Depressing

I would respond to Mobile Jones with this comment left on John Battelle's blog by a Google engineer. The original subject matter is different but Fox's message is apt; anthropomorphizing a corporation is folly, thinking a single man represents all of microsoft is also a mistake (maybe even Gates himself too), and not everything is maliciously calculated...even if you can observe it to be so.

Who's defensive? Please be specific.

And who's being exclusionary? Have you announced any open dinners or lunches on your blog lately for interested bloggers/MT customers/whomever?

Oh, and was Mena Trott helping the conversation when she didn't respond to Robert's email about attending the dinner?

For the record, I think a fine response to Mobile Jones's comment is Robert's immediate reply.

dendrite, you raise a great point. No individual should be held up as a representative of a multi-thousand-employee organization. And I'm not suggesting that for anyone.

Rather, I think the problem isn't vertical to a single company, but horizontal to the blogging industry. And I haven't attributed any of the mistakes that people are making to malice, but rather to ignorance or inexperience or lack of familiarity. To pick an example, I think Robert Scoble's a good guy. I also think he's making a mistake in the way he's thinking about this topic, and worse, he's making a mistake in the way he's communicating about this topic, which is more of a problem since he's a professional communicator.

That being said, I think it's an error that will self-correct over time, and that's the point I was trying to make.

Gabe, I was deliberately not being specific, because that's when people start to get defensive and debate individuals instead of ideas.

Anil, thanks very much for the supportive words. I'm grateful that some men like you grok the issues with some of Robert's position statements.

Dendrite, in this case, Robert was and continues to be responsible for setting up these dinners on behalf of Microsoft execs. These are not casual dinner parties among friends. They are reported on in the blogosphere as a company event. Further, Robert stated in his responses that he is setting up more of these dinners as a vehicle for feedback into the company. Do you see why this is not anthropomorphism of a corporation?

Let's be clear about Robert's role at MS. He isn't an engineer posting things on a beta site for trial and error test and evaluation. He is an evangelist who blogs about MS technology and products. He's serving a function of corporate communications, marketing and promotion to a technical audience. He respresents various technical groups to the blogosphere. His role as company respresentive in the blogosphere is palpable.

There's an issue of accountability which is being obscured by defensiveness. The executive had a reason to attend such a meeting, and apparently promotion and feedback was part of that goal. Robert's goal in creating an exclusive attendee list isn't clear, but had he held the meeting as a public event and announced it beforehand, the reactions would be very different. His claim that there aren't technical women bloggers in the SF Bay Area is completely lacking credibility.

If Robert and the executive only wanted promotion from male bloggers to a male dominated technical audience, then they should just say so. That's not what Robert said. He said that inviting women would have lowered the quality of the meeting.

That's an outrageous statement. It deserved to be challenged. Such statements should always be challenged. I agree with Anil that the fact that everyone, men and women alike, wouldn't challenge such a statement, but rather, turn the discussion into accusations against the challengers to be depressing. Further, to frame the discussion as a topic of quotas, given the conotation that quota is equivalent to unqualified participation is equally insulting and unacceptable.

I'm grateful when discussions such as these occur in the blogosphere, because it spurs discussion. All sides and perspectives can participate which causes some interesting and unintended consequences. It hopefully is provocative enough to cause listening, considered thought, and even occassionally persuasion to another's point of view.

That's not what Robert said. He said that inviting women would have lowered the quality of the meeting. That's an outrageous statement.

As far as I can tell from reading the linked post, Scoble said nothing like this. Cite, please. Otherwise you're getting depressed over a straw man.

Hmmm... I tried to comment over at Scobleizer, but it is not letting me. So, Anil gets my thoughts...

Ha! I can think of number of women in technology who blog in the SF Bay Area: Mena, Danah, Molly, Mie, Ginevra, Rebecca, Kristin, etc etc etc.

If we extend that, there are plenty in other places, including the not so far away locale of SoCal. Like me. Ok, so I don't blog exclusively about technology, I have been known to include photos, birds, flowers, dogs, cute men, music and other bits. But I am known to travel to visit with other geeks to places like Austin and fun parties in the Bay Area!

smiles, jen ;o)