Last night just after Midnight, we flipped the switches and dropped the firewall opening up Slatecard. Slatecard is a utility to support and enhance Republican activism.

The goal of Slatecard was always to be much more than just a top-down, ‘online shopping cart’ which would likely only be used the last few months of a campaign.

Instead, the Slatecard utility embraces effective Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative principles to provide a robust directory of candidate information which will not only be used by a financial donor, but by anyone looking for more information about a candidate’s online activity.

Slatecard will help bridge the chasm between modern online activists and Republican candidates by not only encouraging candidates to be more active online, but also increase support by placing a premium on the issues which cause supporters to give to a candidate.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has more details on some of the innovative tools on Slatecard.

Slatecard was co-founded by Sendhil Panchadsaram and I earlier this year. I serve as the Executive Director and Sendhil is the Chief Developer/Chief Information Officer for Slatecard. Joe Mansour serves as a Special Projects Coordinator for Slatecard.

If you want to read a bit about the genesis of Slatecard and the process, read our first blog post, "It was time for Slatecard."

Slatecard is guided by a Board of Directors who play a critical role in determining how the non-earmarked funds of the site should be spent and offer suggestions to help improve the utility for candidates, committees, bloggers, and activists.

Members of our Board of Directors include:

* Saul Anuzis is the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and a well-recognized proponent of using technology to strengthen the Republican Party.
* John Hawkins runs Right Wing News and Conservative Grapevine, and writes a weekly column for Townhall.com. Hawkins also founded and led the Rightroots group, a grassroots effort that collected almost $300,000 for Republican candidates in the last three months of the 2006 election cycle. John's blogged about Slatecard here.
* John Hinderaker is one of the most well-respected conservative bloggers who blogs at Power Line Blog, and is a lawyer with a nationwide litigation practice.
* Steve Urquhart is a State Representative in Utah and is the founder of Politicopia.com, a groundbreaking blend of politics + Web 2.0 which aims to politically empower individuals, encourage better dialogue, and produce better legislative solutions.
* Todd Zeigler is a senior vice president at The Bivings Group whose clients include Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc., the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee. He blogs about the smart application of open-source technology and Web 2.0 at The Bivings Report.

If you want to know more, you can read our about page and our frequently answered questions.

There’s a people-powered movement energizing the Slatecard Revolution and we’re proud to be a part of it.

UPDATE 10:28 AM: Adam C of RedState has this to say about Slatecard:

Slatecard.com is now live. It is a Republican answer to ActBlue, which allows individuals to select from a full list of all Rs running for national office. You can then title your slate and get a direct link to it. This allows you to pick your favorite challengers and incumbents and solicit small donations for all of them. It empowers the individual rather than a top-down list selected by the site itself as RightRoots did last year (with 20 site selected candidates).

For example, I have created a "Close Senate Race" slate here. If you would like to donate to the close senate races, that link provides you a quick opportunity to do so. I will be changing my signature to direct people there.

I encourages RSers to create their own slates based on whatever issues are most important to them. Then use RS, other blogs, and social networking sites to direct your friends and fellow politicos to your slate of candidates. This is a big step for the online GOP. Congrats to Slatecard for making it happen.