First post here. Hi everyone! [*waves*]

Fancy HTML isn't going to bridge any generation gap, it's true. That said, I agree that if you want to reach a demographic, it's a good idea to use the communications means to which the demographic is accoustomed. If you have a group of primarily older print-based subscribers to a newsletter and you try to get them to read your blog, you're going to meet confusion and resistance*. Conversely, if you want to connect with a younger demographic, you darn' well better have a web presence.

It's sad to think that the more traditional groups might be unaware of the range and breadth of femist discourse on the web, and be ignoring the Power of Teh Intarwebs (TM) to get our various messages out to people who might not be able to attend monthly meetings or pickets. I know it's been really valuable to me, in presenting me with different viewpoints and getting me thinking and writing in my own wee corner of things.

* Note, I'm not saying all older people are use print as a primary mode of communications. I'm thinking of certain chuch groups I've known whose primarily older demographic rely on the photocopied church bulletins distributed each week, and are not going to visit a web page to find out when the Harvest pot-luck is.

This article is right, but we need to reach out and mutually recognize one another.

I am 58, a feminist and I speak to colleges & university classes often. I tell the feminists my age that the younger ones are working very hard but that they have to see where they work - it is DIGITAL. They have to enjoy Bitch Magazine and get over the name.
I mentioned your site on Weekend America on NPR and wherever I speak - I just wrote it on the board at a graduate class at Claremont University last week.

I have a blog and a website. I have asked to be included in your bloglist a couple of times. Maybe it would be helpful if the younger feminists recognized when older ones are really stepping up.

Wait, did you just bitch about site design, and then ask where someone's freaking MYSPACE page was?

No. really. stop. My brain was hurting enough.

Hey Zoe, like I told you via email--we're planning on putting you on the blogroll. We wait and update with a bunch of blogs all at once. Thanks for your patience.

I agree that the future of feminism must incorperate the digital world. Feminists have always used the most popular methods of communication at the time - the new millenium is no different. I just hate it when people try and tell me about "true feminism," arguing that using the internet isn't a valid way of spreading feminism or inspiring activism. Internet sites and blogs are the pamphlets of 2006. By the way, there are a few Myspace profiles centered around feminism, but none have reached the status of iSupport or are really updated frequently.

Jennie1ofmany, it is always so inspiring to see older, more mature feminists like you speaking up and remaining active. When I talk about feminism with my female elders, the usual response is, "Oh, you're a feminist. How cute," like Don't worry, you'll grow out of it. I would be really interested to read your blog. Thanks for sticking with us younger, less-experienced feminists!

I am a Campus Organizer for the FMF and for our Choices Campus Program we do in fact have a myspace page AND we have also created one for Ms. as well. During my first week with the FMF i created both myspace accounts (this was in July)....just thought i would give you a heads up.

Thanks Jes, but for the record, I don't think I deserve your kudos. I'm 31, which is, granted a bit older than the average Feministing blogger, but I'm, like, older-sister-older, not great-aunt-older.

I used the church lady example because it was the most telling one I could find. What really drove the medium/message thing home for me was serving as the branch chair of an editors' association, whose members comprised editors who still do mark-up on paper for book publishers through editors who work exclusively with on-line material. If I wanted information to reach all of my members I had to

1) Send a broadcast e-mail to all our members.

2) Post the announcement on our web page.

3) Post the same announcement on the web forum.

3) Assume that some members didn't have e-mail or look at the web-page or forum, and put it in the newsletter (distributed as a pdf to most members; printed and mailed to the handful who don't own computers.

4) Announce whatever-it-was in person at a meeting, attended by roughly 10% of members.

5) E-mail and mail copies of the minutes of the meeting to all membesr.

6) Assume, at the next meeting, that when I made my follow-up announcement, some member would stand up and complain that he or she had not been told about whatever it was I was talking about, and ask why I hadn't ensured that members were informed of whatever it was.

If I missed any of those steps, I could be sure that more than one person would complain.

Asking "Why don't you look it up on the website?" didn't help with the print-based members. Asking "Don't you read the newsletter?" didn't help with the folks who rely on their inboxes to organize their lives. Getting an RSS feed for the webpage will, and we're doing that, but the point remains that if the information wasn't where people thought to look for it, it didn't reach them, and it was really pointless to ask all of them to change to suit my needs.

finally a feminist group is touching on this issue. with only a few exceptions, feminist and other progressive organizations aren't fully utilizing the relatively low-cost communication medium which the internet provides. this is even more true for scholars who are doing work on feminist, gender studies, and GLBT issues. as an information professional and a feminist i'm almost constantly frustrated by the way these types of organizations fail to adopt this kind of technology in any kind of timely fashion.

and while you might not like the design, myspace and other social networking sites, are meme producing and transferring mediums that generate tons of traffic. they're there, they're free and they're easy to use. it's silly not to use that kind of a medium to one's advantage.

I have to say that this debate has been going on for at least 3-4 years at NOW. I'd say that as an organization that has a working, yet voluteer, board made up of actual members, it takes time to come to a consensus. As for Ms. I think they said it all when the Ms. Musings blog went away. I never went back to check out the other blogs after the first few days. They never had the edge that MM had.

In fact, almost every single meeting I go to no matter who the meeting is for, wants to start a blog. But no one really has a good plan for the blog. Which is why I'm actually GLAD that a lot of groups don't have them. I think it's better to not have a blog than to have a sucky blog.

JMO.

I don't know, as technology is moving so quickly and is being adopted just as fast by various groups of people, I think it's a genuinely sad state for an organization to be in that it takes a years long debate to put a relatively simple piece of technology-facilitated communication into practice. There are plenty of people out there blogging about feminist issues - why aren't organizations adopting a few of them and slapping a big disclaimer on the blog stating that the opinions of the bloggers are theirs and theirs alone with the organization simply providing the platform for these bloggers to speak. Plenty of organizations do this with success.

I don't think it really takes a great deal of effort for a blog to be both good and on point. The organization shouldn't have and frankly shouldn't need to have a top-heavy blogging plan. The content can be news driven and link heavy; it just has to be informative. I really think progressive organizations, especially feminist organizations are dropping the ball in this area and have been doing so for some time.

Um . . . whoops. I meant Zoe but wrote your name, Jennie10fmany, accidentally. lol 31 is rockin' and rollin! :-) But I TOTALLY agree with your post. The digital communication issue is so weird - there are some people for whom email and web pages are the BEST methods of contact, but others don't have email at all or rarely check it. It's tough to sort it all out.

Um . . . whoops. I meant Zoe but wrote your name, Jennie10fmany, accidentally. lol 31 is rockin' and rollin! :-) But I TOTALLY agree with your post. The digital communication issue is so weird - there are some people for whom email and web pages are the BEST methods of contact, but others don't have email at all or rarely check it. It's tough to sort it all out.

I'm not excusing any group from having a blog. But I still insist that an org have a good plan for a blog. And pay people to keep it up to date with good information.

Where could these organizations find eager bloggers? I presume they could hire one of the existing feminist bloggers, but most feminist blogs I know of don't have the same focus as NOW or even Ms.; Feministing is the one that comes closest, and there's only so much 6 people can do.

Personally I think focus is where the organizational shaping comes in. The organization provides the topical focus, and depends on the blogger to simply be a good writer, which is why they'd be hired in the first place. A good blogger is a writter who gets how the technology allows them to communicate with people; it's really that simple. I don't think it's necessary to find someone who's already doing exactly what the organization wants already before hiring them to blog for the organization.