How Republicans and Democrats Can Work Together Online to Create Government Transparency

The panel How Republicans and Democrats Can Work Together Online to Create Government Transparency will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, April 20th, in the Ballroom.

Description
New communication technologies are recreating democracy and the Web is the enabler. Citizens can use the Web free government information from unwieldy sites, to lobby for more data online, to scrutinize government information and to ask hard questions. If this effort is coordinated across the political spectrum, activists can unite and use legislative data to make Congress more accountable. This panel will showcase how to leverage government data and coalesce parties irrespective of their ideological or partisan affiliation in order to achieve policy victories.

Speakers

 * Gabriela Schneider (Moderator) - Gabriela Schneider is the Communications Director of the Sunlight Foundation. Prior to joining the Sunlight Foundation, she was the Media Relations Manager for the Council on Foundations, where she secured media coverage for the philanthropic sector. Previously, Gabriela organized grass roots campaigns for the Public Policy Office of the American Psychological Association and worked to protect children's online privacy as Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for Media Education. She earned her Masters of Arts in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and her Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Lehigh University.


 * Clay Johnson - Clay is Director of Sunlight Labs. Prior joining Sunlight, Clay was one of the four founders of Blue State Digital, the progressive left's premier technology and online strategy firm. This firm, which was born out of the Howard Dean campaign, was also responsible for Barack Obama's Web presence. At Blue State Digital, Clay was responsible for developing the organization's brand and building its initial client roster. He also had a hand at building some of the company's early technical tools. Before joining Blue State, Johnson was the lead programmer for Dean for America in 2004, overseeing the development of grassroots tools like GetLocal, DeanLink and Project Commons. Prior to entering politics, Johnson was a technologist at Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) where he helped to develop the company's Web syndication product. He also started the first Internet Knowledge Exchange, KnowPost.com, and worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at a Venture Capital firm, but still claims that he learned the most from his first job -- as a waiter at Waffle House in Atlanta, Georgia.


 * David Waldman - Daily Kos Contributing Editor David Waldman (Kagro X) is the project lead at Congress Matters. A Contributing Editor at Daily Kos since November 2006, Waldman has been a participant in online communities since the early 80s. A non-practicing attorney, a former Capitol Hill aide and Hotline staff writer (back when Chuck Todd was an intern), he developed a particular interest in lending to the discussion the procedural knowledge he gained from C-SPAN immersion therapy during his days on the Hill, and as a result holds the world record for Longest Online Series on Parliamentary Maneuvers that Didn't Happen, namely, the Senate's "nuclear option." When Democrats retook control of the Congress in the 2006 elections, Waldman came on board at Daily Kos to help follow the Congressional action from the majority side of the aisle. As the community's interest in legislative matters grew, so did the need for in-depth discussion of what was happening on the Hill, which led to the development of the Congress Matters project. Born in 1968 and raised in New Jersey, Waldman is married to a moderate Democrat who actually helped launch FOX News, and worked for the parent company of Eagle/Regnery Publishing. He lives with his family of four in Virginia.


 * Soren Dayton - Soren Dayton works at New Media Strategies in the Public Affairs department. He joined NMS management from John McCain's presidential campaign. He has combined blogging at Redstate.com and other sites with online and offline political activism with the Young Republicans, College Republicans, and other organizations. One of Soren's blogs was been described by DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas as his “new favorite Republican blog,” while Valleywag.com has described him as a “social media propagandist.” In addition to his new media activities, Soren has worked as a political and strategy consultant to a variety of domestic and international clients. He has also worked on Capitol Hill and for a software company that he helped start. Soren graduated with a BA in Anthropology and Math from the University of Chicago. Soren also serves as the Chairman of the Mission Board at Calvary Baptist Church. A bunch of issues drive Soren to his political beliefs, but he seems to be most interested in spreading the benefits of globalization - and alleviating its downsides - as widely as possible. This gives us our best chance at improving the quality of life of people throughout the world.

From Gabriela

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From Clay

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From David

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From Soren

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General/from discussion

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