Sitting in the Going Offline breakout session. This is a topic that plagues everyone in the online grassroots sector.

The girl from Ron Paul and the girl from John Edwards essentially talked about crowdsourcing. In my opinon, the perfect grassroots team would have one person devoted to blogger outreach and crowdsourcing coordination. That’s where you get the huge numbers mobilizing.

Maven Mom just asked if the Google lounge had bean bags. This year, they have slick white and metal sofas. Well done! You can sit on those. They do look very IKEA-like though. We talk about the web being ubiquitous, but nothing is more ubiquitous than IKEA in the world. They’re in Saudia Arabia now. They also have a candy and nut bar. Kudos to Google.

Between sessions, I managed to score some schwag tshirts. Since I rate conferences on the available schwag, this one is better than last year. No stress balls in the shap of the Capitol Dome or coasters. Blogads gets extra props for having pink t-shirts.

Back to the breakout session:

Are the netroots still relevant? Josh Levy of TechPresident is talking. He’s right, the old model of organized online grassroots activties has changed. We’ve already surpassed the 2004 model. Next year, we’ll be talking about the Obama model, which is the most succesful example of a slick marketing campaign with grassroots outreach. Usually, there’s one or the other. Obama has both.

Oh, legalities with the FEC. The laws are outdated and don’t allow for transparency. However, this forces campaigns to give control to supporters.

Towards the end, someone from the floor mentioned the concept of nettops vs. netroots. What an idea! If the web mimics communication in real life, it makes sense to have a hierarchy of voices on the Internet. This is especially true in the blogosphere.

Liveblogging from the 2008 Politics Online Conference while simultaneously working and absorbing thoughts on technology. Call it multitasking 2.0.deaccess of the web in every aspect of our lives.

Last year, I wrote about how the web has changed the control factor of politics and communication. This year, I think we’ve gone beyond that. In my opinion, we’re in the midst of a technological revolution that is changing every aspect of life.

Just as the Industrial Revolution changed the face of the economy, manufacturing and family life, the web is changing how we live. Families went from subsistence living on the farm to living in apartments in cities. As improvements in food and domestic activities took place (processed food, vacuum cleaners) the dual-working family emerged. Our society has adjusted to the norms that the Industrial Revolution created.

Then the web was created and technology started changing at exponential rates.

The web is altering the fabric of our lives and societies. Right now, we’re fitting the web within the confines of the Industrial Revolution perspective, but it’s gradually changing. Concepts such as working from home, satellite meetings, global communities and 24/7 newsfeeds.

Our culture is changing. The concept of privacy is likely to change with coming generations. The kids these days are used to publicizing every minute detail of their lives. This will change social interactions dramatically as they get older.

We’re also seeing a global community emerge. Travel almost anywhere and you’ll see the same stores and same restaurants. People around the world are largely visiting the same web sites. Despite political and historical differences, people are largely growing more similar and our differences are becoming more obvious.

Back to the plenary. All four people are very smart, but all four people are outspoken Democrats. I’ll be emailing IPDI. There are too many good Republicans on this issue to not have an entire political school of thought represented.

Everyone gets so caught up on the digital divide, but it’s the broadband divide hurting the impoverished. Interent speed changes web behavior more than anything. Why don’t we talk about the lack of competition in service providers. If the price of web acesss was cheaper, more people could access it. What good is One Laptop Per Child when they can’t use the web?

At some point over the weekend, GFTS crashed. I didn’t realize it until this afternoon.

I think that I lost a few days of entries, but it’s better than losing more than 4 years of archives.

Methinks, that I need to back everything up independently of my server.

It’s not like I really have time to post. Right now, it’s 8 p.m., and I’ve been at work (literally, in my cube in downtown DC) since 9 a.m. this morning.

It’s one of those perfect storm weeks when I have crazy job stuff going on. Then there’s there’s the annual gathering of the political tech nerds that kicks off tomorrow. I might be the only there without a BlackBerry (although the new phone is cool), but I won’t be the only one working. It’s hard to have a political conference midway between state legislative sessions and a major election.

Oddly enough, almost everyone I need to talk to will be at the conference tomorrow. I’ll be hunting our software vendor down for some support. (Note: if any of you read this, please help me tomorrow on a project.)

I wait in eager anticipation to see if there’s a Google Lounge with beanbags and lava lamps again.

I’m back a little earlier than expected. Oh well. At least I gave myself an out yesterday. Now that I took the pressure off myself to post everyday, I’m inspired. Last night a brainstorm was unleashed for blog ideas. Go figure. Now, I just need time to implement them.

This morning I found out that my department won a grassroots innovation award in the technology category at an undisclosed conference in the very near future. Some of you know that (my place of employment) and (CRM software provider) developed the (________) application for Facebook. It’s incredibly innovative and the first successful app to be used for advocacy.

Is it possible to brag anymore vaguely?

Anyways, Woot! for all of us. A lot of hard work went into developing it. It was an honor to be part of the effort.

It’s nice to get accolades. Working in an industry that so few people understand is hard. Even fewer people appreciate the best practices. Go us!

Geni.com
Genealogy has jumped on the social networking bandwagon, but this time it actually makes sense. Instead of friending is it “relativing?” Maybe you can be related to Obama too!

The Chatt Library hits YouTube
I never expected the two people to lead the library into the 21st century would be the matriarchs of Chattanooga arts scene. It would be a great video if produced in-house, but Comcast should have edited the last :45 or so.

NY Times: Google Takes Step on Video Copyrights
Why police the Internet? Google will do it for us.

Now Is Gone–the book and the blog.
Found this a few weeks ago and forgot about it. It also looks like I need to take a trip to B&N.

Gavin Newsom Case Study: Facebook for PR, branding and Press Releases A case study with examples of everything Facebook alluded to yesterday.

Rohit Bargava: The Future of PR Means Dumping the Inferiority Complex
Sigh. If we want to get this massive chip off the shoulders of the profession, why don’t we start in the classroom. It doesn’t help when the next generation enters the workforce cynical and paranoid.

Google acquires Jaiku. Is November 5 the Facebook/Google showdown? All the tech giants weigh in, including Brian Solis on how lifestreams are relevant to communication.

Junior Takes a Bride
This is a few days old, but I can’t help it. I’m not a fan of Harold Ford, Jr. but marrying anyone who works for Carolina Herrera adds a much-needed layer of class to the rather trashy Ford family. Will they live in Memphis? Can someone like her survive in Tennessee? Will she supply couture for Ford family appearances in court? Just imagine a gubernatorial campaign with a real fashionista in the Volunteer State! Can’t you see her wearing a classic Carolina evening gown to the Grand Ole Opry? Oh, the blogging would be so much fun!

Facebook took a page from Google’s book and hosted a political summit today.

Will Facebook increase their DC presence like Google? Competition is great. Especially competition that involves free food and breaks from the office. If they keep doing these things, I hope that Facebook changes their presentation. Between the progressive events that I attend for work, and conservative ones for the sake of my sanity, I’ve seen the Google presentation about four times.

The turnout for the event was surprising. There was a huge line to register and find a seat. While waiting, I noticed that almost everyone was under 30. According to Facebook, 56% of the users are over 25, yet every campaign and congressional office sent younger staffers.

I’m happy to hear that changes will be made to integrate groups into the newsfeed. As much as I love Facebook, they keep adding things rather than improving some of the basic functions. They’re finally lifting the ban on messaging more than 1,000 people and working on allowing candidates to send messages to all of their supporters.

They still won’t allow groups to create profiles and are quite adamant about it! This hurts causes and advocacy groups more than anyone else. It’s frustrating to have so many wonderful tools at our disposal, but Facebook only allows political campaigns to fully use them. Nonprofits are getting more engaged in politics and launching full-scale battles over legislation and races. If Facebook wants to further the democratic process and encourage conversations, they need to get over this decision and create some type of profile for groups. The Cause application is great, and my employer was one of the first ones to sign up. However, it’s still an app and very limited in what you can do with it.

I also love how Facebook’s answer to everything is “build an application.” I don’t know if they’re really lazy or empowering their users to have a greater say in the development of the social utility.

Some of their stats are amazing.

• 200,000 people join every day and the site doubles with active users every six months.
• People spend and average of 22 minutes a day on Facebook.
• By the end of 2007, 75% of active users will be out of college.
• 41% of active users are likely to vote for a candidate if they could learn more about he or she on Facebook.

Voters want a more personable candidate. Facebook helps. All of those odd factoids that people love knowing about candidates should be on profiles. Groups are also a great opportunity to build on those microcampaigns that target key populations (i.e. women). If groups become more integrated with the newsfeed, they could be a much more powerful tool. Before Facebook went global, they were useful for organizing and spreading news. Now they’re too big and are really only good for propaganda and making statements. Just including updates in the feeds might make them useful again.

More at TechPresident

As my friend Raee would explain, I’m geeking out over the new IPDI study, Poli-fluentials: The New Political Kingmakers.

Someone stated at the press conference that people are beginning to examine the nuances of Internet involvement in politics. Since I spend a lot of time contemplating the nuances of Internet involvement in politics, I’m psyched to read it.

IPDI, with the help of a several sponsors, surveyed 10,000 influentials and took a closer look at those who are highly involved in politics. I’m sure that I’ll write another post with details for TechRepublican, but I had to gush here first.

The exciting thing is that they have a giant, and I mean giant, dataset that they just started working with. Poli-fluentials is the first report. During the Q&A, they mentioned several more areas that they’re reporting about including the regions of the country that are more powerful. Are blue states really that more active on the web than red?

I would willingly hand over any of my future offspring to get my hands on that dataset.

Go ahead and mock me about being a nerd. I promise to go shopping this weekend and watch a chick flick to balance it out.

Tonight I made it to the DC premiere of Indoctrinate U at the Kennedy Center! It’s a really great documentary and much sharper than it’s predecessor, Brainwashing 101.

The level of entrenched liberal groupthink at our universities is staggering. It’s so shocking that we don’t even realize that something is wrong until we see this film. We should not be forced to suck it up and regurgigate a liberal professor’s personal views on Iraq for a test on British Lit. Before tonight, I just thought, “Oh well, that’s college. So what if the professor is a marxist lunatic who claims that Soviet Russia was a much better place to live than the US (true story).” If higher ed is a marketplace of ideas, liberal, left-wing, progressive or socialist ideas shouldn’t be the only ones sold.

What surprises me is that Maloney visited about twenty schools and not one university official would speak to him. He interviewed several professors, including one guy at the Massachusetts Institute of Art who said that the term “white” was inherently oppressive and would continue to oppress until no longer used. He interviewed several African-American professors who were ostracized for disagreeing with affirmative action. Another woman was literally told by her academic colleagues that she would have never been hired if the faculty knew she was a Republican.

I guess diversity of thought isn’t that important in higher ed.

Maloney makes it pretty clear that academia is so dominated by the left that they forget that there’s an alternative ideology. I encountered this in grad school. I spent 4.5 months examining the “ideological gap in online activism” and my professor couldn’t understand why I kept analyzing Republican activities. I’m not sure if she ever figured out that I was conservative.

The stories in Indoctrinate U were great. Compared to the Cal Poly situation, we had it easy at UT. Even if the Issue Committee members had attempted to shoot Sukhmani in the f—ing face, he probably would have pulled out one of his many handguns and protected himself. If anyone is ever prepared for a death threat, it’s him. Thankfully, we didn’t have to face a year-long court trial with our academic careers on the line. We only suffered intimidation and run-around from the administration.

The UT gang is in it, including yours truly. Thankfully, I only appear on screen for about a minute. It was unbelievably scary see a college version of GFTS reappear. I look so different now. However, I have to admit that it was damn cool to see your own name, and the names of your friends, appear in the credits.

I’m still surprised that I got a ticket. I really wanted the gang to come for a visit and see it with me. However, everyone is still wrapped up with school. I put off buying my ticket and was surprised to see it sold out this week. Apparently, it pays to be a blogger since I met the PR person for the Motion Picture Institute this week at Heritage’s Blogger Briefing. I gave her a call, and not only did they hook me up with a ticket, but I got into the after-party. I’ve been the poor PR person responsible for accomodating last minute guests, so I really appreciated it. At the party, I overheard “Hello Kitty” girl talking to a friend. I told her that she should have brought the stuffed animal to the screening. It would have been really funny. I also asked the PR team to hold a blogger screening with wi-fi since I would love to liveblog the documentary. There are too many funny or thought-provoking lines to remember.

It also struck me how tenuous my desired career in academia may be. If an established professor in psychology was nearly fired for her political affliiation that she kept secret, will I even get into a doctoral program? I want my PhD in political communication for heaven’s sake. How many conservatives have that degree? A simple Google search of my name reveals a paper trail leading to the extreme right. I’m proud of my background and hope to continue in the conservative movement, but I may have some challenges thrown at me in the near future.

If you want to see the film, go to Indoctrinate U and request a screening. Cities with more than 500 requests will get one. DVDs will also be for sale soon. I know that I plan to buy one.

UPDATE: Verizon has reversed their decision and will allow NARAL to carry out their campaign.

Thanks to NARAL, we now know that texting isn’t considered free speech. While I’m not sad to see a pro-choice group take a few knocks, this has repercussions for everyone.

The US is far behind Europe with our cell phone technology, so SMS or texting has yet to make the impact that it has across the pond. As more political parties and advocacy groups use newer communication technologies to carry controversial messages, we’re reminded how much our laws need to catch up with technology.

The Times article points out that texting falls under the Net Neutrality debate that was highlighted here a few weeks ago with the conservative argument for and against it. Yet this Verizon decision takes the issue from a blogosphere debate to a real problem that campaigns face. What happens when you create a great texting plan and one of the largest US carriers refuses to accept it?

Do Republicans support First Amendment protection expanding to all technologies or do they fight government intrusion and hope that competition counters these types of policies?

Cross posted at TechRepublican