Some more thoughts on my previous post, and a couple of things to clear up. Two misconceptions arose from my post because I chose not to lay out a lot exposition on some of my own beliefs on how the world works. Let me rectify that now.

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UPDATE, 1/19: Follow-up post is here.

A post from Internet analyst/author/smart-person Clay Shirky titled "A Rant About Women" has got quite the discussion going around the Intertubes. Read (or at least skim) it before continuing; let me also take this introductory opportunity to do the obligatory feminist thing and thank the dude for taking time out of his busy schedule to wrestle with the giant questions of why don't women do as well as men at X. Here it comes… thank you. OK, so I'm being a wee bit sarcastic, but seriously: it really is nice to see these conversations happen outside of the usual suspected fora of listservs, blogs, etc, all for and by the ladies.

Much of the resulting discussion has been a bit heavy-handed on both sides– "OMG, he's totally right!" "OMG, he's totally wrong!" Some great points have already been well covered by others, especially Jezebel blogger Anna's point that women aren't allowed culturally to be the aggressive jerks that successful men are. This was also the place where I had the most visceral reaction — the conclusion that we need to teach women to be more like men: more assertive and aggressive, demanding of what they want and need. This approach to solving the "where are teh womenz" problem misses the mark in a way that 70s & 80s power feminism also missed the mark for me. The "we're just as good as men" statements and subsequent actions set the wrong frame. It assumes:

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Incredibly exciting news came across the transom last night while I was at the Women Who Tech after-party in NYC: I've been offered a book deal with the stellar Berrett-Koehler publishing group in San Francisco. I'm absolutely thrilled to be working with Johanna Vondeling, their vice president of editorial and digital, and the rest of the staff there. Their commitment to social change as well as digital innovation for publishing makes them the perfect fit for what I want to do.

What do I want to do, I hear you asking yourself? In short — I do want you to buy the book, after all — I'm going to be describing the social media moment as a huge opportunity for social change and action. If you've read some of what I've written about Twitter and other services, and my ideas about the giant gene pool and the desperate need for diversity, you have an idea of where the book will go. Plus, it'll be stunningly entertaining to boot!

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I wanted to share with you an amazing worldwide conference that I'm participating in next week. It's called "Women Who Tech," and it brings together hundreds of women who leverage their technology savvy to inspire change and transform the world. And it takes place all online and on the phone!

Women Who Tech
When: May 12, 2009. Panels are 50 min long and run from 11AM EDT to 6PM EDT.
Where: Everywhere via phone and web
http://womenwhotech.com/
A mere $10 for a whole day of goodness

I participated last year, and at first I thought the distance thing was going to be strange– but it's absolutely incredible, and I highly recommend joining in the fun. What's great is that this is really not just for women who currently tech– if you're interested social media, launching a startup, learning about new tools… this is *the* place to be.

I'll be moderating this panel:

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[For background on what AmazonFAIL is, see my article at the Women's Media Center.]

As the day has worn on, more parts of the story are unfolding, and all these little tidbits at the intersection of tech, culture, media and commerce are more than fascinating. This is the kind of story that sends me down the rabbit hole of musing for days.

Let's start with the tech side of things

According to Jessica Valenti (and her publisher, Seal Press), Amazon reps are claiming that this is a purely internal issue caused by the mysteriously "glitch" spoken of last night. I don't think the reps know what they're talking about, frankly. What I think is going on: there is a severe vulnerability in the Amazon flagging-for-inappropriate system, and it's been found and exploited by one or more nerds with too much time on their hands. Amazon's mistake, vis a vis the brave new world of social media, is two-fold:

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Last weekend was the last of my three sessions with the Progressive Women's Voices program… and while I'm excited to run out into the world with the stacks of knowledge that I gained, I'm sad that it was our last class! Here's our group with the staff of the Women's Media Center, plus a certain famous lady that helps make it all happen:

Bonus: I also played superfangrrl and got my picture taken with Jane Fonda.

As many of you know, I was accepted into the first 2009 class of the Progressive Women's Voices program. I've been through the first of three weekend trainings, and I cannot say enough good things about the program and the women who run it: it's part boot-camp, part summer camp and part group therapy. I thought I was pretty media savvy before I went into this, but I've been blown away with the amount of material I've learned so far, and how much it's already shaped the work I'm doing.

In short, every woman I know should apply for this program. The deadline for applications to get into the next round of classes is coming soon: March 10. Women from all disciplines, backgrounds and identities are strongly encouraged to apply! Don't let geography or other constraints prevent you from applying — the staff is more than willing to work with candidates that get accepted. This is one of the most brilliant programs for empowering women with real skills that I've ever seen– get your application in today.