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NICK DOUGLAS — Until I got the angry letter below, I figured we'd already seen the end of the dustup over Spock.com. The people-search site got in trouble last month when the CEO searched for Victoria Secret models in a demo. Then some outsiders got upset at a joke on the Spock web site that wasn't too complimentary of the looks of the women at Microsoft. Now, while I feel for women who have a hard time in the male-dominated tech world, I'm inclined to agree with my lady friend at Spock, who feels the whole thing's a waste of time. So after the letter comes a poll: Is Spock in the clear, in big trouble, or just a bit foolish?

The following was sent to Valleywag's tip line with the subject "Spock Misogyny Part 2."

1. Founders of the search engine didn't bother searching for themselves.
2. I tried to warn them and get them to do the right thing: Arrogance or Apathy, you decide.
3. The ones who accused spock of misogyny were more right than they knew.


Ever since their Web 2.0 demo at San Francisco, where one of the founders of Spock, Jay Bhatti, gave a demo displaying a page full of Victoria Secret's models, the company has been accused of being misogynists.

http://valleywag.com/tech/spock/human-females-prove-highly-illogical-253339.php

http://watchyourmouth.livejournal.com/203514.html

A commenter, Leanne, wrote on Tim O Rielly's blog: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/why_im_so_excit.html

Further investigation of Spock's web site demonstrates that they have dug up a decades-old misogynistic joke about how men at one place are better looking than girls at another place — this hateful joke has probably been around longer than Jay has been alive and it's disrespectful to to past sexist history dredge it up again — I first heard a variant of this "joke" 20 years ago:

Brian - "When Jay tried to convince me to leave Microsoft to join Spock, he said Spock had much better-looking women than Microsoft. Only when I joined, I realized Spock had not hired any women at that time. But even without any women, the guys at Spock were better-looking than the girls at Microsoft." http://www.spock.com/do/pages/jay

Apparently Jay, the founder, is also clueless about Ruby on Rails and is the subject of another dumb joke:

Jon - "When I interviewed with Jay and told him about Ruby on Rails, he thought it was an adult video."

Is this really a tech company with a serious search engine? They don't demo or promote themselves as one.
———-
(Which they took down. But not fast enough.

http://valleywag.com/tech/cubicle-culture/spocks-frat+geek-humor-253380.php

So, after going through many of the blogs, I wondered was this a one time mistake, or perhaps the demo really represented their attitudes toward women?

A simple google search located the founders of Spock: Jay Bhatti and Jadeep Singh on MySpace.

I found very questionable content, which I've enclosed later in this story.


I thought perhaps I would try to get them to do the right thing, so I contacted one of their advisors, Dave McClure.
http://500hats.typepad.com/

On 4/26/07, Michael Takamoto wrote:
Dave,

...

I think Spock has very innovative technology and I want to see the company succeed. I also am a father of 2 in San Carlos and am active in the community.

I would like to meet briefly with you concerning some more information you may not be aware of with regard to the Spock and the behavior of key management staff at Spock that could be easily misinterpreted.

I'm approaching you with this information because you seem to be very reasonable in your writings on this topic and and I believe you will take appropriate action.

I have some specific ideas I would like to share with you for getting some positive PR for Spock and smoothing over rifts with the community of women in technology.

I would appreciate 15 minutes of your time. Today or tomorrow.
I live in San Carlos, and work in Belmont.

I can meet you at a place of your choosing.

Thanks much,

I had a pleasant conversation warning him about spock posts and i followed them up with this email:


On 4/26/07, Michael Takamoto wrote:
Dave,

Was a pleasure talking to you.
I understand that you are an advisor to Spock, and they are not obligated to take your advice or for that matter, mine.
However, they clearly value your advice, otherwise you would not be an advisor.

I would like you to make the request from me advising them to:

1. Put an apology on their HOME page for 1 month, there is none to be found on the current spock.com site. I think the one written by Spock's marketing person was well done, and if it came from the CEO of Spock, even better.

2. That Spock make a significant contribution to the Anita Borg Institute. http://www.anitaborg.org

There are many options available: http://www.anitaborg.org/getinvolved/donate/total-investment.php

This is a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
I have no affiliation to this group, other than that I respect what they do.

They would be in good company along with HP, Cisco, Sun, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Juniper. (See their logos at the bottom of the page)

I think this would go a long way towards repairing some of the damage done by the demo, and help lend credibility to the perception that Spock, in addition to having cool technology, is a responsible corporate citizen and doing the right thing. By contributing, they are putting their money where their mouths are.

I think putting a good spin with a positive well crafted press release with a quote from someone at the foundation could gain some good PR for Spock. I understand that they already have done some sponsorships with this group, and I just encouraging them to do more. I feel very strongly about this, and want Spock to be regarded as one of the best companies in the Valley to work for and a firm supporter of women in technology.

If you think it would be helpful, I would be open to meeting with Spock's management team.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Michael Takamoto

————————
I followed up again:
———————-

On 4/27/07, Michael Takamoto < takamoto@inreach.com> wrote:
Dave,

I see that Jaideep has modified his myspace account and Jay has deleted his.

Any word on the actions below? I would really like to see Spock take action.

I'd appreciate an update.

Thank much.

-Michael Takamoto


————-
To which Dave said he'd have the principals, Jay and Jaideep contact me.

Naively, I hoped they would do the right thing, but they quickly changed their myspace pages, ignored me then did nothing else.
No apology, no donation, not even an email to me.


So, what's the big fuss about:


First Jay:

Nothing too much to note, except note the clubs: "Make Out Club" , well, sounds a bit immature but perhaps innocent enough, but then I checked it out.
A racy picture of two women kissing in their underwear is displayed. Forum topics I saw: Rawk out with cawk out!
Would You Do Me?

Not exactly wholesome, but for someone who is developing a people search engine, Jay should have known better.

Jay then took down his myspace page.


Jaideep:

Jaidep's profile is even more interesting.

He writes the he works hard and plays hard. "Besides work, I can always be found at a bar with friends or getting down on the dance floor with hotties like Leena."
He belongs the the group: No Strings Attached (Sex). That pretty much sums up what this group is about. You have to be 18 or older to see it.
It also show that he's single, and that he does not want kids.

Today, his profile is changed. I hope he married Leena, because he now no longer hangs out at bars, and is suddenly married.


To sum up. The women who accused them of misogyny had good reason.

It puts the name of my favorite Star Trek character to shame, and so much for Vulcan IDIC.
Spock.com should know better and so should their investors and customers.

Feels like the Congressman who said "There are Klingons in the White House!" So what's the verdict, waggers?

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