Liza: BlogHer, terror and the business of compassion
Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen sent a post to the Blogher board this morning that just rang all sorts of bells for me. I replied "BLOG IT" so we could take this conversation out to the world. Liza did (YAY!). I think it is important to read her whole post. Pulling snippets out of this one carries the danger of being used in completely unintended ways. (So it goes...).
Liza talks about the world we are opening up when we open ourselves to the world. Miriam (the Flink) says she will post some thoughts on her blog so keep an eye out there as I sense Miriam is looking to create actionable practicess out of these emerging ideas. OK, I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself. Situation normal.
Liza writes in BlogHer, terror and the business of compassion ...Meaning that from just solely putting pics of our kids up on a blog or deconstructing Condolezza Rice's hairdo, we're all of a sudden are finding ourselves in business, marketing, law, technology, entrepreneurial circles and communing with people we were never supposed to on a professional basis. If many of the women there are like me and at one point lived in a world were the meaning of making it was getting a permanent job [at a big company or in academia] with benefits and a pension plan or just marrying well and having babies; then this new world of blogs --where the personal is public and becomes marketable in many public arenas-- has become a mind-blowing experience.
It is about being in this world that is opening in new ways. The joys, the hassles, the risks (and yeah, some can say terrors) are all there. There is priveledge to consider as well -- those of us who can take the risks to use these new tools and ways of being. What about our sisters who may not see the path to taking those risks without losing things like jobs and children? How can that path be opened? I think Liza is on to something hot here.
So BlogHer to me is all about not just listening and learning, it's about compassion. BlogHer is an acknowledment that the barriers to entry to a myriad of worlds --enterprise, technology, finance, politics-- have been obliterated by this technology we've come to love and live by on a daily basis....
"That's where I see the potential of BlogHer growing : creating opportunities for coaching women into these new arenas, these new ways of thinking and speaking and being. Of creating networking and support opportunities for entering into this brave new world were the social barriers set-up by our 'jobbing culture' has been simple struck down with the push of a blog button."
blogher
posted by Nancy White at 10:52 AM
7 Comments:
you know someones onto something when you read their text twice...
It's right, it's all right.(imagine I am singing like a 60's popstar of your choice)
And as far as action is concerned I think the first thing to do is figure out how to take a position that is contrary to dominant themes in tech-culture, without seeming/becoming reactionary. I don't think it's wrong for there to be business as usual out there. Someone has to generate the capital and invent all sorts of new and nice bandwidth maximizing technologies for me and everyone else.
But the technology itself isn't neutral so there's room in there for other voices and other concerns, an event like Blogher shows that there is a power in offering an arguement other than the usual discourse.
Thinking about saftey nets and the business of compassion is not something abstract.
Making a place like blogher exist for one day is the first step.
To me, the next step is making opportunities for progressives to help each other jump the turnstyles, and mess up the usual order of things, in their day to day life. You know, without being completely anti- to say "look there are other ways to succeed and enjoy life"
words that come to mind are
mentorships,
working scholarships,
valuing lived expertise
virtual apprenticeships
professional exchanges
...and this one might sound scary and canadian but;
- cooperatives
To me, the word network, which would be the most efficient descriptor has come to mean things like; casual unexplicit relationships of power which escape public scrutiny and are not neccesarily based on the greater good. So I don't know if I like to use it...
I wish there were another word.
That turned out to be a bit of a rant. A happy rant I hope.
Miriam, is that you who posted this great (smiling) rant? I think there are a couple of things that REALLY bear repeating in what you wrote:
1. "figure out how to take a position that is contrary to dominant themes in tech-culture, without seeming/becoming reactionary. " -- I think exploring what reactionary means and how it changes the game is interesting as well. I'll have more to say about this in a blog post soon.
2. "To me, the word network, which would be the most efficient descriptor has come to mean things like; casual unexplicit relationships of power which escape public scrutiny and are not neccesarily based on the greater good. So I don't know if I like to use it..." Nodding my head furiously. Be careful what we wish for! :-)
Nancy, can you provide a link to Liza's original comment or Blogher post that you refer to? The link you use is just to the general Blogher website, and I can't locate Liza's comment. Thanks!
Hey Ms. Sour... it is down there with Liza's quotes and again here:
http://www.culturekitchen.com/archives/003280.html
yep ; ) that was me,
so enthused I forgot to leave a name.
yep ; ) that was me,
so enthused I forgot to leave a name.
Just a quick comment from a former entrepreneur. I have a lot of respect for anyone who faces up to the process of trying to start one's own business. It's hard as hell, and the financial risks are real. Taking steps to try to ease those shocks is work worth doing.
All that said, frankly, what you're going through post-BlogHer is not new. Quite a few of us went through this about 10 years ago (my God has it really been that long?) as part of the first wave of the Internet. Even some of the language I'm seeing reminds me of the things we used to say back in 1998 or so -- the transformative power of the Internet, its potential for change, the potential impact on society, etc etc.
And as we who rode that wave the first time all learned, an economy is nothing unless people can find a way to make a living off it. Encouraging mentorships and cooperatives and giving credit for life experience is all great. But to do all of that, you need a stable business that's throwing off enough cash to be able to support all those things.
BlogHer is an acknowledment that the barriers to entry to a myriad of worlds --enterprise, technology, finance, politics-- have been obliterated by this technology we've come to love and live by on a daily basis
Yes and no. Certainly the Internet has made finding information about new worlds much easier, and it has made connecting to people you might not otherwise have met easier. But the major barriers to entry have not changed all that much. There's still sexism, lack of access to capital, lack of self-confidence, and the biggest one of all -- the difficulty of finding a unique product, service, or type of information that other people will value enough to pay you for.
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