NetSquared Breakout on "Gender and the social web: new tools, same...stuff?

Participated in a terrific panel on Gender and Social tools on Tuesday at NetSquared and reconnected with some old friends and made some new ones. Susan Mernit was a terrific moderator, all the panelists offered great advice and anecdotes and the audience participation was great (and the room was packed including a few men).

Themes:

Tools are great (networking sites, blogs, etc.) but have to use them

Must be present. Show Up (credit Christine Herron - the technology conclaves, conferences etc. need more women (love her ongoing count of women in technology conferences); no reason why we can't be there

The software design process, mostly dominated by men, needs to consider women's needs (and design sensibilities) which may differ. OMG, we're like, you know, half the market!

Get Active: mentor, hire, promote, refer, do the deal

This was also unique for me as I had never been on a panel addressing women's issues outside of a women's oriented conference. And while we addressed the particular challenges of "Voice" in new technology, it wasn't about men bashing. Although we all enjoyed Christine's oblique references!

Thanks Lisa Stone for introducing me to Blogher, NetSquared, and the rest. Lisa and I worked together years ago at Women.com and she's really embraced the new model and seems so excited and happy with her Blogher work. Faboulous!

Things to check out:
YouthNoise community for teens; gender balanced
Drupal (wow, didn't know this was happening) - open source community platform
Mom's Rising