Common knowledge—at least among web geek types—dictates that Republicans are behind on the internet. Or, more woefully, that Republicans are too old, too “hierarchical”, and/or too something to ever possibly understand the technology that is revolutionizing everything.

RightOnline has already greatly dispelled that perception.

I’ve been to three sessions so far: the opening discussion, David and Sendhil discussing Slatecard, and now Joe explaining how conservative organizations can use social networking. The audience is primarily political activists—a Texas-centric crowd (after all, we are in Austin)—and most are not familiar with the latest web 2.0 goodies. The Q+A section of the opening session included several minutes’ explanation of Twitter, a micro-blogging site that’s old news in the tech community.

But that doesn’t really matter. Even though people are not familiar with specific types of web technology, they know that the internet matters and they know that’s the new medium they need to master.

The power of this conference is that the panelists—at least the ones I’ve seen so far—have done an impressive job of making this intuitive in a way that builds on what has come before.

David Almacy in the opening panel (Welcome to Web 2.0): The internet allows people to disseminate information. He showed the group the White House Twitter account. It’s not associated with the government; it’s a private citizen utilizing White House RSS feeds. Web 1.0 put information up for public viewing. Web 2.0 has enabled people to compile, analyze, and mash up data from sources across the world.

David in his session (360 Integration): The internet has made the world “hyper-connected” and the most important thing to remember is that people will only “pay attention to you on their terms.” The same rules of classical political communication apply (clarify your message, your niche, and your audience), but you’re pushing it out through a different medium.

Joe in his session (Social Networking): Make sure the message is appropriate <i>to</i> the medium. It’s better to keep it short and engaging, especially when you’re using social networking sites. The bottom line: less is more. After all, we live in a world where people are required to know at least a bit about a lot of topics.

Republicans are not caught up yet. But we’re getting there and the progress is encouraging.