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Jul 31, 07:27 pm: [BlogHerCon] Summing it up.

I’m not sure that I can. Sum it up, that is. Without doubt, this was one of the best conferences I’ve attended. As I wrote in a thank you note to the organizers, they set the bar for courtesy, transparency and response long before the conference started.

I’m trying, though, to think about what made it so good. Mainly, listening to the other bloggers gave voice to some of the nagging things that have been rolling around in my own head. Not so much about whether or not you should worry about your daily supply of link love but more about how you get past that to put yourself, whether it’s your business expertise or personal life, online.

On of the things that will resonanted with me was danah boyd’s comment at the opening session. Basically, as I understood what she said, we need to come up with various ways of measuring and tracking connections between people. Most of the tools now measure loose ties but they don’t necessarily measure dense ties. So, quantity of links rather the number of links from the same people. One favors men (who network with loose ties) and the other favors women (who use dense ties). Technology, it appears, is not neutral.

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Marnie Webb  | 

Comments made

  1. Ed Batista

    ”...[W]e need to come up with various ways of measuring and tracking connections between people. Most of the tools now measure loose ties but they don’t necessarily measure dense ties. So, quantity of links rather the number of links from the same people. One favors men (who network with loose ties) and the other favors women (who use dense ties).”

    I find this fascinating, but partly because I don’t fully understand it. Could you explain these ideas a little further? And thanks for the conference coverage—it’s been a great read.
    Jul 31, 08:45 pm

  2. marnie webb

    Ed,

    I’ll try. I’m not sure, actually, that I completely understand. Basically, I think what danah was saying was that the tools we use to track the connections between people (in the case, bloggers) measure quantity and loose ties. And so that favors a certain type of online behavior and that online behavior is more in line with the way men network and so they are going to dominate any lists or rankings that come from that tool set. Instead, the tools we use could measure different types of connections between people—the frequency of connections say—to get a glimpse of other kinds of relationships between people.

    I’m not sure that that’s any better….
    Jul 31, 11:10 pm