Internet

Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch wrote an "intervention" post for Robert Scoble about his addiction to FriendFeed (and by extension Twitter).

What has he gained? On Twitter Robert has nearly 45,000 followers and has written over 16,000 messages. On Friendfeed Robert has nearly 23,000 subscribers.

So lots of people follow Robert on those services, but they aren’t visiting his site and the content he writes is on someone else’s server. Plus all that content is just really forgettable, compared to a good thought piece that people refer back to over time. There is no direct way to monetize any of that content, which is something that a full time blogger with a family really needs to think about.

Meanwhile, all this attention from Robert has certainly helped the valuations of Friendfeed and Twitter. How much of that value does Robert receive? Zilch.

So Robert has spent 2,555 hours spent reading tens out thousands of mostly inane Twitter and Friendfeed messages, and has written a few thousand messages of his own. Meanwhile, we as a community lost the regularly entertaining and thoughtful posts of a great writer.

Robert dutifully responded over at Scobleizer :

On the 2nd of February, we're expecting more than 200 women to descend on George Washington University for a one day conference on women, feminism and technology.

This is the beginning of a conversation started between different people about the tide of change happening to all kinds of activism, especially in the feminist front. Blogs have become one of the most powerful points of discussion and organizing among a not just a new age of feminists but a new technological tribe of feminists that cross ages, ethnicity, race, ability and even gender itself.

I was in the middle of some of these conversations about the present, past and future of feminism and felt that there was a need to get the veterans and the noobs, the geeks and nerds, the men and women and all the different "tranches" of what we today call "Feminism" in the United States, throw them in a room and just have them shake hands and start conversations, collaborations or debates.

It is my hope that Feminism 2.0 is the first of annual meetings where feminists of all kind can come together to celebrate and air, vent and dream, rinse and repeat

It's why we need your help to spread the word. We need media partners : People who will advertise the event on their blogs, spread the word on their mailing lists, twitter the hell out of what happening, make it a thing on Facebook and MySpace.

If you take the code and decide to help spread the word about Feminism 2.0, please leave your name and a link to your blog in the comments section or use the private message feature at the foot of this post. We want to link back to your blog and acknowledge your contribution.

Ad codes after the jump.

To make sure every woman in the New York City area who is interested in new media and technology comes to She's Geeky, we're offering not one but two offers :

• Our fearless leader is offering a discount. Just enter "shesgeeky".
• If you've been burned by any of the Wall Street bailouts (or lack thereof), just tell us who and when you got downsized, bring a friend and, Presto! You've got a two-for-one deal.

Register and joins us at the Microsoft NYC Headqaurters on December 5th to 7th at 1290 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Floor). The schedule is as follows : December 5th:
Cocktail party begins at 5pm, unpanel at 6m, networking continues 7pm+

December 6th:
Doors Open at 8:30, Agenda Making at 9:30 (please be there for this) the day ends with a closing between 5-5:30pm (please plan to stay for this)

December 7th:
Doors open at 9:30, Agenda Making at 10:30, closing by 3pm.

I know you're feeling weird, but you should be happy
You don't have a vagina, that would be crappy
Because periods suck (and commas rule!)
This is Sex Education, not grammar, fool!

And so starts one of the most annoyingly catchy songs I've had the unpleasure to have seared into my brain by my two boys ... and their father, who seems to LOVE this fucking annoying song and group.

Ok, I have to admit, I am impressed with the virality of Smosh. It's coming out of nowhere with it's goofy videos. They have classics like Food Battle, Smosh Sued for $20 million, the Transformers Rap (which I am ashamed to admit cracks me up all the fucking time) and the Mortal Kombat Theme because it's the just kind of classic "hand made video" that made YouTube great.

By the way, There will be Pokémon is awesomely idiotic in a good way too.

And that's the point : These kids at Smosh (and/or whomever is financing them), are becoming the Monty Python's of the YouTube generation. Only sillier. Actually, even though some may even compare them to Kids in the Hall, I think they're close to neither (and grock knows I hated that Canadian show anyway).

MOSH owes a lot to Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's like the kids who grew up to to be what the robots in the show could never do. I do miss that show badly.

It's exciting and cool to see a new generation of comedians just developing not in front of my eyes by my kids. They discovered them in their meanderings through YouTube and that's why am in awe of the "show".

It's also incredibly irritating : Am just not sure what to make of these guys telling my boys it's great they don't have a vagina. It definitely is a WTF to see them head-banging in agreement, screaming "Periods suck, but commas rule", devil fingers in the air all the while am trying to stifle a laugh so I can go all feminist on them.

DAMN YOU SMOSH!

AM LOSING MY FRUCKING FEMINIST CREDENTIALS BECAUSE OF YOU!

Lyrics after the jump.

Attention women of New York City : If you are in the technology, media, finance, non-profit, marketing or education fields and are looking to network and brainstorm with like-minded women, then She's Geeky East is for you.

It will be two-and-a-half days of unconferencing.

Yes, it will be an unconference.

(Take your time.)

You don't know what an unconference is? Ah, well, let me use Kaliya Hamlin's own words to describe it. She is not only an expert on this sort of "brain swap" gathering, she also happens to be the founder of She's Geeky.

"An unconference is a facilitated participant-driven face-to-face conference around a theme or purpose. [ ... ] The name "unconference" arose to describe conferences that step outside of the more traditional model -- that is, presentations selected months beforehand, sponsors buying speaking slots, boring panels of talking heads, and high fees."

I've always thought of the internet as a kitchen where every web page, every email, every embed is a menu of creative delicacies feeding the soul of our culture. Every image, every word, every interaction carries meaning for the post or page where it is found. Collectively, all those billions of moments are not just being archived for as long as the blog or website is in place. Together, they are transforming our consciousness -- the way we talk, the way we speak and, more importantly, the way we think of each other.

When I started blogging in 2001, there were fewer than two-million blogs worldwide. Blogger was the biggest blogging platform and yet a work-in-progress for the little company that created it, Pyra. MovableType, Typepad's older sister, was still in beta. Wordpress didn't exist and neither did Flickr, YouTube, MySpace or Facebook. Google was only 3 years old. Wikis were just going into the early adopter mainstream -- Wikipedia had just been launched in January of that year.

It was an exciting time to set foot on the web and publish online from a technological point of view. Historically speaking, it was a tumultuous time as well.

I started blogging in December of 2001, months after the destruction of the World Trade Center. As any other New Yorker, I was still shell-shocked, yet had no time to dwell with a baby and a toddler to take care of. Yet it was the smell of the still-burning debris, magnified by the prospect of our country not just going to war but trampling our constitution in the process, that pushed me out of a writer's block I had been carrying for years and dropped me smack in the middle of the first wave of bloggers.

I did it in search of kindred spirits, in search of other women and men who shared my hopes, my fears and my sense of outrage. And I make the distinction of putting "women" first because back in the day it was rare to find women with their own online domains.

Where and When

February 2, 2009
Betts Theater, George Washington University, Washington, DC

Conference fees: $60.00 general; $20.00 student

Conference Goals

To harness the power of women on the Internet to promote women’s issues.

To create a forum – starting with the Fem2.0 website and continuing through the event – for women to discuss the issues that are of most concern to them today, and to encourage them to use the Internet to learn more, express their opinions about them and advocate for policies that benefit women and families.

To create an opportunity for a "meeting of minds" across generations and media platforms.

To unite women’s voices behind the issues that the vast majority of women support, such as education, healthcare, workplace fairness and economic security.

To position women’s issues and their advocates for the incoming administration.

To draw new audiences to women’s issues, especially those who are Internet-focused and can cross-pollinate to increase activism.

Expand the audience of women engaged in online media activity and activism.

Microsoft has generously offered their space for the first She’s Geeky East Coast event. Join us December 5th to 7th at:

1290 Avenue of the Americas, Sixth Floor,
New York, NY.

She’s Geeky events are neutral, face-to-face gathering spaces for women who like to geek out. Attendees include women involved in all aspects of technology, including those who like to use geeky tools, not just coders, programmers and engineers. You don’t even have to be from the computer industry. You just have to be a woman who identifies as a geek.

If you’re any of these things, you’re invited to come to She’s Geeky to:

• Exchange skills and learn from women in different fields of technology.
• Discuss issues that affect women in the technology industry.
• Connect with other women in technology, computing, entrepreneurship, funding, hardware, open source, nonprofit and any other technical geeky field.