Researching this article has been a nightmare. The data is suspect and contradictory. There are dozens of explanations for the anomolies, some of them quite absurd. Last fall there was a huge discussion of this issue. But I thought the subject was interesting and I needed something less grim than yesterday’s topic, so here we are. If you want to read what transpired in last year’s exchange (perhaps more heat than light), or how it’s recently started up again, here are the key links:
The now-notorious Perseus blog survey produces some data:
While some of these data are questionable (Radio, Moveable Type and TypePad blogs were not included), it would still seem likely that women do produce more than half the content of the blogosphere, but make up no more than 15% of blogrolls. So is the blogosphere sexist, and if so, how and why? Just a note on methodology: BlogStreet’s Top 100 Most Influential list (the one that has stirred up the latest controversy) is computed formulaically by adding up the total number of ‘inbound blogs’ (blogs that have the target blog on their blogroll) and then weighting each ‘inbound blog’ by the number of ‘inbound blogs’ to it. So if an A-lister blogrolls you that counts for much more in the rankings than being blogrolled by an ‘unknown’. This recursive process reinforces the strength of large cliques and, I would submit, distorts the results. But if you look at the simpler unweighted ‘Top 100’ list, which still uses ‘inbound blogs’ as its measure but weights them all equally, the number of women on the list isn’t significantly higher. Here’s my take on all this:
And finally, once the power curve is established, and male-dominated, it is, as it is in all other spheres, including business, politics, and journalism, self-perpetuating. To break into the A-list you usually need to get noticed and linked to by an A-lister. Guess which gender is more likely to benefit from that? To that extent, the blogosphere becomes unconsciously sexist. But it isn’t to begin with — it’s the seven phenomena above that set the stage. Most importantly, we need better measures of blog popularity and quality, measures that better identify great new bloggers (and great one-off posts) by some electronic analogue of ‘word-of-mouth’. If you can come up with such measures, I guarantee that the people at Technorati and BlogStreet would love to produce the data. And I think many bloggers of both sexes would use them. With time at a premium, the blogosphere would quickly embrace mechanisms that would help us find great writing and bloggers of like minds in ways less serendipitous, and less subject to the vagaries of Shirky’s Law, than the ones we must rely on now. |
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The interesting thing I’ve noticed is that my inbound links on technorati have fallen as my weekly server stats, including # of “bookmarks” and referrals from other web sites, have gone up to record levels. So I think the “inbound links” in technorati, et al, is a dubious measure. Most of my readers probably don’t even know what a blog is, and I think that is probably true for some of the other female-owned Salon blogs as well.
How do RSS feeds affect blogrolling (asks the woman still buzzing from taking OTC cold medications)…?
Blogrolls as a measure of anything are BS. I never look at all the mutual linkfests going on along the side of any blog. It’s a meaningless indicator of cronyism. What matters is whether the person is making a substantial or interesting contribution to a topic. Like you do Dave.
I wonder…if…as some of us believe that blogging (or at least the process and dynamics, whether it’s called blogging or something else) will become much more widespread, work it’s way into the workplace and organizational communications…it’s arc of evolution will follow the same path as the penetration and spread of women into law, medicine, journalism, music, and business – particularly amongst younger women, who (I believe) may be starting to dominate some of these areas pre-assimilation into the work force and “real” adult life.I wonder if it’s part of the same (good news) trend?
I’m a little skeptical about how important #2 is. About half of my hits come from Google, often on searches for things that have little to do with what I write about (a phenomenon I think is more common to blogs, since a single page will wind up with information about a bunch of different topics). Yet nearly all the blogroll links I’ve gotten have another explanation — generally they’re someone I read (and thus would notice me in comments and their referrer logs).
Susan: Good point. Not only are ‘non-bloggers’ not counted in these stats, those who subscribe via RSS aren’t counted either. You’ve almost convinced me to give up on my monthly Salon Blog popularity list. If only there was a better measure…Rayne: RSS feeds basically free you from having to keep a blogroll for your own purposes, though lots of people keep them going because readers want to see where the author is getting his/her inspiration. As RSS feeds gain in popularity (I read somewhere that fewer than one in twenty bloggers use them right now), I would guess that blogrolls might disappear entirely (or at least off the front page)Leo: Yes, but how do we measure that, so that we don’t have to read all 4 million blogs to determine for ourselves which ones are worth reading?Jon: My fear is the opposite — that males will coopt business blogs as one more means to compete and try to one-up women in the workplace, and another tool to keep exclusive ‘old boy’ networks alive.Stentor: You’re right, I doubt Google is a very high-quality source of new readers. But unless you’re an A-lister it’s hard to say, or know, who of your regular readers (including the anonymous and blogless ones) stumbled onto you initially via Google. Just listen to the outcry when there’s any suggestion that Google is favouring their subsidiary, Blogger/BlogSpot, over other blog tools in their rankings.
I don’t mind having a small readership. I think my writing is good and I like my blog so I do let people whose blogs I like know about me and ask them to link to me. But when I was getting a lot of random visitors (from being a readers’ favorite on the weblog review, for example) I also got a lot of annoying juvenile comments and more spam. I prefer to have people find me through the slow and personal process of reading the blogrolls of like-minded individuals who link to me. That is also how I find new blogs. If I was a purely political writer, or purely focused on any external issue, I might feel differently. But as I mix the personal with the political I prefer a more intimate “setting.” And my ego doesn’t need to break the top 100.Of course, I’m not addressing the general issue of creating opportunities for women who want to be in the 100, and believe they write better than some of the blogs that are there. As to that, I think they just need to organize, per blogsisters, misbehaving, red kitchen etc. I always say that when you can’t find something you need, assume others are looking for it too – build it and they will come.
I do not have a weblog yet. I have found over the past year of reading weblogs and making the occaisional comment that this is an incrediblely open free speach medium.Even alternative press and mags do not have the kind of content, and especially the variety of viewpoints, as weblogs.Then there is the excitement of finding new weblogs from reading posts and following links to the various posters weblogs.Where else can someone follow the cutting edge in global discussions ?
hard to believe i have only been blogging since july 1 of this year… in july i had 5000 hits to my site, august 25000, september 50000, all word of mouth, or google, or my own campaign to introduce myself to folks in my blogging domain… i am not on the radar of any of the vanity blogging services, but then, i like not getting spammed in my comment and trackback fields… and i love sharing ideas with those who think in the domains i hold dear… one thing that i do use to find folks who are ‘talking’ about things that i am posting on is the waypath plugin… [ http://www.waypath.com ] a nifty little plugin with 13 arguments that you can tweak and tune to reduce static and zero in on weblogs you might not find otherwise… thanks again dave for continuing to create these stimulating discourses… cheers…
Leo you’re wrong – most blogrolls are of great value. Yes some people try and get as many links as possible anbd those aren’t of much use, but in my experience the vast majority of bloggers link only to people they find interesting. That alone makes the blogroll valuable to others because it means if you find one blog that you like you chances of finding another that you will like goes up significantly.
I use http://www.Feedster.com the same way Judith uses Waypath. Works well if I know what subject I want to read about, but still doesn’t insure quality, just relevancy and recency.
Dave, I like the way you don’t take data or statistics for granted, nor are you shy to look for new alternatives. I find statistics totally frustrating for the way that they have distorted our views of the world. And because in university, I had to re-take the course 3 times before I passed the subject, there was no way I could have avoided it because it was a required subject. But I remember vividly the quote (by some ancient philosopher -sorry don’t remember whom) that was in the introduction of the textbook, that statistics were “lies, lies, and damned lies”.
i fear that i am going to become one of those women who writes about her cat all day long. i hope that my new blog will start leaning in a funkier directions, because right now it’s all about me, me, me, and abortion rights.
La NuiT: Perhaps you’re thinking of the quote attributed to Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
Stentor, thanks for putting it right. What a bad memory I have! ; )
Nui: Wait til you see my comments tomorrow on the latest economic statistics :-(Alyssa: You’ve only been blogging three days — and you’re off to a good start — so don’t be so hard on yourself. I like your ‘voice’ — spare, brutally honest, and quite funny — you’re a natural for this medium.
Being a male who blogs consistently on personal matters, rarely follows topical discussions on other blogs, seldom if never write about technical or political stuff and frequently includes forays into fiction, I guess I don’t fit the blogmold.thrive!,O