Finally Some Electrical Grid Protection

The NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) released a plan to deal with threats to grid security. Here's more on that.

Government Still Can't Handle Crypto

Is it 1995? No? 2008? Shocking, considering it seems not much has really happened in terms of crypto standards. Here's the latest from Security Focus.

Women Bloggers vs. the New Boys' Club

When I was at BlogHer recently, there was a panel about how to be taken seriously as political bloggers. When asked at the beginning of the session what we wanted to get out of it, I said something about women being taken seriously as political bloggers in general, even knowing we probably didn't have time to really get into that. The moderator, Morra Aarons, replied in kind with something along the lines of how that could take us all day.

It seems someone from the New York Times was there. Kara Jesella put up a post a few days ago about the issue, called "Blogging's Glass Ceiling". Unfortunately the post was under the Fashion & Style section (part of the problem with women being taken seriously - often women's issues are lumped in there), but nevertheless, I'm happy the topic was written about, it's a good article, and she made some interesting points about the issue, delving farther into it than I have to date.

Off the Bus Growth Noted in NYTimes Caucus Blog

Katharine Seelye put up a nice post today about The Huffington Post "Off The Bus" project where I'm a National Correspondent (weekly columnist). I had no idea they had so many people involved in the project; no wonder they always seem so busy. The content is good and changes regularly. I'm excited to be a part of such an interesting group of people.

List of Women Leaders in Tech Politics Is Up!

I published a post earlier today that was a long time coming that lists many of the talented women working in the field of technology and politics at The Political Voices of Women, a blog launched in the past year by BlogHer and Care2 Contributing Editor, Catherine Morgan. The list I hope will become a living document like her list of what began as under 200 women bloggers who write about politics and now spans beyond 450.

BlogHer 2008

My friend, Glennia Campbell, has described the MOMocrats blog as "a conversation, not a shouting match" in reference to it being a collaborative environment for people to discuss policy vs. a heated, argumentative environment that the majority of political blogs can have and it struck me after being at BlogHer this week and talking to people who were simultaneously at Netroots Nation that the community we have really is special.

Not that I didn't already know this, but I'm continually learning new reasons why the BlogHer network is unique, so I wanted to highlight what I felt and what I heard from others about the conference and the BlogHer site and sister sites. It's not that these women don't hiss at each other online or get riled up about things we care about, but there's just an aura of cooperation and cordiality that I see more as a European advocacy style than American political discourse. When we meet in person, even if we disagree, we are pleasant and try to find common ground vs. seeking to one-up each other to score some imaginary points.

Coming to BlogHer for the second year, having worked on a few collaborative blogs and been out there in the blogosphere for a few years now was like a happy college reunion with just women - even women I'd never met who had read my work. Everyone is nice, everyone greets each other with hugs, people exchange genuine pleasantries vs. brushing each other off, and they take time to inquire about each other's families, our health, etc.. Sure, there are suck-up scenarios and occasional rudeness, but it's by far in the minority and overall I had a great time. Kudos again to the BlogHer organizers for bringing us all together.