Internet Advocacy Roundtable - Crowdsourcing Message and Policy Development
CHANGE OF LOCATION!!! Please make note, this event will take place at 1225 I (Eye) St. NW, 3rd Floor.
In 2006, with less money and less name recognition than his opponent for Senate, incumbent Orrin Hatch, Pete Ashdown took an innovative approach to his campaign website. Harking back to a tradition of elected representatives being delegates of their constitutents will (rather than trustees), Ashdown included a wiki on his website where voters could edit and develop his campaign platform. This collaborative process, made easy by the web, foreshadowed a growing practice of letting large groups of citizens to collaborate on developing political messages and policy platforms.
But why should we let the crowd do this? According to James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, large groups of people are simply smarter than small groups and individuals, on average. For example, Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, in The Spiral of Silence, shows that long before asking people in surveys "who they will vote for" can effectively predict an upcoming election, asking them "who they think will win" will get the prediction right.
Join us on Thursday, October 16, 2008, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm for the Internet Advocacy Roundtable as we discuss crowdsourcing message and policy platforms with a panel of speakers who have managed crowdsourcing programs and developed new software to make these programs more effective.
Speakers
Brian Young, Internet Director, John Kerry for Senate
Michael Yaki, Partner, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP
David Stern, Founder, MixedInk
Bios
Brian Young currently serves as John Kerry's Internet Director, directing all new media activities for Senator Kerry's reelection committee and leadership PAC, including coordinating the 3-million contact John Kerry email list. Before moving into politics, he spent years as a filmmaker and television producer, producing and directing documentaries, commercials, and multimedia projects, including launching an early distributed-production video website. Moved to activism by the Florida recount and the Iraq War, he transitioned into politics during the early days of the Howard Dean campaign, using his multimedia and Internet skills for that campaign's Internet effort, and has also done more traditional media and campaign work, including acting as general consultant for a US Congressional candidate. Of particular focus during the 2008 election cycle has been working against Internet smears through the innovative TruthFightsBack.com.
Michael Yaki, a partner in the law firm of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmo LLP, served as National Platform Director for the Democratic National Committee and the Obama Presidential Campaign. He led the campaign’s Listening to America process, through which thousands of Obama supporters contributed language and ideas to the Democratic Party platform. Mr. Yaki has also served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights since 2005. He is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and past District Director in Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office. While a supervisor, Mr. Yaki chaired the board's Committee on Economic Development, Transportation and Telecommunications. He was a lecturer in Political Science/Urban Studies at San Francisco State University and earlier in his career clerked for a California Court of Appeals judge.
Among other awards, Mr. Yaki received the Community Service Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and Legislator of the Year from the FDR Club for Persons with Disabilities. He is also a frequent contributor to newspapers such as the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Yaki graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School.
David Stern is a co-founder of MixedInk, a startup that has created an online collaborative writing tool that allows large groups to weave their ideas together democratically to express a collective viewpoint. Recently, in MixedInk’s first public application, a group of online progressives developed a political platform using the site, attracting the attention of the national media. Previously, as an economic development consultant, Mr. Stern worked to help local governments, small & medium enterprises, and other connected institutions use collaborative strategies to promote local growth. This focus on stimulating collective action, combined with a long held belief in new media’s potential to foster more direct democracy, inspired his work on MixedInk. Earlier, he was a researcher at the Urban Institute’s Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy. Mr. Stern received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Address Center for American Progress Action Fund1333 H Street, NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Directions
One block from the McPherson Square Metro station (Orange/Blue lines). Exit on 14th Street, NW side. Walk one block south to H Street, NW. Turn left onto H Street, NW. Enter on left side of street, just after the Cosi. Two blocks from the Metro Center Metro Station (Red/Orange/Blue lines). Exit on 13th Street, NW side. Walk north on 13th Street to H Street. Turn left on H St. (keep New York Avenue Church to your left). Entrance is next building after Cafe Mozart.