Published: August 09, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
BlogHer Conference Criticized from Blogoshere
By Alan Gray, NewsBlaze 
The BlogHer network was created to support women bloggers by providing them with education and community and to give them exposure and access to other women bloggers.
Surprisingly, the BlogHer one day conference drew a lot of criticism from the Blogosphere, many seeing it as excluding half of the population. In fact, the conference was open to all and several men attended.
The Blogosphere is populated predominately by men, with many surveys showing a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 ratio. So it isn't surprising that a group of intelligent women got together to increase awareness of blogging for women. Any area that is male-dominated probably appeals more to men by its very nature and blogging is no exception.
Setting up a blog isn't always simple. Blogrolls, trackbacks, comment moderation, blogspam and permalinks don't all have an obvious meaning. Demystifying the process and providing education for women is a good idea. Hopefully, BlogHer will be able to generate some gender balance over the next year or two.
The accusations of elitism are patently ridiculous. While the internet can be seen as a level playing field, there will always be a need to help some groups participate. The gender bias is partly created by the geek-ness of blogging. Would the same level of criticism be levelled at a conference to help seniors get into blogging?
BlogHer can be found at www.blogher.org
(the www. is mandatory)
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
Search News
