Digital Ethnorati

Wikipedia shows its colors with the death of Steve Gilliard and they are white and pink and and ivory and peach.

There is an astoundingly racist discussion going on in Wikipedia on the subject of whether Steve Gilliard should be included in Wikipedia. I have added my two cents to the discussion after I read this:

He was definitely widely cited by his peers, in the liberal blogsphere and therefore meets the notability requirement. If Atrios, Markos, Josh Marshall are all citing him, I think he should remain.

So as long as white, male bloggers like Markos Mooulitzas, Josh Marshall and Duncan Black quote you, you are opened the gates of notability. Anybody else, no matter how important they are to the blogosphere, is kept out.

Unless, of course, you publish a book --and that's only if the book is by a major publisher with wide distribution.

So somebody like me, Chris Rabb or BrownFemiPower, Jill Filipovich or Lauren Bruce are out. Barbara O'Brien, Jessica Valenti are in.

Lynne D. Johnson and George Kelly maybe are in if their companies push for the page. If they won't, then they're out as well. Lindsay Beyerstein could be included and so Amanda Marcotte given they are quote by 2 of the 3 BWM gatekeepers.

I leave for JFK to get on a flight to Austin, Texas. No thanks to Continental Airlines, I will have a three hour layover in Houston.

Sigh.

I will check in once I get there. I will also post more about the panel and what we would like to accomplish with the launch of The Digital Ethnorati project.

For the feminists out there, pay attention. This is basically what I have been trying to do with y'all.

Stay tuned.

You can tell by my previous post that technology has been heavy on my mind all this week. Not just technology but the uses of technology that allow people to either keep things same as they ever was or break free into new transformative ground. Especially as I saw them presented at The Sunlight-Berkman Conference on Political Information.

Last Monday at the Sunglight-Berkman I was able to witness some of the most interesting uses of Web 2.0 design practices that have the potential of changing not just the way we view Congress but the way we conceive of governance. Yet nothing, absolutely nothing compared to being in the presence of these two girls : Samantha (on the left) and Bianca (on the right).

People who have heard me speak at conference know what I can do with my oratorial skills. Well, I'm nothing compared to these two girls in action. I was completely blown away by how they just commanded that room and swept everybody away with their presentation of the project they're work as students of the The Center for 21st Century Skills.

Zephyr and Nisha asked us to wrap-up our thoughts with a question. I had two questions, one about technology and the other politics. They seemed to be separate questions but they're very related --and I honestly cannot remember what were my exact words. But they question that is on my mind is simple : does it make any sense to continue developing software and hardware the way people have been developing it if the face of the future is not a while man but of a couple of dark-skinned latinas from Waterbury Connecticut?

Photo Courtesy of George Kelly

Notwithstanding the flight from hell, the two days of gastrointestinal upheaval, the virtual dehydration due to the lack of readily available fresh water, a broken carry-on bag, lack of non-allergenic foods and the ensuing sixteen hours of allergy, dehydration and hangover induced headache; I can comfortably say it was good for me to go to BlogHer.

As y'all know I was stranded in the Mineappolis Thursday night. Friday morning, my flight to San Jose was delayed two more times; but maybe for a reason. Nancy Scola ended up in my flight! She and I had roomed in Austin during SXSW and keep on bumping into each other in a lot of tech and media conferences. So, knowing she's going to kill me for publishing this, I have officially declared us conference wives. I claim tops!

Imatellya ... the women who go to BlogHer are my peeps, my tribe, my community.

It was actually healing to have so many mommas looking after me. I was not on any panel this year and since a lot of BlogHers knew of Lydia's passing, the love was overflowing. I had women come to me with tears in the eyes to share their stories of loss. It was increadible and really overwhelming but this is why we build communities. We need this love, we need this sharing. I can't express how much I needed to be around people who understood why even though I am grieving I chose to be there.

Which is why I was in such a tribal and community building frame of mind.

I am not sorry to acknowledge my tribalism here at the moment, but outside of the fact that BlogHer is an estroswarm (the estrogen version of a blogswarm) of huge proportions, it shares with South by Southwest the distinction of being one of the few tech and media conferences I have gone to that strive to have a good dose of melanin-enriched and ethnic diversity.

The BlogHer triumvirate with the aid and abbetting of their lovely advisory board (which, btw, is unexplicably non-existent on the BlogHer site) has worked to make diversity not just a panel but an intrinsic part of what the conference is all about. They're efforts are moving in the right direction (although there is more to be done).

Which is why I called for a birds of a feather meeting of the digital ethnorati. At BlogHer and SXSW I've had the delight of hanging with my peeps Lynn and Tiffany as well as the fabulous George Kelly --one of the two or three token brothers at the conference ... HA! But I am totally excited because I got to finally meet Professor Kim Pearson, Kety Esquivel, Melanie Morgan or The New Media Collective, Kim Wickham of Mocha Momma, and Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks and Zadi Díaz of the Jet Show.

I also met Lakshmi Pratury, a former venture capitalist and digifeminist extraordinaire who created the Digital Equalizer project, an initiative to bring computers to the have-nots of India. I also met Annette John-Hall of Philly.com; Tarita Thomas, who is working to get her Bay Area famous "Pussy the Seminar" to a podcast near you. Last but not least, I was happy to reconnect with Mini Kahlon, Director of innovation for Level Playing Field, an NGO focused on promoting "innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces by removing barriers to full participation." She was there with Sean Aquino, a Creative and Technical Associate with the institute.

What an amazing slice of the digital ethnorati. I mean, let me show you how colored and ethnic technologists and early adopters are uber-connected.

The encounter with Karen was hysterical. I was introduced to her partly because she's a trini and ... you know ... carib people always stick together --and I am not being sarcastic. I swear, all the Trinidadians I have met --separately and independently from one another-- end up being from the same circle of friends. What's scarier is that Barbara, my soul sister, ends of being be connector. I am talking about one woman being the network of dozens of trinidadians I've met in politics, media, technology, entertainment and 'just because' social settings.

So I had to ask. "Do you know Barbara Prevatt?" No she said. "Well, that's because she doesn't blog. Then who have to know Georgia Popplewell, who runs Caribbean Free Radio. Bingo! Georgia is a very good friend of Barbara and she's been my acquaintance for ... ahem ... 20 years (Georgia, you're the one getting old, not me). Georgia knew I was going to BlogHer and told Karen she'd be meeting me there. Instanetworking. I'm telling, those trinis ... it's a mafia.

Speaking of mafias ...