Liz Lawley of Corante writes about how she chose not to go to e-Tech
this week, but to go to sxsw instead; and the relationship b/t those
decisions and how diverse the speakers and attendees at each
conference are. The piece is worth reading; she says interesting
things such as "If you build a place that women love, the men will
follow. The reverse is not true," and "There were more conversations
than there were pontifications."
http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/03/16/why_sxsw.php
Applying similar thoughts to the Wikipedia community, similar comfort
zones for certain demographics of users have perhaps as much to do
with diversity of philosophy as with diversity of gender and race.
But the point about conversations v. pontifications hits home.
I'd like to know what other people think about this; how we might
conceive of gatherings and big events like meetups or wikimania in
ways that draw out people who will make them warmer, and more varied
and interesting.
--
+sj+