Only partly consciously done 

If physical conference organizers can just go along, not really thinking about much of anything, I guess virtual conference organizers can do that, too. I wasn't aware of it until just now, but as I'm making the cosmetic environment for this experiment in virtual conferences, I think I might be giving it some of Liz Henry's "OMG, sparkly ponies" girl cooties on purpose. That's OK. Everybody will be welcome. Maybe the soft jammies milieu will help keep everybody mellow and stave off some posturing and self-importance. That wouldn't be a bad thing.

Yes, m'lord, oh wonderous speaker with built-in wisdom and status 

About the dearth of women speaking at that dumb conference... it's so sad the organizer didn't even notice the imbalance. Really discouraging. How could you not see it until somebody had to point it out to you? I don't know what the answer is, though I agree with Shelley that we didn't get the vote by asking nicely. I do think way too much gravitas is bestowed on conference speakers. Maybe that needs to change, in addition to an assortment of affirmative action tactics. When did it ever get to be such a truth that opinion leader equals hot speaker, or is it the reverse? Thomas Jefferson was supposed to have been a horrible speaker, but he could write.

Combination of toiling and doodling is what fussing with layouts is 

Starting over with my Moodle theme. I wasn't taking advantage of all the cascading. Drives me nuts when standard themes don't have all tables and borders line up. I'm like my dad, a retired banker who would have preferred to be a cabinetmaker. He cringes when he sees something that's not level.

VRM -- good way to look at attention 

Listening to the Gillmor Gang as I play around with my stylesheets. I like the idea of turning the CRM tables and thinking of the users in charge of vendor relationship management. In fact, picturing it that way might be a key to helping people conceptualize the whole attention thing.