{"id":3033,"date":"2011-09-04T12:34:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=3033"},"modified":"2011-09-04T12:34:55","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:34:55","slug":"still-a-ways-to-go-the-suggested-users-list-part-7-of-diversity-and-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2011\/09\/04\/still-a-ways-to-go-the-suggested-users-list-part-7-of-diversity-and-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Still a Ways to Go: the Suggested Users List (part 7 of Diversity and Google+)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Google+<\/a><\/p>\n

Google Plus launched a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suggested users\u00e2\u20ac\u009d list yesterday. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not on it, and I bet you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t either, particularly if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re an educator \u00e2\u20ac\u201d because, well, there aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any educators on the list.<\/p>\n

— Audrey Watters, Personal Learning Networks and the Google+ “Suggested Users” list<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Google Suggested User List reads like the typical San Francisco Bay Area tech firm’s view of the World: most of the “interesting and famous people” are white, and if they’re black, they’re male rappers or athletes. Hello, Snoop Dog, Chamillionaire, 50 Cent, Dwight Howard, and Floyd Mayweather!<\/p>\n

— Zennie Abraham, Google+ Suggested Users List is Overwhelmingly White <\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A couple of weeks go, Google community manager Natalie Villalobos asked for feedback on why people’s friends weren’t staying on G+.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One of the things that came up was that it was often very hard for new users to find people the thought would be interesting to follow and engage with.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a lot of creative ways to approach this, for example Ardith Goodwin’s suggestion of a welcoming committee<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, Google+’s decided to take the same approach that worked out spectacularly badly<\/a> for Twitter two years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Will they fare better?<\/p>\n

The early returns aren’t encouraging.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave<\/a>, Robert<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0 and others immediately criticized the idea of a “suggested users” list and Bradley’s outreach to the Twitter elite.\u00c2\u00a0 After Bradley responded in Dave’s comments, and then\u00c2\u00a0 shared more details Saturday morning<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0 Robert asked to be removed from the list<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Bradley responded again in Robert’s comments.\u00c2\u00a0 And the discussion rages on.<\/p>\n

\"Vic<\/a><\/p>\n

Google VP Vic Gundotra’s comment is from Violet Blue’s discussion of the list<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 As well as Violet Blue, Google also included prominent nymwars critics Jillian C. York, A.V. Flox, and Xeni Jardin. Congrats to all of them, and kudos to Google for giving visibility to dissenting views.\u00c2\u00a0 Lynette Young of “Women of Google+” is there too, as are ladyada (aka Limor Fried), Elisa Camahort Page of Blogher, and tech journalists like Sarah Perez and Christina Warren.\u00c2\u00a0 These are all great signals to send from a diversity perspective. Once again, congrats and kudos.<\/p>\n

Like Vic says, though, there’s still a ways to go.<\/p>\n

Room for improvement<\/h1>\n

\"What<\/a>
\n\"They're<\/a><\/p>\n

The suggestions in the politics list are probably the most extreme example of the lack of diversity.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all from North American.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all native English speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 They represent a fairly narrow range of the political spectrum.\u00c2\u00a0 [Yes, even in the US, there’s a lot more perspectives than “Northern California Democrats” and “long-shot secular Republican presidential candidates”.]\u00c2\u00a0 Oh yeah, and they’re all straight white guys too.<\/p>\n

Or take the top 22 “picks” — what new users see when they first log in.<\/p>\n