{"id":1885,"date":"2010-09-28T09:15:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T16:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2010-09-28T09:15:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T16:15:45","slug":"changing-the-ratio-part-2-of-techcrunch-disrupted-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2010\/09\/28\/changing-the-ratio-part-2-of-techcrunch-disrupted-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the ratio: part 2 of &#8220;TechCrunch, disrupted&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/jdp23\/we-have-a-winner.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">For part 1 of the series, please see<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=1864\">The third wave and the agenda of awesome<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The tweet&#8217;s from J&#8217;aime Ohm, whose &#8220;black box for real life&#8221; WiseDame <a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2010\/09\/26\/techcrunch-disrupt-hackathon-winner\/\">won the Hackathon<\/a> over the weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 I embedded it in the post using <a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/\">Storify<\/a>, my favorite of the startups who presented on the first day of TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.\u00c2\u00a0 How cool is that?<\/p>\n<p>Other than Storify and Japanese startup <a href=\"http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2010\/09\/27\/gunzoo-video-fabric\/\">Gunzoo<\/a>, the first day of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco <a href=\"..\/?p=1864#comment-92708\">didn&#8217;t seem<em> <\/em>particularly disruptive to me<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of the speakers were white  guys, and they said much what you&#8217;d expect.\u00c2\u00a0 Technology is great.\u00c2\u00a0 The companies we invest in and\/or run are great.\u00c2\u00a0 So are the guys we work with.\u00c2\u00a0 Hooray!\u00c2\u00a0 The startups were interesting and I was generally impressed with their pitches but folks like Badgify and all the companies doing check-ins seem pretty darn incremental to me.<\/p>\n<p>Today, though, Chamillionaire&#8217;s on the agenda, Montreal-based Shwowp is presenting, and there&#8217;s a panel  on women in technology, with Rachel Sklar of Change the Ratio and <em>Mediaite, <\/em>web  marketing strategist Michelle  Greer, Lauren Leto of Bnter,\u00c2\u00a0Leila   Chirayath  Janah of  Samasource,\u00c2\u00a0Sara Chipps of GirlDevelopIT, and Cyan   Banister of  Zivity.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can&#8217;t afford the $2000 to be there in person, it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2010\/09\/28\/techcrunch-disrupt-live-day-two\/\">streamed live on the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So perhaps it&#8217;ll be a little more disruptive.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"WWII image of a woman: We Can Do It!\" src=\"http:\/\/tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/08\/women.jpg\" alt=\"WWII image of a woman: We Can Do It!\" width=\"120\" height=\"155\" \/>Over the last few weeks, I&#8217;ve been blogging about Rachel, Michelle, and Cyan in <a href=\"http:\/\/talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=1552\">Fretting, asking, and begging isn&#8217;t a plan<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 So now&#8217;s a great time to take a quick look back at the kerfuffle that leading to this panel &#8212; and look the the future as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Part of changing the ratio is just changing awareness, so that the  next  time Techcrunch is planning a Techcrunch Disrupt, they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be  able  to not see the overwhelming maleness of it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Rachel Sklar, quoted in Shira Ovide\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/venturecapital\/2010\/08\/27\/addressing-the-lack-of-women-leading-tech-start-ups\/\">Addressing the Lack of Women Running Tech Startups<\/a> in the <em>Wall Street Journal*<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Michael responded with <a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2010\/08\/28\/women-in-tech-stop-blaming-me\/\">Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men.\u00c2\u00a0 Or at least stop blaming me<\/a>, arguing that Silicon Valley was a meritocracy and your gender and race don&#8217;t matter in the high-tech world.\u00c2\u00a0 He also quoted Cyan as saying that &#8220;women [stink]  as  entrepreneurs a lot of the time because they are nurturing and not   risk-taking enough by nature&#8221;.\u00c2\u00a0 Michelle and others responded in the comments, and the sexism and misogyny got ugly in a hurry.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=1618\"> Quite a few bloggers weighed in<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as things were dying down, Sarah Lacy of <em>TechCrunch <\/em>poured some gasoline on the flames with <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2010\/09\/14\/how-did-i-get-more-bullish-on-chinese-innovation-than-kai-fu-lee\/\">Women in Tech: Look Around the World and Stop Complaining<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Putting this in context: Less than 20% of the speakers at Disrupt are women, rapper\/CEO Chamillionaire is the only black, and there aren&#8217;t any Latin@s.\u00c2\u00a0 Just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackweb20.com\/2010\/08\/10\/women-only-8-of-internet-start-up-founders\/\">8% of startup founders are women<\/a>,** <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackweb20.com\/2010\/08\/03\/makings-of-a-founder-cb-insights-human-capital-venture-capital-report\/\">only 1% are African-American<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconvalley.com\/news\/ci_14383730\">Blacks, Latinos and women have all lost ground at Silicon Valley tech companies<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconvalley.com\/ci_16156728?source=most_viewed\">Intel&#8217;s age discrimination<\/a> is front-page news.\u00c2\u00a0 And it&#8217;s worse at the intersections; see for example <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ezebis.com\/venture\/cindy-gallop-ifwerantheworld\/\">Cyndi Gallop&#8217;s video on <em>EZebis<\/em><\/a> on challenges older women face.<\/p>\n<p>Putting aside our differences in opinions about the complex causes, can we all just agree that it&#8217;s economically sub-optimal to disadvantage the majority of the population?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/rachelsklar\/status\/25702307597\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0pt none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4109\/5032647269_0d5a42e862.jpg\" alt=\"changin' the ratio just by showin' up\" width=\"499\" height=\"81\" \/><\/a><a title=\"Photo Sharing\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/31110324@N03\/5033165583\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0pt none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4128\/5033165583_1254deeedb.jpg\" alt=\"try harder, techcrunch\" width=\"500\" height=\"77\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even though it often feels like pulling teeth, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/abraham\/detail?entry_id=73206\">there&#8217;s still a long way to go<\/a>, the ratios <em>are<\/em> changing.\u00c2\u00a0 Women, blacks, Latinas and Latinos, and other people who are tired of being systematically disadvantaged are storming the clubhouse.<\/p>\n<p>It really would be great to see more acknowledgement of this throughout Disrupt.\u00c2\u00a0 As I said yesterday, white guys  actually are allowed to discuss the issue.\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if one  of the designers in the session right before the women-in-tech panel  discussed accessibility, or the techniques they use to get a diverse set  of users in user experience research and usability testing?\u00c2\u00a0 Or if one  of the fireside chats talked about how the current situation with 90% of  the investment going to white guys isn&#8217;t sustainable, and here&#8217;s how a  big VC or corporation is evolving their strategy?\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m not holding my breath but it  would be a helluva a lot more interesting than what we heard Monday.<\/p>\n<p>More positively, though, the women in technology panel is a great chance to discuss the opportunities as well as the challenges.\u00c2\u00a0 In their brilliant Women Who Tech Telesummit lightning talk on <a href=\"..\/?p=1727#comment-90487\">diversity and innovation<\/a>, Shireen Mitchell and Liza Sabater sketched the value of diversity for a company&#8217;s products and strategy; I&#8217;d bet dollars to donuts that most of the white guys at TechCrunch have never thought of it that way.\u00c2\u00a0 And while the panel is a good step, there&#8217;s a lot more that needs to be done to diversify Disrupt and TechCrunch&#8217;s coverage; it would be great to hear the panelists&#8217; and audiences suggestions on that.<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, thanks to all the women on the panel for being there, and to TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde and Michael Arrington for hosting it.\u00c2\u00a0 Here&#8217;s hoping it&#8217;s awesome.<\/p>\n<p>jon<\/p>\n<p>* Although it didn&#8217;t attract as much attention as Rachel&#8217;s post, Maya Baratz&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/maya-baratz\/women-in-tech-the-silicon_b_292855.html\">The Silicon Ceiling<\/a> from 2009 brought up the same issues.<\/p>\n<p>** Caroline Simard&#8217;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/caroline-simard\/saying-hightech-is-a-meri_b_719804.html\">Saying High-Tech is a Meritocracy Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Make it So<\/a>, Janine de Nysschen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nyew.org\/index.php\/2010\/04\/why-men-get-vc-money-and-women-dont\/\">Why Men Get VC Money and Women Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.and How that is Changing<\/a>, and Vivek Wadhwa&#8217;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2010\/02\/07\/silicon-valley-you%E2%80%99ve-got-a-gender-problem-and-some-of-your-vc%E2%80%99s-still-live-in-the-past\/\">Silicon Valley: You and Some of Your VC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have a Gender Problem<\/a> have more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For part 1 of the series, please see The third wave and the agenda of awesome The tweet&#8217;s from J&#8217;aime Ohm, whose &#8220;black box for real life&#8221; WiseDame won the Hackathon over the weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 I embedded it in the post using Storify, my favorite of the startups who presented on the first day of TechCrunch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}