For the next two days I'll be at IPDI's Politics Online Conference, in downtown Washington, DC.
I'm looking forward to listening to some excellent speakers and breakout sessions through out the next few days and I'll try and blog about conference highlights as much possible here on techRepublican.
Right now, I'm sitting in the main ballroom listening to a panel discussion on "Pervasive Politics: How Ubiquitous Technology Will Change Politics & Government" moderated by IPDI director Julie Germany.
Adam Greenfield, who describes himself as a "futurist" (what a great job title) gave his pick for the top five technologies (although he only listed four) on the horizon that will shape our everyday lives over the next five years.
1. RFID - Radio-frequency identification
Transforms the way we interact with digital technology, from something we're highly aware of, to something that happens in the background.
2. IPv6
The address space is much longer allowing for almost unlimited internet addresses. Every single object in the world can have it's own web address. This is particularly powerful when combined with RFID because it allows every object in the world to have a location on the internet - from a rivet on a truck to a package at a store.
3. UWB - Ultra wide-band networking
4. WiMAX
Tech standards that replace wi-fi.
On the same panel, Jonathan Taplin while discussing how established entities have tried to put their heads in the sand and ignore the online revolution said,
Mark Penn has tried to ignore power of the internet.
The quip received light applause.
Stay tuned for more.
UPDATE: 4:45PM
I'm sitting in on David's panel on the Long Tail of Politics. David's brought together a killer panel, including: Zack Exley — Co-Founder and President, New Organizing Institute; Matt Salisbury – Republican Candidate for Congress (Idaho-1); Clay Johnson — Founder, Blue State Digital, and Andrew Rasiej - founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. Cyrus Krohn was supposed to be on the panel, but couldn't make it due to a family emergency. But Andrew stepped up and took his place.
Some quips that stood out to me.
Zack:
It's not the cool tools. People are inspired by the message, not by the tools. No one signed up for Barack Obama's email list because his website was cool.
Matt:
For me the Long Tail of politics is that I'm a virus that I'm uploading into the conservative message machine. I can reach Idahoans and conservatives across the country on a limited budget and they can donate a dollar to my campaign.
Andrew:
Our notion of success is getting elected, but it's really a marketplace of ideas.
They may not have won, but they got their ideas out into the marketplace.
