Saturday's first TechRepublican Google Digital Bootcamp at #CPAC10 is a signal that right-of-center activists are charging ahead online.

We were able to compile this feature video for those who didn't make it. Apologies to Erick Erickson, our keynote speaker, who is not included in this video, but we were able to capture tons of great pictures of his motivating speech below.

TechRepublican is particularly honored that Google joined forces with our team to help power this event that hosted well over 100 #CPAC10 attendees. Without Google, this event would not have been possible. At the event, Peter Greenberger at Google, offered a very detailed presentation and an insider's look at the importance of investing in an online presence in the 2010 cycle and beyond.

Peter noted that the 2009 McDonnell campaign in Virginia "shattered the norm" by investing 7.5% of its advertising budget, online -- a feat only topped by Scott Brown's team in Massachusetts who spent a whopping 10% on online ads.

Google's Greenberger charged charged every campaign and organization to commit to spending 10 in 2010. He says smart campaigns will understand that the Internet is where most people can be reached, and where you can reach them in a more targeted and direct way.

Our event didn't stop there.

Over the course of two hours, a standing room only crowd heard from 8 experts on everything from social media integration, online advertising, and raising the bar when it comes to best practices on the Internet. Speakers included: Rory Cooper (Heritage Foundation), Todd Herman (RNC), Peter Greenberger (Google), Saul Anuzis (Coast to Coast Strategies), David All (David All Group), Jeff Vreeland (VM Technologies), and Wesley Donehue (JUMP! New Media).

Rory Cooper of the Heritage Foundation emphasized the importance of 360 degree social media integration and the importance of incorporating online strategy into everything that an organization or campaign does.

"In everything we do, we think of the online component."

He also noted the importance of rapid response during a time when information is available immediately to voters online, on Google.

Rory, with the help of the David All Group, was able to integrate social media tools by incorporating Act.iv.ist into its latest site, NoEnergyTax.com. With the help of Act.iv.ist, thousands of supporters were able to share the liberty and pro-freedom message with their friends and peers, and get rewarded for their efforts. Currently, the Heritage Foundation engages over 124,000 Facebook fans - an unprecendented achievement due largely to their smart online involvement.

Jeff Vreeland of VM Technologies and Wesley Donehue also shared two new technologies with the group.  Vreeland launched a new tool called Roots of Liberty at CPAC, a social mobilization tool for conservative activists. Donehue talked about his phone from home tool, Voter Fetch, which allows non-traditional volunteers to contribute to a campaign from their very own homes, on the go.  Wesley emphasized that, "the Internet is not a strategy, it's a tool and a tactic."

Todd Herman, of the RNC, turned the focus on YOU by stating:

"We are in a state of message co-creation. Thanks to YOU and the user, we are much better off [as a party]"

And here's a closing thought from David All...

"The primary goal is to make a difference for the issues or the cause that you care about."

The Internet empowers people to make that difference and techRepublican is happy to have shared that message with over 100 activists at #CPAC10.

To wrap up the event, Erick Erickson, founder of RedState.com, gave a keynote speech on the state of the conservative movement online and where he thinks we're headed.

Thanks again to Google and to everyone who helped make our first event a success. We look forward to hosting more of these discussions in the future.

See you at #CPAC11.

Exciting news.

Today, Google jumped on board to sponsor our first TechRepublican Digital Bootcamp at CPAC. We're also pleased to announce that key Google staff members will be there to talk about how Google can help campaigns and causes get ahead online.

RSVP for this event today to hear from Google and our keynote speaker, Erick Erickson, founder of Red State.

Saturday, February 20th

10:00am-12:00noon

Wilson Room - Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

Here's the drill on the day's events:

The Right’s Digital Grassroots: Best Practices.

Rory Cooper, Heritage Foundation

Todd Herman, Republican National Committee

Peter Greenberger, Google

Grassroots Technology Spotlight: The year’s most innovative political technologies.

David All, David All Group - Act.iv.ist

Jeff Vreeland, Techrepublican - Roots of Liberty

Wesley Donehue, Techrepublican - Voter Fetch

And don't miss our keynote speaker - Erick Erickson, Red State Founder, who will talk about how grassroots activists can uproot the establishment and rise up for online candidates and causes.

Please note that this event is free and open to registered CPAC attendees only.

See you there!

I'm excited to announce that TechRepublican and the David All Group are hosting the 1st annual TechRepublican Digital Bootcamp at CPAC -

Saturday, February 20th from 10am - 12noon in the Wilson Room at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The event is free to registered CPAC attendees -

The Bootcamp will consist of two tactical panels, discussion sessions, and a keynote speech from Red State founder, Erick Erickson.

I've gathered together what we think are the best of the best when it comes to 2009 online campaigns and several of our very own TechRepublican contributors.

Here's a look at the program and we hope to see you there.

The Right's Digital Grassroots: Best Practices.

• Rory Cooper, Heritage Foundation
• Todd Herman, Republican National Committee
• David All, David All Group

Grassroots Technology Spotlight: The year's most innovative political technologies.

• Ethan Eilon, David All Group - Act.iv.ist
• Jeff Vreeland, Techrepublican Contributor - Roots of Liberty
• Wesley Donehue, Techrepublican Contributor - Voter Fetch

Keynote: How grassroots activists can uproot the establishment and rise up online candidates and causes.

• Erick Erickson, Red State Founder 

Stay tuned for updates.

Ohio House Leaders Plan to Delete all Tweeting

House Speaker Armond Budish said he would move to strengthen rules preventing members from communicating with lobbyists or sending "Tweets" electronically while on the House floor.

Responding to a Dispatch story yesterday about how some members posted commentary on their Twitter pages during Tuesday's State of the State speech by Gov. Ted Strickland, Budish said he would put a stop to such activity, although he didn't go into detail on how.

'Wired' Conservatives Get Their Message Out

In November, the morning after Election Day, a conservative blogger in Georgia blasted an e-mail to 65,000 people.

Erick Erickson's 5 a.m. "Morning Briefing" seemed counterintuitive -- the election of a Democrat to a U.S. House seat in Upstate New York held by Republicans for more than a century, he wrote, was "a huge win for conservatives."

Yet the missive immediately was posted online by the conservative publication Human Events, a corporate sibling of Erickson's blog, RedState. It next reached the Web site of the American Spectator magazine, whose publisher, Alfred S. Regnery, sits on the board of the conservative publishing house that owns RedState and Human Events.

The Other Scott Brown Campaign 'Bomb'

While much attention has been paid to the successful moneybomb for Senator Scott Brown (which generated over 1.3 million dollars in 24 hours), there was another online initiative that we considered more innovative and worthy of discussion. We're referencing the initiative hosted at http://thevoterbomb.com

And the 2010 Reed Award Winners are in -- here's a look at conservatives that won:

Best Use of Social Networking Technology:

David All Group - act.iv.ist

Best National Public Affairs Advocacy Website:

Connell Donatelli, Inc. and Campaign Solutions - Patients First - a project of Americans for Prosperity

Best Use of New Technology:

The Prosper Group - Republican Party of VA: Voter ID

Best Use of Twitter:

ProjectVirginia, Inc. - Giving Candidates “The Bird”

Product of the Year:

David All Group - act.ivi.st

Congrats to the winners - Keep up the good work.

The Fighting Four

Erick Erickson is right.

Let’s be honest. One of the reasons the left is so head over heels in love with the online left   is because of the moonbat ability to turn on the cash. [...] [I]f we want to be taken seriously, we need to step up to the plate.

As he says, "the establishment of the Republican Party will keep ignoring us" until the online Right has a tangible impact on the measurable metrics of politics: messaging, mobilization and money.

Friction

Stamps (remember those?) make direct mail work. Because it costs money to send a piece of junk mail, you'll think two or three times before you mail something to a million people.

Email, of course, is free.

Except it's not. The friction that slows down sending email to everyone all the time is the cost of all the people you'll lose. 

@Bivings is Hiring

We are hiring a project manager in our Client Services division to help us manage the web programs of some of our clients.  We’re looking for someone who has a passion for the web and social media, knowledge of Drupal/Wordpress and two years of relevant job experience.  You can apply via our job listing on Craigslist.

Brazen Careerist on Getting Starting With a Blog

It seems like everywhere you go these days, whether on the web or in your local grocer, you hear about blogs. It is true that there are many of them out there, about 112.8 million according to Technorati and more starting up every day. So what is the deal with blogging anyway, and how do you go about starting one?

First of all, do not reinvent the wheel. There are so many resources out there that beginning a blog as become as easy as typing the word blog into a Google search. When you do that you are immediately overwhelmed by the massive number of responses. So to make things easier, let’s take a step back.

One of the better speeches at the RightOnline Summit in Austin, Texas was given by Erick Erickson, the editor of the freshly designed and re-launched Redstate.com. (Looks good Erick.)

The thrust of Erick's speech (download as PDF) was simple: Stop being pundits and start being (online) activists. Let's dig in.

Erickson opened his remarks with the classic red meat which has helped brand Redstate as one of the top conservative outposts in the blogosphere:

There are people in this world who are morally and ideologically opposed to us. We call them the left. They are a group of people who want you to surrender your hard earned money so they can give it to someone else who did not earn it and probably would not need it, but for the their insistence on government dependence.

Their rhetoric is “hope and change.” You know, hope and change are always buzzwords in the revolution against freedom. The only change theyʼll offer is more government. The only choice theyʼll offer you is whether or not to abort your kids. The policies of the last eight years will be replaced by the failed policies of the last 100 years.

And like a modern general addressing his modern army in what Erick terms the "Freedom Revolution," he was precise and direct in how the activists in the room could make an immediate diference:

So you have a choice: get involved or not.

Go to RedState or one of the other sites out there. Start reading. Develop a feel for the community. Then start writing. Give us your thoughts on your local sheriff. Whatʼs he doing. Give us your thoughts on your state representative. Become the person others rely on for information.

Find what interests you. Start blogging about it. Cover the issue. Learn to do an open records act request or learn to read campaign disclosures or learn to do both. Know who you are up against. Be the person who raises the red flags. At least join the conversation. You cannot sit on the sidelines and expect victory.

You donʼt have to be the commander. You donʼt have to do it full time. Just be willing to lend a hand. Just be willing to stay informed. Just be willing to help others stay informed.

Simple, sound, easy, and helpful advice.

In a conclusion to his speech which caused an eruption of enthusiasm and clapping from the grand ballroom, Erick said: "Weʼve beaten [the left] before. We can do it again. And this time, we can do it online, where they think they are strongest."

The troops are ready to go and the generals are willing to lead. We will beat the left online. It is just a matter of time.

Revolution.

Erick Erickson of Redstate has a post up on the front-page which offers a glimpse at the next Redstate.com (version 3.0) which is said to launch in February.

Perhaps most interesting to the readers of this space, Erick is shifting the platform away from Drupal, an open-source platform, to a customized, proprietary solution. UPDATE: Erick tells me that it will be a custom CMS built in Django.

Excerpt:

In February, we will be launching RedState v.3.0 – a complete website overhaul that, instead of relying on third-party providers like Scoop or Drupal, will this time be our own specially-created platform designed to give us all the capabilities, power and independence to serve you, our readers with everything you want and deserve.

Here are just a few of the features that we'll be adding to our website – or bringing back by popular demand:

★ improved tools for state and local blogging
★ online activism channels
★ enhanced social networking
★ a conservative job/volunteer board
★ special tools for easier posting
★ tools for tracking new comments and total comments
★ user access to comments
★ ability to track recent activity on the site

Ah yeah... "Improved tools for state and local blogging..." and just in time for the 2008 election cycle. I likey.

So how are they going to pay for the additional software?

Erick asks the community to help pitch in $25,000 for the re-launch and looking at the comments, it looks like the community is doing just that.

Campaigns & Elections Magazine has a new look-and-feel for 2008. From a note from William Beaman (editor-in-chief) and Jordan Lieberman (publisher):

Campaigns & Elections has unveiled a redesigned and revamped version of the flagship publication and will now be known as Campaigns & Elections’ Politics magazine.

The redesigned magazine will retain the features that have led to its unprecedented growth in recent years, but will also add new original content, larger trim size and upgraded cover stock.

To help encourage new subscriptions (or renewals), they've reduced the subscription rate to $25 so make sure you get your subscription today.

The re-design looks and feels great. Congrats.

But at least one story in their latest issue is sure to cause sales to decline. You see, included in their latest issue is a profile piece on Robert Bluey, Erick Erickson, Patrick Ruffini, and me.

Read on after the jump for a chuckle.

Bear with me, this might cut a little close to the bone.

When I first came to Washington, DC, I roomed with a former top communicator at The White House who had just finished up a major position overseas. He was 31 and I was 23.

After talking with me about what I hoped to accomplish he gave me some free advice which I'll paraphrase, "Before you came to Washington, 50 percent of the people in this city hated you simply because you were a Republican. Of the remaining 50 percent, 25 percent of the people you will come to know will hate you because of something you'll say, do, or become. The other 25 percent is on your side. Understand that basic premise and you'll do just fine."

I've always thought of that advice as I've made my journey as an aggressive communicator in the House, Senate, and on the campaign trail. I've recently found his advice to ring true in the blogosphere and in the daily struggle of running a small business. In other words, that piece of advice seems to provide comfort in just about every facet of political life - where competition meets you at every corner.

These past few days have been reminders of that reality.

Two individuals who I have considered friends and colleagues whether they have or not, Erick Erickson and Michael Turk, have posted public mantras on why, essentially, "David All" is an over-zealous self-promoter with only one goal in mind: his own.

They rhetorically kick over just about every sand castle I've built over the past year. And they question my allegiance to the Republican Party. Another Redstate contributor has said as much via email and I'm sure others will surface publicly or privately.

More after the jump...