I caught wind of this column via a Tweet from @suzemuse (Susan Murphy of Suzemuse).  Margaret Wente, a Toronto Globe and Mail columnist, published a column called Why are bloggers male?  She makes a number of interesting assertions on how blogging is a male activity and that women communicate differently both in terms of venue and thoughtfulness.  You might want to read the column before reading any further so you can ground yourself.

I’ve written a response to her column.  I have E-mailed it to her separately but I’m publishing it here as well since I thought some of you might have some thoughtful responses to her column.

My response is a bit long, but I hope you’ll be able to read it through to the end.  I’d love to know what you think.

#  #  #

Dear Ms. Wente:

This E-Mail will discuss a (very) recent column you’ve written in order to express my reaction and point of view about that column. It is, of course, your choice to read this E-Mail. I hope you do read it (if you’ve gotten this far, there’s a decent chance that you’ll read the whole thing) and I would appreciate reading your response to my opinion in some fashion. My hypothesis at this point, lacking the ability to read minds, is that it is unlikely that you will do either, but I’ve certainly been proven to be wrong before, so there is always hope that you might choose to do both things.

I read your well-crafted Globe and Mail column (noted above in the subject line of this E-Mail and here with this link) with some interest as I’m both a blogger (I consider myself to be a writer as well but most of my output is published electronically using blogging platforms) and a man. A couple of my female contacts have expressed their disagreement with parts (if not all) of the column, but that is a small sampling of your potential audience. I could point out that you reference small samples of people when you wrote about:

• Your theory about blogging being related to “male answer syndrome”
• The experience of being “struck dumb” in being the presence of stranger
• Women have never held peeing contests – this is speculation and it’s also virtually impossible to prove a negative statement when speaking about an entire gender composed of billions of members over the millennia; I do agree that it seems a bit far-fetched since I have no evidence one way or the other.

But that doesn’t necessarily invalidate your opinions. For that matter, it doesn’t make the opinions of my female contacts incorrect either.

Your reference to Andrew Sullivan makes me think that your opinion of blogs and male blogging in particular are based on Mr. Sullivan’s blog as a typical example. Your reference to the childish and abusive behavior of blog and website commentators – which I certainly don’t dispute as being all too frequent on popular blogs and websites, although I’m very fortunate to not have to worry about such problems at present – is also another example of presenting an overgeneralization. I suspect that you are aware that you are making these generalizations because there is a lot of value to you and your employer in creating a bit of controversy and stimulating some discussion. However, on the off chance that you might truly think that these opinions are factual, I’m going to present a few counter opinions and facts.

Blogging is now used as a more generic term that when bloggers like Andrew Sullivan rode the wave of the emerging medium. Blogs were originally pages full of links with some description (hence the original term weblog, to represent an ongoing log of websites that the blogger had visited.) Over time, as blogging platforms have become more numerous and richer in functionality, it has become much easier to use these platforms to display written and graphical content, while incorporating both audio and video content. The end result is a medium which can closely mimic the layout abilities of magazines, books, and newspapers and do even more. As a result, bloggers have been gravitating towards writing longer form content. Articles published on the web are able to exceed 400 words very easily. In some cases, many bloggers regularly publish 1000 words or more in their articles and posts, accompanied with other embedded media and hyperlinks to other websites.

I’m assuming that these facts are new to you, although it’s quite possible that you do know this already. Even probable.

Let’s both be honest, OK? I think we both know that there are plenty of digital publishers out there who represent different extremes of brevity, contentiousness, depth of feeling, logical arguments, and civility. For some reason you’ve chosen to focus on a (relatively) famous male blogger whose blog posts tend to be relatively short, even compared to many blogs, plus he actually republishes a lot of other people’s content. In fact, I’m making the assumption that Andrew Sullivan is your “ideal” male blogger (i.e. the mental model you have in mind when you write about male bloggers).

The peeing contests that you mention seem to be related to the commentators that I mentioned above. Are you lumping the commentators into the same class as the bloggers themselves? Isn’t that a bit of a stretch? Wouldn’t that be like comparing you (a Globe and Mail columnist) to the people who comment on your blog? I don’t actually see a direct link to the peeing contests that you mention and the commentators. But, of course, the parallel that you could be drawing here is that the kneejerk responses of the commentators could be similar to those of the bloggers themselves, who seem to ejaculate (sorry, but it seems to be a fitting metaphor when you bring in the subject of male answer syndrome and its sexual origins) posts multiple times per day with an admirable recovery period that might make some men jealous if you apply the analogy far enough.

I appreciate the fact that your writing displays a sense of sophistication and craft that “bloggers” seem to lack in your eyes. In fact, while taking the time to craft a piece of well written opinion, you’ve managed to engage me emotionally and trigger a response. It’s amazing how you’ve managed to provoke a response, much like the opinionated male bloggers that you mention in your column. Except, of course, your method of provocation is somewhat more subtle that the typical pundit blogger that you refer to. As for me, my spelling, grammar, punctuation and tone are more civilized that the commentators that you’ve referred to: folks who are doing the digital equivalent seeing how far their stream of urine will reach and, if they’re feeling ambitious, trying to write profanity or perhaps draw crude sexual imagery with the aforementioned streams. Hopefully I haven’t mistaken your intent here, but given my gender I am occasionally cursed with an inability to appreciate subtlety. Sorry, I was born this way.

It’s interesting that you include a suggestion for creating an audience in your column. Apparently all I would have to do is to write “Margaret Wente is an idiot” and I could likely increase my subscriber and page view counts by some multiple. I could point to studies and statistics (and, come to think of it, actual web sites) which show that there is a plethora of women bloggers, many who are talented and thoughtful, but they also share the blogospheres with more opinionated members of the same gender. But, Ms. Wente, I do not think you are an idiot. Not at all.

The reason is simple: no one with the experience in old and new media that you must have could possibly believe such a stupid idea, that bloggers are exclusively male or that the desire to “blog” is a male behavior. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that the act of “blogging” is now a diverse activity that encompasses many types of digital publishing. Self expression isn’t a gender specific trait. It’s regrettable that you and some of your female friends had difficulty communicating in the presence of strangers. If it helps at all, it certainly isn’t a female-only phenomenon and I suspect it has more to do with personality types and social conditioning than gender. I know I was afraid to speak in front of strangers for many years and even today it doesn’t come naturally unless I feel very strongly about something. Whether it was a change in hormones or personal development, I don’t know, but at least you feel more confident and self-assured and this is a good thing.

Thank you for stimulating some thought today. I’m both E-Mailing you and publishing my response on my blog so that: a) there’s a chance that you’ll read it, as I mentioned earlier and b) other people can weigh in on this topic. Who knows, maybe I’ll finally attract a few trolls with this.

P.S. An obvious advantage of the blogging platform I don’t have the same constraints on column space that newspaper columnists do. Although I’d concede that the more you write, the harder it is to keep someone else’s attention. If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this response, then kudos to you and thank you for taking the time to do so.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Atlantic Redesign: The Medium is the Message (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Link-phobic bloggers at the NYT and WSJ (blogs.reuters.com)
• Goldberg On New Media (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Borg-like Atlantic Redesign Sparks Blogger Crisis of Identity [Redesigns] (gawker.com)
• The hardest working Blogger on the Planet (potpolitics.com)

For fun, I have written four things in this blog post.  Three things are clearly in some kind of code or such.  One might not be so clear.

The first person to correctly decode all four things and leave the correct translations/solutions in the comments section wins $5.00 US (to be sent by PayPal).

Have at it!

First puzzle

Ometimessay eway aketah isthay oggingblay ingthay ootay eriouslysay.  Eway ustjay eednay otay avehay omesay unfay ceonay niay aay ilewhay.

Second puzzle

fI ew era oot tsenrae dna oot deggod ew teg siht muidem yletelpmoc sdrawkcab

Third puzzle

- …. .. … / .. … / -. — – / .- -. / … — … / – …. .. … / .. … / .— ..- … – / .–. .-.. .- -.– .. -. –. / .– .. – …. / – …. . / — . -.. .. ..- –

Four puzzle (what is the hidden message?)

Even

Normal

Jive

Obfuscates

You

Following yesterday’s post on world building, I made a list of qualities that a blogger with a world builder mentality would have.  They include (in no particular order):

• Have a vision and stay true to it
• Have principles and stick to them
• Devise and implement rules that make sense
• Use a language that isn’t hard to learn
• Describe your world in detail, one blog post at a time – maps are good
• Show and tell – give examples, models, case studies, tips and tricks
• Spotlight great examples that are happening elsewhere
• Work well with other world builders – diplomatic relations
• Don’t be afraid to experiment
• Don’t be afraid to scrap a bad project or mistake
• Take responsibility
• Be a good steward
• Be a benevolent dictator
• Build great things
• Continue to evolve
• Spread hope
• Remember the Golden Rule
• Tell stories
• Celebrate
• Be thankful
• Love thy neighbor
• Offer help
• Answer questions
• Lead conversations
• Offer basic information to those who need it
• Offer advanced knowledge to those who are ready to receive it
• Collaborate
• Do your best work over and over

Do you agree or disagree with any or all of these points?  Was there anything important that I missed?

All the best bloggers are world builders. So are science fiction/fantasy writers, politicians, entrepreneurs, architects religious leaders, non-profit organizers, teachers, and coaches.  Oh, and movie directors/producers, too (George Lucas and James Cameron didn’t just make movies – they made entire worlds.  Or even galaxies.)

What?  You say that all they do is move pixels, letters, numbers, and the occasional image?  How could bloggers possibly be world builders?

First of all, relax on one point: I’m not saying that bloggers are planet builders.  I don’t know what your religious beliefs are (they are your business, after all) but I’m not implying that bloggers possess superhuman abilities to move and rearrange matter into organized clumps (although you could be forgiven for thinking that some of them might be under the delusion that they can do such things).

Worlds aren’t just planets.  Worlds, going back to etymology and history for just a moment, are not limited to being orbs in space that orbit stars.  World is a term that related to things like “turning chaos into order”.  World can also be a self-contained, unique reality that exists separate to the “real world”.

A world can be an ideal place, one that represents certain characteristics, beliefs, or ideas.

Blogs have themes, rules, topics of interest, visions, and calls to action.

Here are a few examples:

Chris Brogan: a world of human, café shaped businesses

Beth Kanter: world of compassion where non-profit organizations can use social media to be successful

Rob Diana: world for better coding, design, and techonology

Robert Scoble: world of cool and useful technology

Fred Wilson: world where more people are educated in business fundamentals

Seth Godin: world where more people realize what incredible opportunities are available to us all and what we lose when we squander them

Darren Rowse: a world where individuals can improve their lives by making money online using blogs and social media

Michael Martine: a world where businesses make better use of blogs and social media to be more successful

Steven Hodson: a world where companies and individuals stop making stupid mistakes with technology (see also Justin Kownacki)

Hugh MacLeod: a world where people get off their asses, follow their passions, and do great work

Mitch Joel: a world where companies grasp the fact that media is changing and baby, you’d better run smartly with it

Introvert Zone: a world where introverts can have self-respect and live happy, productive lives

Ian M Rountree: a world where you can do cool stuff, get better, and do even more while growing as an individual

Bill Wren: a world where people can find tools to become better writers

Steve Spalding: a world where you turn things inside out, split the atoms apart, and find the goodness that no one else has been smart enough to find yet

Louis Gray: a world where everyone gets to see and benefit from all of the good technology that’s out there, especially the great stuff that gets overlooked at times

Dave Winer: a world where technology is used intelligently as part of an overall democratic, fair society (see also: Doc Searls, David Weinberger)

Alexander Van Elsas: a world where free technology, the rights of the individual, and commerce can coexist

Jessica Doyle: a loving world full of wonderful art

Merlin Mann: a world where people have the tools to do their best work, and then they go do it

Gary Vanynerchuk: a world where people appreciate the complexity and range of great wines in the world

Brian Solis: a world where companies use social media, public relations and communications effectively and thoughtfully (see also Adam Singer)

Naomi Dunford: a world where individuals can start thriving small businesses instead of working for “the corporation” (see also: Jonathan Fields)

Valeria Maltoni: a world where everyone recognizes the power of honest and significant conversation

Kelly Diels: a world where we better understand the importance of sex, money and meaning and how together they intersect and shape our lives

Dan Schawbel: a world where people realize the power of their personal brand and how it precedes them at every step of the way

Have you visited any cool worlds lately?  Better still, have you made any?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Thought wrestling – the sport of different thinkers (broadcasting-brain.com)
• How to start 2010 by doing better work (broadcasting-brain.com)
• 11 Characteristics of Highly Influential Blog(ger)s (techipedia.com)

The gentleman in today’s installment of Thoughts From is one of the few social media folks that I’ve actually met in person.  However, the five minutes we spent chatting at a Third Tuesday meetup over two years ago had a big impact on my own blogging and social media presence.  Jason Falls is the founder and principal of Social Media Explorer, LLC and has been active at his Social Media Explorer blog for years.  Jason has a background in public relations and is a well known and respected voice in social media circles.  He’s a smart thinker who’s not afraid to zag when other people zig.  All in all, it’s a real pleasure to have Jason participate in this interview series.  Fill up your coffee cup and take a few minutes to check out this great interview post.

Why did you start Social Media Explorer?

SME launched in September of 2007 as I began working with clients full-time on social media projects. The blog became a business (my consultancy) on August 1, 2009.

Was there something in particular that you were trying to achieve with the blog and, if so, have you achieved it yet?

I wanted to build a level of thought leadership in public relations and social media. I knew I had ideas and insights about the social web that could help companies, but needed a platform to build that reputation nationally and internationally. I guess you can say I’ve accomplished that. Now that I feel comfortable in that skin, I now hope to use it to offer some responsible insight for everyone so marketing can happen without the industry being overrun with salesmen. Or something noble like that.

You’re an entrepreneur and have been for a number of months now. What’s the best part of being an entrepreneur so far?

I can say “no” now.

Flip side: what’s the worst part of being an entrepreneur so far?

Accounting. I hate math.

Are you having any challenges (or victories) in keeping business and personal separate? Or is it a big deal to you?

It’s actually easier now that I’m my own boss. In agency life, you’re at the mercy of your clients, then your new business efforts and you work 72 hours a day and deal with it. You can’t say “no” and you can’t stop. Family is almost expected to suffer for your career, which, frankly, is bullshit. Now, I’m home for dinner and to put my kids to bed with very few exceptions. And I only work on weekends after the rest of the family is asleep.

Do your children use the Internet yet or computers in general? To what extent?

My son turns five later this month. The extent of his Internet is PBSKids.org, which he plays on about an hour a month at most. That and watching silly animals on YouTube with me every now and then. But both of my children (I also have a soon-to-be 2-year-old daughter) have blogs where my wife posts pictures and little stories for the family. We’ll turn them over to them when they’re old enough.

Can you describe the psychology of an internet troll? I know you’ve had to deal with them before.

I think most trolls fall into one of two categories with one stark commonality. They’re either really, really ignorant and insulting people somehow compensates for this in their minds, or they are unusually intelligent but are intimidated socially and think standing out has to be a bravado thing rather than just being smart. Both are overcompensating for some self-loathing or dissatisfaction with their own life/standing/person. I feel sorry for them in a lot of ways.

And dealing with them, in my mind, is pretty simple. You either show some common decency and respect or we’ll all tune you out. That deprives them of their platform. They normally comply. If not, they run and pick on someone else, which gets rid of them anyway.

Is PR generally getting better at using social media? Are practitioners learning what’s right and what’s wrong yet?

Some are, some aren’t. I think it’s gotten better, but there’s still a lot of bad PR going on out there. Unfortunately, if you’re delivering the metrics your clients want, you have no reason to try and change. Bad PR isn’t going away.

Can you describe a situation when you really, really wanted to laugh out loud at something in a meeting but you managed to bite your tongue and keep a straight face?

No. I laugh out loud anyway. Major personality flaw. I was born without an edit button.

Pretend that the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do when you wake up the next morning?

Play with my kids. Read a book. Go to a baseball game. That’s a pretty nice day in my mind.

Any parting thoughts for our readers?

Just don’t do it down the middle. We call that a “butt cut” where I’m from.  (Heh.)

Just for a change of pace, I want to turn the podium over to you (in the Comments section, of course).  What’s out there that YOU would recommend to the readers of Broadcasting Brain?

This isn’t about Foursquare (despite the photo included in this post) or #FollowFriday or anything like that.

I would really like to see you all recommend a good blog post, website, or other online content that you think would be valuable to all Brainiacs who read this blog.  Maybe it could be something light hearted.  Or, it could be something more substantial or meatier that we might want to read over the weekend.

Have at it, mighty ones!  Give us some good stuff to read, watch or listen to.  BIG HINT:  it can be something that you created.

EDIT: ok, I’ll kick things off with one recommendation: Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 2 by Remarkablogger (Michael Martine).  For example, Michael makes a great point about the following:  things that we write about that might seem to be too obvious and simple to us might not be too simple or too obvious to our readers.  Check it out.

Image by y2bk