Personal Democracy Forum (http://personaldemocracy.com) Wow. Instead of describing each session, as there are plenty of great summaries (search Twitter for #pdf09) I just wanted to note some thoughts:
Nate Silver brought up an interesting point in regards to the tea parties. Though he wasn't endorsing the content of those events, he certainly was impressed, and rightly so, at conservative organizing. He pointed out how it is in general more difficult for republicans to organize the way democrats do because they tend to live in rural areas - an interesting point that I hadn't thought about.
Blair Levin talked a bunch about how the FCC is changing to provide more access and accountability.
Vivek Kundra, the US Chief Information Officer presented the new federal IT Dashboard - a way to get information about money, investments, projects, budgets, contracts out to the American people. Really breakthrough concept & design - it.usaspending.gov.
Alex Ross, from the US State Dept., commenting on political organizing, said how drastic this culture is changing. No longer do you necessarily need a charismatic person who looks great on camera, etc. When organizing via Facebook or twitter, none of that really matters. This is interesting, as it is similar to much of what was talked about that seems as though technology is flattening the playing field of politics and political organizing.
The New York Senate Chief Information Officer presented the re-design of nysenate.gov, which is based on free, open-source software. This is a huge step, and hopefully an example for other state legislatures.
Overall, technology is going to be changing politics in ways that even now we literally can't imagine. So much happens so fast, and we are at the base of an exponential curve of improvement in tech. Looking even just at the role that Twitter has played recently in Iran, one must wonder what new platforms and technologies will be develop, even in the next few years, and how those new developments will impact government, politics and democracy.
Here is a list of the sessions/people I saw speak:
Opening Welcome, Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifry
Did Obama Revolutionize Campaigning? A Conversation with Joe Rospars (Obama '08) and Mark McKinnon (McCain '08)
Keynote speech on how technology is improving government by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Reality Check: The Internet's Impact on Politics: A Conversation With Nate Silver, Fivethirtyeight.com
Powering the Youth Vote. Maria-Teresa Kumar of VotoLatino; Greg Miller of the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation; and Mike Connery of Future Majority
Mobile Politicking: From Text-Messaging Basics to Campaign iPhone Apps: Scott Goodstein, CEO - Revolution Messaging, LLC and External Online Director for Obama for America; Becky Bond, Political Director at CREDO Mobile and Working Assets; Nicola Wells, Organizer for FIRM, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement; Beka Economopoulos, Fission Strategy
PoliTech Demos: Tristan Harris of Apture, Stan Magniant of Linkfluence, Abby Kirigin of TipJoy
The Obama Broadband Initiative and the Future of the Internet: Opening Remarks by Blair Levin, FCC; Discussion with Josh Silver, Founder of Free Media; James Assey, Executive Vice President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association; Hank Hultquist, Vice President, Federal Regulatory, AT&T Andrew Rasiej (moderator)
Innovation in Government, Obama-Style: Conversations With and Vivek Kundra, US Chief Information Officer; and Macon Phillips, White House New Media Drirector; introduced by Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist
Chairman Steele said, “Take the lid off”: The New GOP Web Presence, Todd Herman, new media director for the Republican National Committee
Social Networks and Social Revolutions, Randi Zuckerberg, marketing director at Facebook
21st Century Statecraft: Fostering Citizen-Centered Diplomacy and Development, Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube Culture and the Politics of Authenticity, Michael Wesch, Professor at Kansas State University
The Dangerous Power of Sharing (Power), Mark Pesce, Inventer, writer
Mapping the Networked Public Sphere: How Blogs, Mainstream Media and Official Sources Interact: Ken Deutsch, Director of Strategic Services and Partnerships at Morningside Analytics; Stan Magniant, Vice President & General Manager of Linkfluence Vincent Ducrey, French Government new media director; Michael Cornfield, Vice President for Research and Media Strategy at 720 Strategies
PoliTech Demos: Andrew Hoppin, the CIO of NYSenate.gov, David Moore of OpenCongress, Benjamin Stein of MobileCommons and Tristan Harris of Apture
Final Plenary: Can We.gov? How? A Conversation With Rep. Steve Israel, (D-NY) Jack Dorsey, Creator, Chairman and co-founder of Twitter, Ellen Miller, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Sunlight Foundation and Joe Trippi, Democratic Campaign Strategist.
No comments:
Post a Comment