Part of it revolves around the far too common prevalence of all (white) male panels/speakers at top tech conferences…a phenomenon I’m all too familiar with (as the pinch-hitter diversity rescuer I seem to be morphing into)… and part of it is around low numbers female-founded start-ups & tech companies.

I’m happy to see that the conversation is moving away from “this is the sorry state of things” to “what practical things can we do.” Not so happy with the siloing of solutions: women-only conferences; women-only panels; etc.

My two cents on this debate:

- I think many of the top conferences do try to be more diverse, but those of us who would like to see better representation need to do our part by building referral lists; working on our public speaking skills and confidence; getting out there more. Those of you who follow me on twitter or FB know I travel quite a fair bit mostly as a conference speaker – it takes its toll; its hard to juggle the travel with family and work etc. – but I can’t tell you how many times I’ll say yes to a trip half-way around the world to make sure that there is a diversity of opinion; or in appreciation of a conference organizers attempt to reach out; or just in the hope that my visibility will encourage other women…we need more women doing this…even though the immediate return is unclear. When a conference organizer comes calling I should have a long list of women to recommend…

- We need to move away from the idea that women can only / can best be mentored by other women (not just in tech but other fields as well). Not just because of the numbers issue, but because its limiting. Anyone who has been successful and has knowledge to share is a potential mentor. 90% of my mentors have been male most of them with very little in common with me on a personal level – from life experience, work experience, backgrounds etc. – what they have had is an interest in seeing me succeed in what I do and that’s been enough. If I had sat around and waited for inspiration / mentorship from “someone I can relate to” no telling where I’d be. Besides, to the extent that we are still largely living in a man’s world…where better to get advice on how to navigate that world.

- Finally, I’m a fan of Clay Shirky’s rant about women. Something I can totally relate to. I remember when my undergrad adviser / mentor read my first draft of my law school application personal statement, he was like what the hell is this crap? I had totally undersold myself (and subsequently learned to get my writing on point). Then in law school, there was the phenomenon of most women turning in middle of the road performances because our exam answers were too “safe” (unless we figured out the rules of the game, which was the best way to get an A was not to know the law inside out, but to come up with as many bullshit ways apply it in a fact pattern and hopefully the professor is impressed by your ingenuity…guys apparently had no problem with that). Then in my professional life l find myself occasionally being talked down to in a way that wouldn’t happen with a guy…and then spending hours agonizing on how to respond without landing the you-know-its-coming “what a bitch!” response.

Clay Shirky writes:

Some of the most important opportunities we have are in two-sided markets: education and employment, contracts and loans, grants and prizes. And the institutions that offer these opportunities operate in an environment where accurate information is hard to come by. One of their main sources of judgment is asking the candidate directly: Tell us why we should admit you. Tell us why we should hire you. Tell us why we should give you a grant. Tell us why we should promote you.

In these circumstances, people who don’t raise their hands don’t get called on, and people who raise their hands timidly get called on less. Some of this is because assertive people get noticed more easily, but some of it is because raising your hand is itself a high-cost signal that you are willing to risk public failure in order to try something.

That in turn correlates with many of the skills the candidate will need to actually do the work — to recruit colleagues and raise money, to motivate participants and convince skeptics, to persevere in the face of both obstacles and ridicule. Institutions assessing the fitness of candidates, in other words, often select self-promoters because self-promotion is tied to other characteristics needed for success.

It’s tempting to imagine that women could be forceful and self-confident without being arrogant or jerky, but that’s a false hope, because it’s other people who get to decide when they think you’re a jerk, and trying to stay under that threshold means giving those people veto power over your actions. To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by definition, to expose yourself to all kinds of negative judgments, and as far as I can tell, the fact that other people get to decide what they think of your behavior leaves only two strategies for not suffering from those judgments: not doing anything, or not caring about the reaction.

He adds:

Now this is asking women to behave more like men, but so what? We ask people to cross gender lines all the time. We’re in the middle of a generations-long project to encourage men to be better listeners and more sensitive partners, to take more account of others’ feelings and to let out our own feelings more. Similarly, I see colleges spending time and effort teaching women strategies for self-defense, including direct physical aggression. I sometimes wonder what would happen, though, if my college spent as much effort teaching women self-advancement as self-defense.

A bit over-the-top? Perhaps. But you get the idea.

The average guy wakes up everyday, looks in the mirror, and thinks “I’m so awesome” previous fuck-ups notwithstanding (and has no problem reminding other people of said awesomeness by the way).

Getting a little bit of that attitude is what I’m working on…rather than thinking of all the things I need to fix when my day starts (which is what happens most of the time).

Thoughts?

EDIT: Riba and Bankelele, where did you try and connect?

EDIT 2: Article on the wi-fi offer.

- Also worth checking out, the Kenyan myspace – Nivipi.

- African blog spotlight: Coding South of the Sahara (the journey of an “Afropreneur” – love the word!)

Anyway, today was a good speed day so I had the chance to check out some new cool social networking apps.

While I was busy having a baby, people have come up with the idea of micro-blogging.

1. Jaiku – (I wonder if this could be used for election reporting? Anyone interested in exploring that?)

2. Twitter

For comparisons of the two, click here and here.

Also worth checking out is Semapedia coming out of Ghana. Check out a review by BBC (nice to see African developers getting the spotlight).

Still no ADSL at home. I’ve succumbed and got a MTN GPRS3-G card in the meantime…gots to have the internets… hopefully the bill at the of the month won’t be totally outrageous (not holding my breath though).

Some excellent news from Nairobi. My virtual friend, Riyaz Bachani and a few other folks are putting together the first ever Bar Camp Kenya (Nairobi). A BarCamp is “an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants.” Think of it as an Open Source (un) conference. For an idea of what goes on, check out the BarCamp Cape Town site.

I hope many of you sign up to attend. I haven’t forgotten about all the brouhaha surrounding the blogging indaba This is a local event, organized by locals so show your support…or stop whining the next time other folks take the initiative.

- On why telling a black person thatthey are “articulate” is not a compliment.

- 2008 aspirants get their blog on.

- Interesting model for smaller scale VC funding – something like this would be easy to implement in Kenya.

AOB: The Acumen Fund is now accepting applications for fellowships – deadline is Jan 31, 2007. They are a great organization doing interesting work and for those of you MBA-types who are thinking about how to make the leap from corporate America I think this is a great opportunity. More details from the website: Each year, the Acumen Fund Fellows Program provides extraordinary young professionals with a unique opportunity to use their skills to effect real social change with our portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and to build lasting relationships with other like-minded individuals. Joining us in September, fellows will spend one year working with our team and with local entrepreneurs, gaining intensive experience in price performance, logistics, distribution systems, scaling and innovative technology. Fellows will learn and apply these skills while enjoying an unusual level of responsibility both at Acumen Fund and within our portfolio organizations. Ideal fellows include those who have already decided on a career in venture philanthropy, those who are seeking a career at the highest levels in the corporate world but want to better understand and have an impact on problems of global poverty, and budding social entrepreneurs who want to learn about managing organizations in the most demanding settings.

A friend of mine had to change her phone number, email addresses and eventually her physical address after being stalked by an ex so the issue is real to me. I’m also concerned about the fact that KBW is not a strong haven for female bloggers like it was in the early days…though natural attrition may account for some of that, I wonder whether self-censorship has played a role in the aftermath of the cyber-stalking accusations that dominated KBW some months ago and the marked discomfort among some readers with women expressing their sexuality.