How Artists Can Skip the Offline Middleman
New, Web-based production and distribution models give entrepreneurs–creative or not–ways to bypass traditional companies and turn a profit

Last year, New Jersey indie rockers Maybe Pete released their debut CD Between the City and the Stratosphere. However, when it was time to make a full-length album, the group didn’t pursue a recording deal with one of the big music labels or even one of the boutique independent companies

But as she continued to sift her data, Hargittai noticed something: Although online skills of men and women were roughly equal, women, as a group, rated their proficiency significantly lower than did men. Men, who as a group were no better at plying the Internet than women, rated their skills, on average, a couple notches above.

“Not a single woman among all our female study subjects called herself an ‘expert’ user, while not a single male ranked himself as a complete novice or ‘not at all skilled,’ ” Hargittai said.

What if the women did judge themselves accurately, and the men over ranked themselves.  Then isn’t the problem that men have an overinflated sense of their abilities and need to get more honest with themselves, rather than women need to brag more?