Early Saturday morning, I bussed it over to WordCamp, one of a series of events held all of the world for WordPress enthusiasts.

Here’s my video recap of the event – from the serious announcements to the inane observations. I took very detailed notes…so much so that I’m pretty sure people will be scared to sit next to me at future conferences. The things I do for you!

WordCamp 2009: On Crushes and Mergers from aziari on Vimeo.

Don’t know what WordPress is? Well, this site is run on it. So are millions of other blogs, and a good number of its users also use it as a CMS (content management system) for their sites. It has a handful of competitors, but WordPress is known for being very intuitive; at the event, creator Matt Mullenweg said his goal for WordPress was to make it “invisible” to users.

I was a virgin WordCamp attendee, but had a great time and it got me thinking about some changes I would like to make on this blog. I also listened to a handful of speakers including:

• Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week. Tim discussed the reasoning behind specific decisions he’s made in his blog design and content. One good tip Tim had was to study the “heat map” for your blog to see where people are clicking. For instance, he personally found that by changing a description from “categories” to “topics,” he received a substantial increase in click-throughs to the newly minted “topics” section of his blog.
• Matt Cutts of Google, who discussed building your blog for SEO. I was surprised to learn that dashes in URLs, not underscores, fare better when you’re optimizing your content for search.
• Matt Mullenweg (see above). Matt’s the same age as me, and I was really impressed by his composure, humulity and speaking abilities. He talked for nearly two hours during the conference – a “State of the Word” speech and a lengthy Q&A – and didn’t miss a beat.

I think my big takeaway was that I need to think more strategically about the features I integrate into my site. I also came away feeling really confident in my decision to change the topic of this blog to something I feel really passionate about. I’ve found my voice here.

Were you there? What were your big takeaways?

I recently discovered 7X7 Magazine, a San Francisco glossy for the well-to-do in town.

I definitely don’t fall under that target demographic myself, but…um…I was looking at where to buy cute dresses. And in the midst of my apparel-lust, I saw 7X7’s feature story about about San Francisco leaders’ views on the upside of the economic downturn.

Six leaders. All men. And all but one white as lightning (thank you Guy Kawasaki for shaking things up a bit!).

Now, the line-up of leaders is obviously an example of editorial discretion rather than the actual demographics of who’s who in San Francisco, but it made me wonder: What about the chicks?

(Now, HOLD UP: This is not going to be a feminist rant griping about inequality. Not in the least, so please read on.)

In the Bay Area, there are a number of groups devoted to women in tech. But public-facing women? Not really that many. Marissa Mayer at Google is the cliche answer that comes to mind, but beyond that, only a few.

And the ones we do know – dare I say – are probably not the ones doing the greatest stuff. A lot of women in tech stand out for the sole fact that they are women in technology. And especially when they are semi-attractive. It’s the way the world works.

Back in Portland, I attended a Ward Cunningham talk at AboutUs about wikis. I remember one girl asked a question to Ward in the middle of the event. You could tell she was smart as hell. But after she asked her question she looked around the room so timidly in a sort of subconscious approval seeking of the others in the room – mostly men along and a handful of women, including myself.

On my way out of the talk, I turned to the person I was standing next to and asked him about the girl.

“Did you notice that?” I said.

“Yeah.”

“Why do women second guess themselves?” I asked. “Why can’t they be confident in who they are? Why are some smart women so freaking insecure?”

Fast forward to the present and I’m still asking myself that same question: Why did the girl ask Ward the question the way she did? Why are some smart women so insecure?

And when I saw the 7X7 spread today I was reminded of that wiki talk. The approval seeking. The lack of internal confidence. No matter how minute it is still visible in so many women I meet.

It makes me think “what if.” What if women in technology allowed themselves to feel as confident in this industry as the men they work alongside? What would happen if they felt they really could go and wanted to go as far as their male counterparts?

Would one of us have a decent shot at being in this 7X7 spread? Or, more importantly, would more of us be known just as much for our brains as we are our minority status and perhaps good looks?

Something to think about.

Welcome to my first ever Pixie Rant! Occasionally, I will rant about something related to technology- all in good fun, but I hope it starts some real discussion.

My first victim: BACON. I’m so tired of the bacon meme within the tech community. This is why:

Pixie Rant: Bacon from aziari on Vimeo.