Here are some hot resources I’m hearing about, to check out:

On marketing:
Seth Godin’s blog
Made to Stick
www.successful-blog.com

On writing good headlines for posts:
copyblogger.com
problogger.net

On finding speaking venues:
Confabb
Speakernetnews.com newsletter
BlogHer has a speakers wiki

Technical tools:
(The entire presentation for the tech tools session today, complete with links, is here)
Google custom search engine (see here for example of how this works)
alexa.com (to check for broken links)
websiteoptimization.com (to check and improve the speed of your site)
searchengineland.com (to research your keywords and phrases for search engine optimization)

On streamlining blogging workflow:
(The enitre presentation for the workflow session today is here)

This one’s for Laura and Elizabeth, who can’t be here:

My favorite quote from the welcome session: “Blogging is the gateway drug to technology.” – Lisa Stone

And my second favorite quote: “Everyone here is press.”

I’m writing from a Starbucks around the corner from my dad’s office here in downtown Chicago, waiting for the opening bell of BlogHer to ring. Yesterday’s Demos Women’s Leadership Forum about my book was truly a high. Thank you to all you who came out — especially those who had to stand in the doorways! Respondents Mary Hartman of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers and Desiree Flores from the Ms. Foundation were fabulous (and said such nice things!). Ever since my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Furstenburg, taught us to say “Thank you, Grandma, thank you”, I’ve been a firm believer in gratitude. So I thought I’d share the public thanks part of my talk:

I begin with a story about an intergenerational exchange.

When the folks at Demos and I had our first conversation about putting together this forum, I was working on Q&A document for my publisher to send around with the book, and I sent an early draft to Linda Tarr-Whelan. There was a question about what are the stereotypes that different generations of women, and in particular, feminists, have of each other. I wrote in response that feminists have fallen into the worst kind of generational stereotyping. “Veteran feminists, Boomers, tend to think younger women are self-hating, apolitical bimbos who aspire to be Bettie Page instead of Betty Friedan.” I then wrote, “Younger feminists think veterans are man-hating power-mongerers who won’t pass the torch and never go online.”

And Linda rightly stopped me there and said “Which Boomer women are you talking about? And what kind of feminism? Academic feminism?”

And in doing so she reminded me, of course, to be wary of falling into the broad stereotyping that I rail against in my book.

So I preface my talk by saying that there are indeed shining examples of cross-generational collaboration among women and within the feminist movement. And as I’ve toured the country these past two months, I’ve been struck by the connections that I’ve witnessed during and after some of my readings.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Demos itself has partnered with the Building Movement Project, and together they’ve done stellar work on the topic of generational change and nonprofit leadership.

The Ms. Foundation has been a stalwart supporter of younger women’s organizing.

The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership is built around the premise that older women leaders need to mentor younger ones.

And various women at the National Council for Research on Women have personally mentored me since I was in college – I’ve been working on and off with women’s research centers within this network pretty much since my senior year.

So I want to give kudos where kudos are due. And I want to send forth a note of profound gratitude for the hard work that these organizations do. I feel honored and humbled to be here in a room with such change-makers. I thank you all for coming together to cosponsor this event. You are the avant-garde. I look forward to the day that you are the norm….

This is my first participation in a meme (thanks, PunditMom!), so bear with me. My 10-second introduction to folks at the BlogHer conference in Chicago, where I’m headed after today’s Demos event here in NYC:

I AM…
->the author of two books this year — Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (just came out) and Only Child
->a former-academic-turned-pop-writer
->left-handed
->according to Courtney Martin, a “writer, feminist, and entrepreneur”
->living in NYC (but was born in Chicago!)
->co-founder of the webjournal, The Scholar & Feminist Online
->a consultant specializing in women’s issues
->according to Lisa Johnson, a hot dancer
->very excited about attending my first BlogHer conference!

blogme2007

For homepage improvement, see here.

So I’m in the middle of Wendy Shalit’s Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good. Watch for a review from me soon over on The American Prospect. I promise to do the kind of reading diary here on Girl with Pen that I did while reading Leslie Bennetts earlier this summer.

Once again, we cycle. I’m intrigued by Shalit’s argument that there’s now a “fourth wave” of feminists who feel alienated from the “third-wave” feminist “establishment”. How cool that we’re now an establishment, huh? Gee, that was fast. Eager to hear others’ thoughts on the book and the issues she raises. So stay tuned….

And in the meantime, check out this book on the other end of the age:lust continuum — Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, by the sizzling Pepper Schwartz!

I just wrote my first love letter to Elle. As folks may know, their current issue features a spread called The Incredible Shrinking Woman with an essay by Gloria Feldt that I think is fantastic. If you agree, feel free to send Elle your love – cuz we know they’re going to get hate mail for it too.

A bit of the reading I did at Cody’s in Berkeley is now up on YouTube, thanks to FORA.tv. I love the title they gave it, hehe.

I’m so excited — I just learned they’re expecting a more-than-full house for the Demos forum on my book this Thursday. Come one, come all! But come early, or you might not get a seat….

Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild
July 26, 2007
12:15-1:45
NYRAG, 79 Fifth Ave, 4th Floor (between 15th and 16th St)
New York City

For more info and to register (the event is free), click here.

Refreshments will be served.

Well, the personal sure is political here on CNN tonight! And there’s nothing like watching young citizens on YouTube call on politicians to walk their walk. I’m loving the question during the green section, about whether the candidates took a private jet to the debate, and during the economy section, the one about whether they’d do the job for minimum wage, and the one during the education section about whether they sent their kids to public or private school. Unlike the business-as-usual debate, I thought these questions challenged the candidates to answer with a rare spontaneous candor–which, for the most part, they did. That public/private school one really got me, though. Aside for the candidate who was all about Catholic school, anytime someone answered that their kids went to private school, they went all defensive about how it was extenuating circumstances and all. (Yeah, right, says this public school baby.)

But the biggest miss: When the young woman who works at Planned Parenthood asked the candidates whether they’ve talked to their children, honestly, about sex, to a tee the candidates called upon answered that they’ve talked to their kids about “inappropriate touching” and how to avoid sexual predators. Methinks they missed the point. Thoughts?

Hey wait – did John Edwards really just say he didn’t like Hillary’s jacket? Did JOe Biden just say what he liked most about Dennis Kucinich was his wife?! Did Jeffrey Toobin really just say it was like watching Gladys Knight and the Pips (ie Hillary = Gladys)?!

This debate is hands down the most fun I’ve seen in a while.