Blog for Personal Democracy Forum - Sponsored by Google

The FAQs on Personal Democracy Forum

--When did we PdF get started and why?
Andrew Rasiej, former chair of the Howard Dean internet advisory council, launched PdF in early 2004 because it was already clear that the internet was going to revolutionize politics, most politicians had no clue, and people in the emerging and colliding worlds of new technology and new politics needed a forum where they could connect and network. He was soon joined by writer and editor Micah Sifry. Together they launched PersonalDemocracy.com as a daily blog where the conversations spawned at the first conference, held in May in NYC, could continue.

--Who is at the core of the PdF community?
We are a bridge between two important worlds: people who are making great new technology and people who shape political action. In both, there are a growing number who are figuring out the other side’s interests and needs: techies who want to “hack politics” and political hacks who realize that mastery of the internet will give them the upper hand. Plus there are the people in the middle of that Venn diagram: political bloggers, social network organizers, e-campaign directors, and online political operatives.

--How do you relate to the political world?
The political world is taking two approaches to the internet. One school wants to master it in order to, in essence, better game the existing system to maintain their top-down advantage. The other school sees an opportunity to change the game and open up the process to more participation, more transparency, and hopefully more accountability. At PdF, our heads understand that the former school isn’t going away anytime soon, but our hearts are with the latter because we know the internet is a game changer.

--Why is this year’s conference theme “The Flattening of Politics”?
We believe that as more and more people start using the new tools of communication and collaboration to express their opinions and amplify their concerns, the gap between the top and the bottom of all kinds of political entities—campaigns, governments, media operations, activist groups—is shrinking. The issue in this changing environment—where an amateur videographer with a little skill and a compelling message can reach millions via YouTube, or a volunteer organizer can build a support community for a candidate consisting of hundreds of thousands of people using MySpace or Facebook—is how do old and new candidates, campaigns and causes adapt? Who gets it? How can you more effectively move a message, raise money, or garner votes? And what are the trends and sites and tools of the future that people are launching and developing now?

--Where do we go from here?
We’d like to see the issue of technology’s role in America’s future injected squarely into the current political debate, as the country gears up to elect a new President and Congress. Who will be the first TechPresident? At this year’s conference we’re issuing a call to the presidential candidates to embrace the internet as a “public good” and accelerate universal access to affordable high-speed connectivity throughout the U.S. within five years.