Why do I mention it? Well neither of my brilliant proposals for sessions at South by Southwest Interactive 2007 were accepted, but I really, really want to go. It’s a lot easier to ask my organization to foot the travel bill if I can get a free registration and a little good publicity for our many good ideas.
Also, I want to bring my husband who is even less likely to get his employer to pay for it. If I am already covered, I can better help pay for his registration. We already have a free place to stay with my grandmother who lives in Austin.
So if you are putting together a panel for next year, please consider what a fun and informative speaker I can be. People said I was the highlight of my SXSW panel last year in spite of being the least famous person on it.
Here are the two panels I proposed, but I can talk – at length – about just about anything. (Just ask my husband. 😉 )
- If All Politics is Local, Why Are you Still Reading DailyKOS?
In the small ponds of city and county politics, bloggers can be very big fish. Just like the much-celebrated national bloggers that aim to set the tone in Washington, local blogs are increasingly influential. Like their national counterparts, local blogs also have the eyes of the media, elected officials, and even voters. Local political blogging can arguably be more powerful than national blogs – join us to discuss the potential and the reality.
- Advocacy 2.0: Movement-building in the Age of Connectivity
The technology shifting our culture is also changing the context for political and issue organizing. Nonprofits and community groups have been getting on the cluetrain. New organizing strategies leverage today’s tools to empower and connect activists and volunteers to each other and action. Call it user-oriented, bottom-up, network-centric, or web 2.0. Campaigns must encourage their supporters to express their voices or they’ll take their time, opinions and dollars elsewhere.
Other things I would kick ass talking about include:
- Second Life, especially advocacy and social change work therein
- Nonprofits, how they do and don’t use technology, what they need, and what they want
- Social networks, mapping and analysis, tools, use in community organizing
- Blogging and community, both virtual and not, blogger outreach
- Local advocacy, municipal and county politics, city planning, growth management, local candidates and campaigns
