The dangers of online candor
As all cops know, there is something exceptionally relieving in telling the truth. Lying takes a big effort; expressing who we are and how we really feel is the satisfying path of least resistance.
This is all good, but the impulse to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth creates some unique issues when it comes to blogging. The writer Ayelet Waldman describes on Salon the irresistible need to tell the whole truth on her blog:
Almost immediately I discovered in myself a confessional impulse, a compulsive need to haul open the tattered edges of my emotional raincoat and expose the nasty parts lurking beneath.
In a recent conversation with some friends, the issue of how much we can really afford to reveal in a blog came up. What price are we willing to pay to be naked in front of the world, especially if our blog is signed with our real first and last names?
Blogher, the upcoming San Francisco conference dedicated to women’s blogs, has devoted a panel on the issue of revealing yourself on your blog (How to be naked), which indicates just how important this issue is and how many people have already paid a price for their online disclosure.
Heather Armstrong, one of the BlogHer panelist, was fired in 2002 for writing about her work on her blog:
There is no such thing as unadulterated freedom of speech with a blog, not if you’re brave enough to tack on your real name to what you write.
There is a fine balance between free (and oh! so relieving) expression of ourselves and feeling comfortable when we realize that some people actually read our blog. Besides, nakedness is not always pretty to watch and total candor can be embarrassing (burping out loud is very liberating too, but who other than the burper enjoys it?).
Writing a blog is a balancing act. If the main motivation is self-expression and recognition (unless one earns money from one’s blog; I don’t), we should still be respectful of ourselves and the people we write about. And, if we really cannot resist telling the truth, what about one of those anonymous blogs?
Technorati tags: blogging, disclosure, blogher.
Leaving IT
After 5 years, a few weeks ago I decided I had enough of IT; it was time to quit. The same week I moved from IT to the Marketing department of my company, other two women who have managed me at various times did the same. It seems that we are not alone: Roy Mark wrote a commentary on Internet News (Where have all the women gone?; via Caterina Fake on Misbehaving.net) about women slowly bleeding out of IT (a 20% decrease in the percentage of women in the last 10 years).
I find reassuring that I am not the only one experiencing dissatisfaction with the IT environment. Mark quotes comments about “high-school locker room mentality” and “hostility to women.” In my experience, it’s much more subtle than that. I found that the IT culture, initially exciting and seemingly full of possibilities, in the long run does not fulfill its promises. What I found frustrating is not so much the exclusion from the boy’s club–although there is definitely some of that–but rather the excessive emphasis on speed rather than quality (for a different take on this issue, see Alan Key on the disappointing lack of new and revolutionary programming languages; via Andrew), on execution rather than strategy, and the disregard for the human and caring aspects of building applications (e.g., the quality of the user experience rather than the quality of the code).
I may be wrong, but I am afraid IT management is not paying attention to why we are leaving. I hope that the evolution of technology towards social and connected computing will demand a different approach to IT development and force the boy’s club to open up to the world.
Technorati tags: women, technology
Blink
I’ve just finished listening for the second time to the audiobook version of Malcolm Gladwell‘s Blink
Among the many interesting studies mentioned in the book, for example, the research conducted by Louis Cheskin in the 50s and 60s, and by Darrel Rhea and Davis Masten more recently on “sensation transference” or the influence of packaging on perceived taste (how cheap brandy tastes worse when it’s served in the wrong bottle; and how Sprite tastes too much like lime if one increase the amount of green on the can).
Aside from the results of the studies, however, there are couple of things that struck me in the book. Read more »
Where did you get your news today?
Underground tunnel with emergency lighting – Uploaded by antarcticlemur.
Four years ago, I was at work on the morning of September 11 , and I remember desperately trying to get to the CNN website to understand what was going on. Last year, when I first heard about the Madrid bombing, I visited CNN.com and Yahoo!News. But today, when I wanted to learn what was going on in London, I ran to Technorati, and from there to Boing Boing and Wikinews. I read blogs of first-hand experiences and commentaries, I looked at Flickr streams, and read updated and organized collections of wiki information.
When I eventually visited CNN, I didn’t see anything new or revealing. The soul of the London events, the human experience of the bombings, were captured much more vividly and with greater richness in the blogs, wikis, and photoblogs than in the official news.
Technorati tags: London Bombings, News
London’s burning
London Bus after the blast – Originally uploaded by bakkeldotcom.
I hate hate hate hate hate HATE bombs and the cowards who put them in buses, subways, trains, and buildings. I hate those who kill people (NO exceptions, not even “war”) to make a point, to create panic, or to feel safer.
I cry for the London commuters who were killed, injured, or frightened today, and for the hundreds and thousands that have been killed, injured, and frightned before them.
Read about the bombings at the Guardian Newsblog coverage »
And take the time to remember the victims of Madrid commuter bombs on March 11, 2004, those of Bologna Central Station bombing on August 2, 1980, and all the other victims of terrorist attacks.
Technorati tag: London Bombings
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