Blogging the Democratic National Convention This Week

Thanks to the MOMocrats for initiating this great project... I'm going to Denver today, covering the Democratic National Convention for several online publications (mostly blogs) including:

Sairy
BlogHer
MOMocrats
Obama HQ Blog
WomenCount Blog
FutureCampaigns Blog
Silicon Valley Moms Blog
Huffington Post - Off the Bus
The Political Voices of Women

I'll be spending time pretty much everywhere - at the convention itself, in the Big Tent, at the Unconventional Women event, the EMILY's List events, Youth delegation events, California events, New Democrats Network events, getting together with Emerge alumni, meeting people and of course partying. I'm particularly looking forward to the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash which looks to be a great way to kick back, and the Big Tent will be hopping I'm sure.

Follow the action via Twitter - sairy - and momocrats!

Please Pretty Please Vote for My Proposed SXSW Panel!

I have proposed the following panel for the South by Southwest Interactive conference in March...

Title:
Whitehouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government

Summary:
The 2004 and 2008 campaigns' use of collaborative tools, blogs and social networking have shown citizen activism and online communities can wield powerful influence. In 2009, our challenge becomes how to harness these tools in order to reopen the policy-making process. Panel presentation followed by brainstorming session.

If you like the idea, please VOTE for it by Friday!

I really hope we can take the brainstorming session and turn it into a report to submit to the next presidential administration.

Please see also TechMama's recommendations for panels, including Joanne's on building political influence online and Beth's on moms using tech, where hopefully I'll have a chance to participate as well.

New Bi-Partisan Commission on U.S. Policy Toward Russia

I'm happy to learn that Senator Hart will be co-chairing a new commission, announced this week, on U.S. policy toward Russia, along with Senator Hagel. The commission will produce a report for the next U.S. presidential administration. I look forward to reading it.

Reports of Terrorists Recruiting Online

American news may be focused primarily on the election and the Olympics these days, but it's important to realize that terrorists are still out there, and there are growing reports that they are heavily recruiting, including online via web sites and video tools like YouTube.

I'm not trying to scare people here - just remind that this is just a real threat. The fact that 9/11 was seven years ago doesn't mean we're safer since there hasn't been an attack; it means we're more likely to have another one soon since these organizations take their time planning.