Mena's Corner Of The Boxing Ring

Good discussion here of all things bloggy. Mena Trott of Six Apart, makers of Movable Type, Typepad and now owners of LiveJournal, has lots of good things to say in her excellent company blog, "Mena's Corner."

I think Mena's point of view is right on on many subjects. In response to a critique that bloggers who join Six Apart stop blogging frequently, I like her take on the simple fact that people are BUSY over there just running a company which happens to be growing at an incredible rate. Here's just a sample:

I don't buy the idea that most companies are creatively stifling their employees. While it may be true for some companies, I think it's far more likely that, as you say, people with jobs are really, really busy. Frankly, I know that when my heaviest periods of blogging came when I was unemployed or not feeling fulfilled at work.

This is a small piece of a larger consideration, so be sure to read the whole thing. It addresses a cultural issue in the blogosphere, as the early bloggers evolve into a very large community. I think Mena's views of her role back in the old days (2002) and now in the modern world of blogging (2005) are mature and wise.

Also like what she has to say about being an alpha female in the blogosphere and if she has time to do speaking engagements on the subject of being a female CEO in a tech company. She has to turn down speaking gigs, but it doesn't mean she's not aware of women in the blogosphere.

Take the "Where Are All the Women in Weblogging?" question that pops up every so often. Well, the last time Six Apart did some serious user demographic studies, we saw that there was about an even split of male to female webloggers on TypePad and a 75% female population on LiveJournal. The number of women on Movable Type is slightly lower than on TypePad, but is still above 40%. Roughly 40% of the Six Apart, Ltd. employees happen to be women – in the United States alone, 21 of 53 total staff members. Another interesting statistic: our technical support staff for Movable Type and TypePad is comprised entirely of women.