users, Computer Competence, Expertise and Knowledge"

Maria Bakardjieva explores the role of the internet in the social distribution of knowledge and the engagement between users and the internet. She asks - how knowledge is domesticated?

Rivka Ribak
examines the construction of dependence in family discourse about technology. She argues that there is an interrelationship between parenthood as protection and technology as danger. This is something I didn't think of, and is useful for my dissertation - the role of parents, which are gendered are also contingent on discourses of children and protection.

Elaine Lally examines information that is produced is valuable as personal information.

:: Netwoman 11:15 AM [+] ::
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The first day of the AoIR has concluded - what a great day of presentations. It was great to meet people I talk to via email and to meet some bloggers. Here is a blog-snapshot of two sessions I attended. Not included here is the excellent Keynote by Lucy Suchman.
I also missed the first session because I was stuck in traffic, but Jason has some thoughts about it.

Blogging Panel #2
Jason Nolan
This is excellent and I want to hear more about it. I have often looked at non-english blogs, and have tried to translate them via web-translator - but it never works. How about some software that translates non-english blogs?

Liz Lawley
Notes:
I mentioned to Liz that it is not only about links that give one cultural capital in the blogosphere. It what type of material you are posting as well - the hot topics for the A listers.

Taso Lagos
Proposes political theory
People are going outside regular channels to protest, But it dies quickly
Habermas in the public sphere, we are seeing the emergence of people of similar opinions. once the discussion is finished then they move onto the next topic
Emerging parallel society that is different from the existing institution
Wants to gather evidence about this, whether there is a new institution

Aaron Delwiche talk about in what ways are journalistically focused blogs influencing the flow of information?

Gendered Subjectivity

Sarah Ford
I talked briefly to Sarah about my own research concerning the language that is used towards women in response to website content, and also in the comments on blogs. It seems that chat rooms are similar (of course).

Jane Long says "Be Net Alert but not alarmed. She talks about discourses of mothering and adolescence and when they appear in technology. Again, very useful for my own research.

Sarah Stein
Excellent angle and fresh approach - not only in terms of gender roles and expectations of mothers and children, but of self-regulation and surveillance. This relates to my own research where I argue that with the Internet in the home, women are responsible for helping children with homework via the Internet, looking up health material for kids when they are sick (rather than the doctor), and overall - adding to the gendered workload within the domestic division of labour.

I also ended up moderatoring the next session:
Blogging: authors and consequences I

Susan Herring, Lois Scheidt, Elijah Wright
The just posted their slides on their Blog. More on this later.

Gary Thompson
Interesting paper about the visual presentation of blogs. This got me thinking about my own blog. There is a difference in how blogs look depending on the message they want to send, and what the audience is.

:: Netwoman 11:42 PM [+] ::
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Tomorrow AoIR starts and I am getting things ready. Here is what is going on for Day One. Unfortunately, there are some good sessions running at the same time.

Thursday:
8:30-9:45 a.m.
Broadening the Blog I
Thomas Burg, Danube University-Krems "MonsterMedia - monstrosity in the face of weblogs"
Alexander Halavais, SUNY Buffalo "Urban Sociology And A Research Agenda For The Blogosphere"
Cameron Marlow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Classifying Emergent Communities Through Diffusion"
Matthew Rothenberg, New York University "Weblogs And The Semantic Web"

Running at the same time - eek! And I know all these folks:

Mediated Work: Internet Environments as Work Environments
Jeremy Hunsinger, Virginia Tech "Interfaces: Internet Environment As Work Environment"
Gina Neff, Columbia University "Mediated Work And The Paradox Of Distance"
Anabel Quan-Haase , University of Toronto "Instant Messaging As Social Mediation: A Case Study Of A High-Tech Firm"
Ana Viseu , University of Toronto "The Actor-Network Of Wired Field Technicians"

10:00-11:15 a.m.
Broadening the Blog II
Aaron Delwiche, Trinity University "Reconstructing The Agenda In The World Of Do-It-Yourself Journalism"
Taso Lagos, University of Washington "Parallel Society: Weblogs, Micromedia, And The
Fragmentation Of The Public Sphere"
Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Rochester Institute of Technology "Cultural Capital And Dominance In The Weblog Economy"
Jason Nolan, University of Toronto "The Bias Of Blogging: The Cultural Assumptions Of Ubiquitous Blogging On The Digital Divide"
Jo Ann Oravec, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater "Roles Of Weblogs In The Construction Of Celebrity Presence"

Running at the same time:
Identity: roles, selves and gender
Steve Bailey, York University "Identity, Intersection, Irony: Doubling The Self In The
Digital Age"
Helen Merrick, Curtin University “Will The Real Barbarian Please Stand Up?”: Gender, Role-Playing And Online Games"
Monica Whitty, Queens University Belfast "Cyber-Flirting: An Examination Of How Men And Women Flirt On The Internet"

11:30-1:00 p.m.
Keynote Address - Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University

2:00-3:45 p.m.
Beyond the Digital Divide
Suely Fragoso, UNISINOS "The Multiple Facets Of The Digital Divide"
Michel Menou, City University, London "Towards A Social Construction Of Digital Inclusion Efforts"
Mary Stansbury, Kent State University "Understanding The Skills Divide"

Running at the same time (grr!)

Gendered subjectivities
Sarah Ford, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "Asl Everyone!: Creation And Maintenance Of Gendered Identities In Web-Based Chat Rooms"
Jane Long, University of Western Australia "Be [Net] Alert, But Not Alarmed'? Regulating The Parents Of Generation ICQ"
Sarah Stein, North Carolina State University "Hacking Women: How Popular Media Represent The Technologically Proficient Woman"

4:00-5:15 p.m.
Blogging: authors and consequences I
Susan Herring, Indiana University, Lois Scheidt, Indiana University, Elijah Wright, Indiana University "Beyond The Unusual: Weblogs As Genre"
Gary Thompson, Saginaw "Visual Factors In Constructing Authenticity In Weblogs"
Magali Bicais, France Télécom "Une Sociologie Des Pratiques : Vers De Nouvelles Perspectives"

5:15-7:00 p.m. - Welcome Reception - Hilton Hotel Foyer

Friday:
8:30-9:45 a.m.
The Domesticated Internet: Networking Users, Computer Competence, Expertise and Knowledge
Jari Aro, University of Tampere, Virve Peteri, University of Tampere "Constructing The Computer At Home: Competence, Gender And Domestic Spaces"
Maria Bakardjieva, University of Calgary "Knowledge@Home: The Internet And The Social Distribution Of Knowledge"
Rivka Ribak, University of Haifa "The Construction Of Dependence In Adolescents’ Discourse About Technology"
Elaine Lally, University of Western Sydney "At Home With Information: The Informatisation Of Domestic Life"

10:00-11:15 a.m. - Keynote Address - Pierre Lévy, University of Ottawa

11:30 Birds of Sociological Feather - Barristar's Bar

2:00-3:45 p.m.
Access Denied: Critical Considerations of Internet Space and the Digital Divide
Stine Gotved, University of Copenhagen "Online Spatiality As Part Of Social Reality"
Annette Markham, University of Illinois at Chicago "Internet As Tool, Place, And Way Of Being"
Mark Nunes, Georgia Perimeter College "Articulating Cyberspaces: Control, Aberrance, And The Rhetoric Of Access"
Michele White, Wellesley "We're "In" With The In Crowd: Social Divisions And The
Rendering Of Internet Space"

4:00-5:15 p.m. - Keynote Address - Steve Jones, University of Illinois - Chicago

More about Sat and Sunday Later.

:: Netwoman 10:31 PM [+] ::
...

Too busy to do much Blog Cruising - AoIR is starting this week, people are arriving and things are hectic. AoIR has a blog and I will keep you updated as well.


This is an overview of the conference:

"Digital communications networks such as the Internet are changing the way people interact with each other, with profound effects on social relations and institutions. Yet many remain excluded from access and meaningful participation. It is timely to consider who is included, who is excluded and what we now know about the composition and activities of online communities. Internet Research (IR) 4.0 will feature a variety of perspectives on Internet, organized under the theme Broadening the Band. As in previous conferences, the aim is to develop a coherent theoretical and pragmatic understanding of the Internet and those that are empowered and disenfranchised by it. IR 4.0 will bring together prominent scholars, researchers, creators, and practitioners from many disciplines, fields and countries for a program of presentations, panel discussions, and informal exchanges."

"In a cultural sense, the theme calls attention to the need to examine access, inclusion and exclusion in online communities. What role do race, gender, class, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, geography, and other factors play in the degree of online participation? What are the indicators of meaningful participation?"

More on some of the presenters tomorrow.

:: Netwoman 11:27 PM [+] ::
...

Workshops on "Gender Competence for Scientists in Computer Science and Natural Sciences"

January, 15th - 16th 2004:
"Gender theories and gender research in computer and natural sciences"
Topics will include:
Feminist theory
- Different levels of criticism and solution using examples from the sciences and technology.
- Essentialism and how it has affected women's progress.
- Power: Foucault on power and his relevance to feminism.
- Discourse: Foucault on discourse and critical discourse analysis (CDA).
Feminist research
- Gender analysis of IT, computer science, software engineering.
- Gender as structure, identity and symbolism. Gender and technology: is technology gendered? If so, can it be 'degendered'?
- Gender and the natural sciences

January, 17th - 18th 2004:
"Women in computer and natural sciences: situation and support strategies"
Topics will include:
Gender issues in education, training and employment
- IT industry: structures and problems for women
- Natural sciences: structures and problems for women
Women at work: support strategies
- Gender mainstreaming and how this relates to feminist theory. How useful is it as a method for furthering gender equality in teaching and research in science and technology?
- Support networks for women
- Mentoring: idea and different forms of realisation
- Role models and their impact
- Work-related health: hidden health problems for working women

Supported by the Federal State of Baden-Wurttemberg The Centre for Gender Research in Computer and Natural Sciences [GIN] at the University of Freiburg offers two workshops for newly qualified scientists and those still studying. These will give the participants an understanding and awareness of the influences of gender on computer science and the natural sciences. It is to give them knowledge and skills to help them handle the possible adverse effects of gender on their work and studies as well as the influence of the workplace culture. The workshops focus on two different topics: the first one is about gender theories and research in the fields of computer science and the natural sciences, the second will deal with the situation of women in education and work in this area and strategies for support. The two workshops complement one another very well, but each stands alone and can be attended separately.

We invite all women scientists in computer and natural sciences (students studying for their first degree, graduates, PhD students, PostDocs) to participate. There is no fee for the workshops. Participants must pay for their own travel and accommodation. The language for workshop I will be English, workshop II will be in English and German.

Workshop organisation:
Dr. Frances Grundy, Ruth Messmer, Katrin Nikoleyczik

For further information and registration please contact:
Kompetenzzentrum
Genderforschung in Informatik und Naturwissenschaften [GIN]
Universitat Freiburg
Institut fur Informatik und Gesellschaft, Abt. 1
Friedrichstr. 50
D-79098 Freiburg i. Br.
gin@mod.iig.uni-freiburg.de
http://mod.iig.uni-freiburg.de
phone: +49-(0)761-203-4925
fax: +49-(0)761-203-4960

:: Netwoman 10:52 AM [+] ::
...

And now for something completely different...

Google Talk via Alex.
Enter in your words, and google will finish it:
A Feminist is a person with a disability.
Gender is a gene.
Women and technology in the Classroom is a garden in the Rain.
Women bloggers are the hackers.
Netwoman is a car.

Interesting...

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadian Folks!

:: Netwoman 10:35 AM [+] ::
...

No offense....

But I am a bit frustrated. I do a lot of Blog Cruising - going through blogroll after blogroll to check out people's Blogs. There is a plethora of American content of course, addressing alot of political issues. I am interested in US politics because ultimately it has an effect on us Canucks - but really don't follow it all too closely. Other blogs are academic, which is interesting too, but our system is a bit different over here.
It seems the US has a bit of a strong hold over the Blogosphere. USA Today calls the Blogosphere chaotic and disorganized. I am not sure why. It seems quite orderly and organized to me, in a very American way.

When I was listening to BloggerCon via Marks' bootleg, I heard Dave Winer say "that Blogging is truly an American thing". I just about fell off my seat, and started IM frantically to someone who was at the conference: "What does he mean it is only an American thing? What is that about?". True, there are many more US blogs than any other country; true that BloggerCon was held at Harvard (and Dave says, "You can't get more American than Harvard") but still - my nose was out of joint. As Werner Vogels says about BloggerCon: "Basically white middle class Americans discussing how their technology will change the world."

Adam Curry says this:
"What sticks in my mind most is the brief conversations about weblogs from foreign countries, in my case Europe. I'm jealous of the vigor and dedication that goes into blogging political and social issues in the states....Unfortunately the blogosphere in my neck of the woods hasn't quite moved beyond the stage of commenting on traditional media. In turn, Big Media here is still reporting that weblogs are only used by teenage girls who write about their pets. Sound familiar?"

Then it hit me, what about Canadian Blogs? What about them? I read some UK blogs, and a Canadian one or two. But the content that seems to dominate the Blogsphere (and the popularity list) is very American. So, I went searching for Canadians and their Blogs. Yes, Canadians other than myself are blogging.

This is a new directory of Canadian Blogs:
BlogsCanada: Canada's Blog Site

I will have to check the eh-list, I mean A-list of bloggers in Canada.

:: Netwoman 11:32 AM [+] ::
...

From Drezner to Apt. 11D comes this Chicoago Tribune article "An unlikely new source of writing talent: Blogs".

The media is starting to pay attention to Blogs, hiring bloggers as journalists because they have more 'expertise' in the area. What exactly is expertise? Who's blogs are being read? Which ones are considered to be newsworthy? Generally blogs that have generated much traffic and hype of course. Traffic is everything and links to/from A list bloggers are essential. You can have a voice, but someone needs to hear it (and respect it). If a blogger writes in the blogosphere, and no one reads the blog, does the blogger have voice?

:: Netwoman 1:10 AM [+] ::
...

The threat of the Net a January BBC article about the Internet, kids in chatrooms and paedophiles.

Yes, there is always the threat, but I am wondering about the media-hype on this - sensationalized? Perhaps:

"It says while the risk of falling prey to a paedophile is low statistically, awareness campaigns are important. "

BBC's recent article MSN shuts down its chatrooms

"MSN is closing all its chatrooms in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and most of Asia from 14 October, and changing the way others are operated globally. "

More contribution to the hype about concern for children online. "although most messages in chatrooms were not inappropriate, a "small minority" had spoilt chat for people of all ages. "

Other facts:
-One in five children aged nine to 16 regularly use chatrooms
-More than half have engaged in sex chat
-A quarter have received requests to meet face-to-face
-One in 10 had met face-to-face

:: Netwoman 8:56 AM [+] ::
...

Tid Bits:

Press Action blogs about "Where are the news-and-views websites run by women?" back in January. Have things changed?

MediaJunk blogs about the "Blogosphere's Glass Ceiling" last March. MediaJunk challenges the notion of the gendered Blogosphere stating that both men and women blog equally.

MediaJunk updates this posting last month:

"I argued that the notion of there being any impediment to the popularity of women's blogs was clearly nonsense. That such a complaint was even postulated reveals the whining, blaming, conspiracy-theory mentality that underlies much of feminist 'ideology'. From my everyday experience as a blog reader, I suggested there were roughly equal amounts of male and female bloggers. I noted that men's blogs tended to express opinions about external events, while women were more likely to opt for introspective biographies, and offered this as an explanation for the greater audience share enjoyed by male bloggers (people, I can only presume, are more likely to read weblogs that present or discuss newsworthy subjects)."

MediaJunk concludes by saying that not surprisingly, women and men blog differently:
Citing the Blog Census Site MediaJunk notes that "when the researches looked at the category of 'personal diary', which made up about half of all blogs in the sample, women outnumbered men by about two to one. (56% to 28%)".
Also:
"Women were less likely to write about other topics. For example, "of the 6.2% of sites in the 'political' category -- sites primarily devoted to politics, current events, foreign policy, and various ongoing wars -- a bare 4% were written by women."

Sounds gendered to me.

:: Netwoman 11:06 PM [+] ::
...

Designing (gendered) Technology

I found this on Techno\culture's Blog:

For Venus and Mars, a Midpoint in Design by Michel Marriott in the NY Times.

"The first question we ask is, who are we designing for?" For most electronics makers, the answer to that question has generally been men - and more specifically, men who care most about how powerful a product is and looks. But today more designers are taking what women want into account. Sometimes that means distinct product lines, like Liv, but designers are also starting to mute some of the masculine appeal, creating products that are attractive to both sexes. "

1. Technology is always designed with sex and gender in mind - often with the assumption that men will be using it. Note the assumptions that are behind sex and gender - stereotypical notions of what men want or need: "aggressive, hard-edged elements into its black-and-silver profile". Also portable radios for women that are shaped like a clutch purse (Do all women carry purses? I don't - hmm).
2. There are assumptions that for most new technologies, men will be the users.
3. Women and men have different needs and expectations of the technology they use, which may or may not be gendered. "... electronics makers concluded that women wanted their devices to be smaller, lighter and easier to use. But in reality those are things women want, but men want, too,".

IBM's new technological innovations are trying "to transcend gender here with design that (they) believe is timeless".

Yeah, ok.

:: Netwoman 1:05 PM [+] ::
...

Jeremy points to an article about The Blogging Iceberg .

Some interesting points:
-Males were more likely than females to abandon blogs
-teenagers have created the majority of blogs. Blogs are currently the province of the young, with 92.4% of blogs created by people under the age of 30.
-Females are slightly more likely than males to create blogs, accounting for 56.0% of hosted blogs.
-Underneath the iceberg, blogging is a social phenomenon: persistent messaging for young adults

Most bloggers 'are teenage girls' - survey
"62 per cent of Polish blogs are written by women and a staggering three quarters are written by teenagers or younger."


UPDATE: It seems that Kaye was on the same wavelength - blogging about the same thing - the Perseus survey.

:: Netwoman 11:28 PM [+] ::
...

An interesting post by Oliver Willis regarding BloggerCon - Deflating The Blog Bubble. Check out the numerous comments as well - some supportive - some not.

"So as blogs increase in stature and importance - and they will - we must also maintain a sense of proportion about the whole thing. For every Meetup enabled via the web and blogging, we should also take note of the racial and sexual skew of the people attending and think: how can I use my blog to fix this, because its a problem. We "have the power" to do these things..."

:: Netwoman 9:59 PM [+] ::
...

David Brake has couple interesting posts on his blog. One is Rethinking the Digital Divide and Using Digital TV to Close the Digital Divide.

Brake refers to a recent article in The Guardian called Digitally divided by choice. It seems that people are making digital choices not to go online because they don't need it, and they don't feel they are missing anything. It seems to me that the issue here is a lack of understanding of the internet (fears about spam, porn and asocial activities) and the lack of skills to effectively use the Internet.

You can check the Oxford Internet Survey for more details.

:: Netwoman 9:35 PM [+] ::
...

First Monday has a couple of interesting articles this month.

Where am I and who are 'we'?: Self-representation and the intersection of gender and ethnicity on the Web by Linda Leung
"...the Web enables the portrayal of complex ethnicities and identities, as well as resistance to traditional modes of ethnic representation"

Victims of cyberstalking: An exploratory study of harassment perpetrated via the Internet by Paul Bocij.
This is not a very theoretical paper and doesn't really address issues of gendered violence.

:: Netwoman 1:21 PM [+] ::
...

Preceding the Toronto AOIR conference a pre-convention will be held with the
title Postcolonial Feminists meet Internet Studies.
For more info see this

:: Netwoman 11:27 PM [+] ::
...

Ideas for Women pointed me to a couple articles.
UM seeks more women scientists

"... barriers include a feeling of isolation, a lack of acceptance, and a lack of feedback from peers and department chairs while women faculty are working toward tenure... "

Also - Uneven Progress for Women on Princeton Science Faculty
Karen W. Arenson's article states that:

"Women on the faculties of the sciences and engineering at Princeton University feel less job satisfaction and less of a sense of inclusion than men, according to a new study.
Although women and men received tenure about equally, the study found that women earned less and took longer to be promoted. And about a quarter of the women said their male colleagues engaged in behavior that they found offensive. "

This reminds me of Lisbeth Klastrup's post about her feelings of working at her institution. Torill offers support by talking about the "difficulties of being a young woman in this system" and so does Jill who says "far more women than men drop out in that transition from writing your PhD thesis to teaching and researching as a junior staff member, which is exactly where Lisbeth is right now."

Given the two media articles, and the recent hype about the gender inequities at MIT, it seems that Lisbeth is not alone, there are many women out there who are facing the same issues, and feeling the same way.

Princeton's solution: "The task force, composed of nine women and two men, said that hiring more women and improving their status would make women students and professors feel more comfortable and help Princeton recruit the best graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. But the president's committee said it was also "the right thing to do."

I am not convinced that this will remedy the systemic sexism and gender inequalities. This sounds similar to other arguments we have heard (we need more women in politics holding offices etc). Of course, this assumes that women will 'bond' together and form a community. But we know that often women have to play by the rules - the success rules - that often reflect individualism. Participating in masculine discourses are how women get to the top. This is not changing the system of course, it is adding women to the mix and stirring. Barriers and obstacles must be looked at in terms of structures and systems, as gender inequality is a process.

Jill says: "it's just that it would be really nice and a lot easier to figure out my role in this strange new world of actually being a nearly fully-fledged academic if there were more women around." Yes I agree, it is a small network - which thanks to the internet, makes it easier to maintain and connect.

:: Netwoman 9:33 AM [+] ::
...

Cyborg Mommy links to a comment on Torill Mortensen's Blog.

"There needs to be a workshop soon on female academics in cyberspace: their research interests, their academic opportunities and their plans for the future. It needs to be somewhere nice and physically and aesthetically pleasing, it needs to include publishing fantastic articles by fantastic writers, inspired blogging on elegant websites and active network building in many a social event."

Yes! Shall we start organizing?

:: Netwoman 7:16 PM [+] ::
...

I was trying to watch BloggerCon yesterday via Webcast yesterday, but it wasn't working very well. I managed to find a Kevin Marks' bootleg feed instead.

It seems like it was an interesting conference with many ideas floating around and much discussion. As I was not able to attend, in some ways I still felt like I was there. Though it would have been great to contribute to the debates via the internet about the discussion and topics.

Kaye has been keeping up to date on her Blog, along with other bloggers at the conference.

Kaye's posts are interesting and insightful. One post in particular: weblogs in politics refers to comments made by Oliver Willis who provides political commentary on his blog.

Kaye blogs: "Do we really want blogs to influence the candidates? He said that the "racial, social, economic background ... is over-influenced by bloggers." He doesn't want the politicians listening to blogs because they do not currently make up a the true picture of American society."

Excellent point. We are revisiting issues of internet access, and who has 'voice' in the blogosphere. But not only voice, but voices that are respected and deemed valuable - a respected body of knowledge. We know that for the most part, this often does not include minorities. Giving women, racial and ethnic minorities access to the internet to blog their opinions may not be enough if their opinions and life experiences are not conisdered worth hearing. We need to reconsider who has legitimate claims to knowledge, and who does not.

:: Netwoman 12:58 PM [+] ::
...

For those of you who don't know, BloggerCon is this weekend. I have looked at the presenters, and there are no sessions addressing any 'isms' (gender, race, sexuality etc etc). I sent an email about it to the organizers with a prompt reply assuring me that these issues will 'come up' in the sessions.

I am not complaining really (well ok, a little), but I am not trying to contribute to the apparent BloggerCon backlash that is going on out there. But apparently no one ever suggested a session like this to the organizers. Interesting.

I think the issues of gender and race should do more than 'come up' in these kinds of conferences. We need to dedicate time and energy to actively thinking (and blogging) about how the 'isms' matter in the Blogosphere, and do more than simply mentioning them in papers here and there. Why didn't anyone suggest a session like this?


The AoIR conference is coming up Oct 16th-19th in Toronto, and there are numerous Blog panels. I am checking the program now for some interesting papers - stay tuned.

:: Netwoman 10:52 AM [+] ::
...

purse lip square jaw blogged about girls and games yesterday and I wanted to mention it here. Good tidbits of information.

Girls and Games by Shirley Roburn.
snipit: "Chat" based games and activities are tremendously popular with girls, who are the largest users of both the Internet and mobile technologies for this purpose.

Genderplay: Successes and Failures in Character Designs for Videogames, an essay posted by Jane. Excellent piece!

Jane discusses Tomb Raider:
"The reviews and previews obsessively focused on the male gaze traversing her body more than the gameplay. That turned me off immediately. She's just a toy, to be played with, manipulated in an environment, not an avatar to identify with, a personality to inhabit. The message wasn't, "Hey, girls, an empowered woman to play in a game!" but rather, "Hey, boys, check out this chick's boobs while you lead her around a dungeon!"

Other Interesting articles:
Does Lara Croft wear fake polygons? by Anne-Marie Schleiner

Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? by Helen W. Kennedy

:: Netwoman 12:00 AM [+] ::
...