Women

Contrast this with this and consider where the future lies.

Comments

[Jon Husband]

I'll bet most of those white male directors in German org'ns referred to think no work actually takes place on / in online social networks.

[Euan Semple]

Yep.

[Steve Nimmons]

Interesting statistics which left me thinking...

1. The stats published about gender breakdown on social networking sites is really only a small part of the 'big picture'
2. I would like to understand 'below' that data what usage patterns take place, what 'density' of work related groups are people in, what level and quality of participation occurs (and yes there is certainly a measurement problem!)
3. How would all of the data in point 2 stack up gender to gender and across age groups and societies
4. How can the social presences catalyse 'board room' change. This requires cultural change (corporate and societal). I guess on a personal level it is about augmentation of knowledge, acumen and good old fashioned contacts...

A PhD topic for someone :-)

[Euan Semple]

It would certainly keep someone busy Steve!

It has always been apparent to me there is a "female" characteristic to the conversations we have on the web. It is resorting to stereotypes which is dangerous but the willingness to discuss challenges collectively and see the world as connected seems a very female approach whereas seeing them in terms of heroic aspirations and fixing things seems more male.

I always believed that social tools were finding a toe hold because the numbers of women in the workplace was increasing and my hope is that this trend increases in the future.

[Steve Nimmons]

Yes, very interesting perspective. We perhaps suffer from not having a language with male and female nouns! I suppose collaboration in a pure form has a tendency towards female, whereas collaboration in the male sense (again sweeping generalisation) is a little competition oriented. I'm thinking of the large success of Open Source technologies, but wondering if intellectual competition and pride are the underlying male drivers to contribute.

I hope for an "Enterprise 2.0" world with the epiphany: "collaboration is king" and "information shared is power".

Information has such temporal weakness that sitting on it no longer makes it hatch :-)

[Lucy Hooberman]

interesting post! There is probably already research which shows we transpose existing behaviour in the offline world to the online world - so chatting and gossiping creating networks and importantly giving importance and making meaning from all of that is v likely to be predominantly female behaviour for now given history ..but when Twitter came along and I noticed all my male colleagues and friends Twittering away I did wonder whether the gadget itself (the phone) and the application (v. short text) made it the breakthrough Social networking for more men. Something about it being more acceptable if mediated through a small, portable device? It's hard to do research on gender issues when it comes to behaviour (I have tried in the past) but it's worth doing. Ditto for collaboration studies and cooperation studies.