Tech + Politics: Crush or Long-Term Relationship?

June 20, 2008 — -- For decades, political campaigns have played out in town hall meetings, baby-kissing lineups and sweaty, but firm, handshakes. Until now.

Ever since YouTube immortalized Howard Dean's howl and George Allen's "macaca"-gate, technology has shown befuddled politicians who's boss.

On Monday, for the fifth year in a row, Silicon Valley celebs will meet with the demigods of D.C. — and the activists who love them (or love to hate them) — at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, a meeting that has become emblematic of politics' recent past and its inevitable future.

The forum's wonkish-sounding name belies its cutting-edge mission, in the words of its founder Andrew Rasiej, "to reinvent democracy for the 21st century."

"I knew what technology was doing to our society, whether in the entertainment industry [or elsewhere]. The same impact was going to be felt in politics," said Rasiej of how his idea was born in 2004. "And I thought that the best way to advance [technology's] potential, to make democracy stronger, was to create a conference that would bring both Democrats and Republicans together to talk about how to use this amazing tool."

Rasiej, who co-founded TechPresident.com, a blog with voices from both sides of the aisle, views the forum as a way to unite "technologists" and their tools with the activists and nonprofits that want to use them. Spanning topics from how technology has changed the way media covers politics to getting out the vote online, this year's forum has brought in everyone from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Google's Vint Cerf to political strategist Joe Trippi and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington. Even Elizabeth Edwards will talk to the blogging masses about about the "failure of mainstream media [to cover] the political cycle," Rasiej said.

"In 2004, we just got started. People didn't understand what personal democracy meant," Rasiej said. "By 2008, with the pervasiveness of the Web with platforms like Facebook and MySpace and YouTube, it's obvious that you can be involved in political life in a meaningful way by using the Internet to inform yourself, to share your opinion and more importantly, to organize with others to change results."