The Web on the Candidates

Blogpac, a group comprised of MyDDers Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers, and Mike Stark that gives grants to online progressive activists, has awarded $1000 to former John Edwards blogger Amanda Marcotte "for her courage in the face of an irresponsible media." Earlier this year, a mini-scandal erupted after conservatives criticized comments Marcotte had written on her Pandagon blog before she was hired by the Edwards campaign. In the post announcing the award, Mike Stark gives us Marcotte's story, from the time she was hired by the campaign (she was working as a financial aid counselor at UT-Austin) to how the cable news sites helped blow the thing out of proportion to how and why she resigned from the campaign.

Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post explains that the Democrats are beating the GOP online, getting more traffic, raising more money, and gaining more popularity on the "social-networking triumvirate" of Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. TechPresident's Mike Turk says that it goes beyond using the right technologies. "They've all got Web sites. Yes, they're doing videos. Yes, some are blogging. But that's not enough to really connect with voters." And while Republicans are fighting back, with TechPresident's David All forming TechRepublican and former Reagan campaign aide Charlie Gerow starting QubeTV to counter what he calls the "liberal bias" of YouTube, All says "for the most part Republicans are stuck in Internet circa 2000."

Our "2008 Web Video Odyssey," which was produced by the good folks at PoliticsTV, is up on YouTube:

Just finished my session on Building Powerful Online Communities: Best Practices. The panelists included me, Ian Bogost talking about gaming, Matt Lewis of Townhall.com, James Rucker of ColorofChange and Heather Holdridge of Care2 who served as our moderator.

[This morning, danah boyd gave a great presentation on how politicians are failing to understand the social dynamics of online social networks. She's posted the "rough unedited crib of the actual talk" on her website, and we're pleased that she's given us permission to post it here as well. The editors.]

Think about the publics that you know, the publics where politics occur. Gatherings like this... conference halls, shopping malls, political rallies, etc. How do politics take place in these spaces? Obviously, speeches are a part of it, but there's more that happens in these publics. At the very simplest level, there's a lot of shaking hands with everyday people. Ideally, there's a lot of listening to people's stories... Always, there's presence. Presence has been a critical component of political discourse because it allows people to connect to and relate with politicians. Through shared presence, politicians are made "real."

[We're going to post text or excerpts from the proceedings of PdF2007 here as fast as we can get them. (And we're also working to get footage from the mainhall sessions up online too, but that will take til tomorrow.) MyDD blogger Matt Stoller gave a great talk explaining the rise of the netroots, which he abridged slightly because time was tight; we're thrilled to publish the full text below. The editors.]

A few years ago, I had what's called a 'crazy uncle' theory of internet politics. I noticed that the figures who did well online all seemed like a crazy uncle saying things that are true but extremely uncomfortable, that power and authority was built on silly illusions. You know, it's like when you're a kid at Thanksgiving and your uncle starts telling you about how much pot your parents smoked, which you had never really known about. It's uncomfortable but kind of awesome.

Few thoughts from the hallway outside the main hall here at PDF:

Dana Boyd and Matt Stoller rock.

No line at the ladies room - I love tech conferences!

Great talk/reading (from his version 3.0 of his book coming out later this year) by Tom Friedman.

Basically, he believes flattening is intensifying everywhere he goes.

Interesting, if a bit low-key, conversation between Tom Friedman (NY Times) and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. A bit like our own PDF MBA seminar, in Schmidt’s defense, it is very early CA time for much pep.

I’m here at PDF this morning, clicking, typing, surfing with hundreds of other folks here.

Larry Lessig, professor at Stanford and founder of Creative Commons, is the first speaker of the day and he provided a thankfully caffeinated start on a dreary, rainy day.

You already know that the 2007 PdF Conference is on Friday, May 18th, but did you know that the First Annual PdF unConference will be held the next day, Saturday, May 19th?

What's an "unconference"?

The idea is simple. At an unconference, there are no set presenters and no designated audience. Anyone and everyone can schedule a session, discussion, or demonstration, either before the day on the PdF unConference wiki or at the unConference itself. The PdF unConference is a way of extending Friday's discussion to Saturday, creating an open environment for digging into the details and nitty-gritty of how we're all using technology to change politics. Tickets for the unConference are $35 and we'll provide coffee/tea, lunch, and wifi.

The PdF unConference is the perfect chance to demo your new project or hash out that question about tech politics that's been keeping you up at night, and to do it in collaboration with some of the best minds in technology and politics.

You can go here to register for both the main conference and the unConference.