News: September 2

ReadWriteWeb: Ping: First Look At The iTunes Social Network
Boxee: How Boxee Sees The Apple TV
CNet: Twitter Plans To Record All Links Clicked
VentureBeat: Reddit ‘Excited’ About Chance To Eat Digg’s Lunch
SilverLight: The Future Of Silverlight
TechCrunch: Android Users Can Now Check In To Foursquare By Using Their Voice
ArsTechnica: Plan For Nationwide Free Wireless Broadband Finally Shot Down:For four years the Federal Communications Commission tossed the idea around like a beach ball: a coast-to-coast free wireless service across the low end of the 2GHz "AWS-3" band. The service would pay for itself via advertisements and by selling commercial access to various portions of the license area. The company that proposed the plan, M2Z Networks, would commit to building out the project in a decade, and pay five percent of its annual revenue to the United States Treasury..... the AWS-3 spectrum will continue to lie fallow providing no economic value to American consumers." .... the wireless industry hated the proposal, and is happy about the FCC's announcement.
Business Insider: Yelp's First Daily Deal In San Francisco Gives Groupon A Beating
Wired: Google Testing Full-Featured Google Apps
Business Insider: Early Twitter Employee Alex Payne's Online Bank Startup, BankSimple, Raises A Big Round
WSJ Digits: Twitter Japan Tweeting All the Way to the Bank

CNN: Natalie Portman Generates Oscar Buzz For Racy Role








Washington Post: Departing Obama Adviser Urges More Stimulus
MercuryNews.com: Boxer, Fiorina Clash In Hard-Hitting Debate
Bloomberg: Burger King Agrees To $4 Billion Bid From 3G Capital
Los Angeles Times: Bernanke Says Fed Had To Let Lehman Fail

Aliza Sherman Takes Mike Arrington To Task

When a blogger links to one of my blog posts, I get a Google Alert in my inbox. This morning I have an alert for Aliza Sherman.

Aliza Sherman: Too Few Women In Tech? We Aren't Blaming Men: I helped pioneer the Web for women back in the early to mid-90s and founded the first woman-owned Internet company - Cybergrrl, Inc. - and the first organization to help women gain a foothold in the budding Internet and new media industries - Webgrrls International...... I'm a doer. I'm an instigator. I'm an innovator. I'm a leader. I create things, build things, write things. Make things happen...... we are STILL having the EXACT SAME CONVERSATIONS today as we were in 1995 ....... . In 2005, I was selected by NEWSWEEK Magazine as one of the Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet ..... it is still so damn hard for women to get bank loans and venture capital ..... unless you are male and can then be considered a "gray hair" which is actually a great position to be in because regardless of your credentials, your gray hair demonstrates wisdom and seasoning. For women, gray hair signifies old, haggard, sloppy, too lazy to dye your hair, too feminazi to care about hair dye, you name it ....... Male venture capitalists tend to fund male-helmed companies. I've been told by many VC's that they funded a young man because "he reminded me of me when I was his age." ....... " "women own 50% or more of some 10.4 million businesses, about 41% of all privately held companies in the U.S." but only 3% to 5% of those companies receive venture capital funding" ....... You are part of the problem, Michael Arrington ... Not many of you have taken positive actions to make positive changes in the system to create more opportunity for ANYONE who is not white and male. ..... You just don't know how to find them, how to approach them, and how to remove the barriers for their entry even once they receive an invitation from you. You have NO IDEA..... Women get such a paltry number of venture dollars, it isn't even criminal, it is insane how little venture capital we get. And the media is dying to write about women? Open any business magazine, any tech magazine, and count the number of stories about women versus men. ....... You are right, Michael Arrington. You cannot speak intelligently on this matter. But you can help those of us who can and those of us who have ideas or projects that can change the fundamental landscape ....... Oh and while you’re at it please work on race, age, and other biases in TechCrunch and your other enterprises

When Mike Arrington says stop blaming men, this guy is assuming he speaks for men. Worse, he is assuming he is the leader of men. I am a man. Mike Arrington does not speak for me. He is not my leader. He most certainly does not speak for me on gender issues. This guy is out and out a sexist.

Complaining about sexism is not whining. I actually feel not enough women complain enough. Because if they did, things would be better for the next generation of women.

Some define positivity as not bringing up sexism as a topic of conversation. Be thankful for what you already have. Why bother bringing about knee jerk defensive reactions among men? Let things be. Focus on the good things. Smell the roses.

If he wants to help make progress on gender, the first thing Mike Arrington needs to do is stop acting defensive.

Women In Tech: The Debate Rages On
Gender Talks
FoodSpotting Is The Next FourSquare
Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!