July 31, 2005

Blogher Vs Gnomedex

While I was both jealous and full of envy regarding the BlogHer conference yesterday...I did enjoy the uploads, comments, chat, and live blogging that took place.

There was one thing I really wanted to comment on. Look at the pictures on Flickr tagged Gnomedex vs those tagged for Blogher. These are totally different sorts of pictures. Pictures of PowerPoint projections at Gnomedex. Pictures of women, their FACES at BlogHer. (as opposed to the backs of heads at Gnomedex.) It speaks to what women value.

One could look at these pictures at BlogHer and be squeamish about purses, jewelry, shoes and the like. First thought "Do they have to be such girls?" Look beyond that though...it is about the participants personality...who she is...not about what she owns. It is about the face behind the voice. Voices are only as good as the person behind them. Women in particular are said to learn from seeing expressions, faces...that which is oft missing from online interaction. BlogHer brought faces, expression and personality behind blogging.

Blogging lost visuals yesterday though...it lost the visual that showed white men wearing all relatively the same uniform are bloggers. It also lost the visual that the important conference information is held by few, conveyed by a presentation, on a screen. I am not sorry to see those crumble. It was a joy even from afar to see women, many different sorts of women. Women I agree with, women I don't agree with and women I had not heard of before yesterday all were PART of Blogher. Not just audience. I have to say I am loving every moment of the giddiness, excitement, action and most important the changes INTERACTION made yesterday and for probably years to come. Thank you BlogHer...for the visual reminder of the joys of women in community.

2 comments:

Beth Kanter said...

I was struck by the bags, shoes, and jewerly, etc. Since I was the live blogger who did the "social beat," I wanted to give a flavor of what the event was like to be there for those who couldn't or were following along in the chat. If you want to link directly to the shoes page:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2005/07/blogher_shoes_f.html

TW said...

Wow Beth! I have been reading you since Saturday. Editing to add the shoe link right away. Thanks. It was buried in my raft of Blogher fun stuff. The shoes were great. Thanks for stopping by!