Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Creating Passionate Users
I felt moved to blog about this.
For those of you not in the know, there's a great blog site called "Creating Passionate Users" run by a wonderful woman called Kathy Sierra. The website is one of the most respected in the world of blogging, and is there to help people to learn to blog intelligently, and use some of the stuff that is known as "Web 2.0" to the best advantage.
So it is with a heavy heart that I read that she has become subject to a number of death threats.
To the point where she has had to cancel speaking engagements, cannot leave the house, and is afraid for her 2 daughters.
She may never post again, which would be a great loss to the blogosphere. Her last post explains the ins and outs, and it's not pretty.
The good part is that although most of her posts attract about 20 comments, this last post has received some 705 comments (last time I looked), mostly in support.
The bad is that considering the blog world is about 50% female, most of the blogging A-list is male.
The other bad is that there are a whole lot of blogs out there that exist purely to express cynicism and to slag off others - because they think its cool.
It seems that bullying and sexism is alive and well in Web 2.0 - a macrocosm for life generally. As the web becomes more and more populated and popular, this will undoubtedly become more obvious.
Although I haven't yet been able to digest what it means for us as a community that represents itself heavily in cyberspace, my instinct is that it is significant somehow, and that a prayer for Kathy is in order, I think - as well as best wishes from the mootblog.
UPDATE:
Maryam Scoble
Gaping Void
Seth Godin's blog
Doc Searl
