Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Brief

A couple of weeks ago Tim gave me a project to write a piece about geek girls. This has rapidly turned into a marathon effort.
The general story is we are looking at the two apparent types of geek girls, those who use their gender of girlness to blog in the geek world, and those geeks who just happen to be girls.

We were initially just going to link to some sites of examples but now feel that we would get much more mileage from interviewing some geek girls. So far at least 5 have agreed and we are hoping for some more.

What we really wanted to get at is the heart of the blogger in question. Why do they blog the way they do, how do they see themselves in the world of geeks?

On one hand we have the Geek Girl Blogger...
She's very much an IT person and she blogs.

On the other hand we have the Girl blogger...
who is not so much an IT geek perhaps, but she has a little bit to do with IT but also uses her girlness to promote herself. For the sake of this project we have limited this to girls who blog about IT stuff.

I am finding it hard to define what makes a Girl Blogger a geek and what makes her not so much a geek. Some people might say that if they're even blogging at all then they're a geek. There are lots of types of people in the world who would have their own opinion on what makes someone a geek... but I guess for this story we're just narrowing it down to what makes a Girl Blogger a Geek.

What we have decided to go with are Girls whose main web content is about technical IT and computer stuff or who have some technical skills.

The phenomenon

On the web there is a lot about geek girls. Here are some of the sites I have found that specifically use the phrase "Geek Girls".

http://www.geekgirlblogs.com -  "A central repository that brings women’s blogs together in one place, to create a wealth of knowledge that covers the amazing strength, agility & force that is Women in IT! We also hope that by sharing our experiences we can encourage & enlighten women thinking of a career in IT."

http://www.geeksugar.com/ - Geek profiles, geek girl computer accessories and more.

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/04/15/geek_girl_dinners_sydney.html - Geek Girl Dinners here in Australia and also in other countries

http://www.girlsgonegeek.tv/ - "Some girls go wild. We go wired!"

Geek Girls featured on SpyJournal

We have asked a number of geek girls to respond to some basic profile type questions, some detailed questions about why they blog and what social networks they are involved in and then an opportunity for them to promote themselves.
Stay tuned for our first featured profile geek girl coming next week.

PS if you want to be involved please contact us.