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The Value of Unplanned Collaboration

Submitted by Matt Lira on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 23:57
in

Today, the Republican National Committee held a “Tech Summit” to discuss how our party can best modernize its operations – anybody with a passion for technology and politics was welcome to attend. Let there be no doubt, the RNC Tech Summit was something special.

The atmosphere was rich with that almost mystic combination of creativity, technical skill, and a passion for new ideas. Looking around, one could see political veterans and rookies alike – individuals with different specialties, experiences and perspectives collaborating on a shared challenge. How can we best move our party forward?

The greatest innovations are the result of unplanned collaborations and today was no exception – the long-term legacy of today’s event will be those associations fostered within the crowd. Side conversations. Chance meetings. In the months and years ahead, we will see countless projects that trace their origins to conversations in that room.

This is the generational opportunity for the Republican Party – the tools may change, but the challenge remains the same as it has always been. We must utilize technology to genuinely include the American People in the political process in new and profoundly meaningful ways.

As we explore that great opportunity, the verdict on today’s event is clear; without question, the Republican Party is stronger for it.

Matt Lira currently serves as the Director of New Media for House Republican Whip Eric Cantor.

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Comments

Are Republicans like convicts

Submitted by gunthestops on Sat, 02/14/2009 - 10:57.

 

Hi Matt Mr. Cantor and the other republican obstructionists have the same problem---the paradox of success by the democrats. Unless the republicans can destroy the confidence of the American people and keep the economy down they will be out in the cold for many years. So it is not in the interest of republican politicians to try to help American out of this mess. Looking in the rear view mirror over the last 8 years it is clear that the Bush administration and republicans were basically incompetent at running the government. But guys like Eric Cantor want to try to convince people that the next 4 years will be a failure, based on what???? How sad!!!!I find it funny that Republicans seem a lot like convicts; they get religion only after they are put in jail—lol. When Bush was spending like a drunken sailor and giving tax cuts to every rich guy he could find while running up 4.5 trillion dollars of national debt the republicans loved it—even Larry Kudlow said deficits didn’t matter.  The Iraq war will cost over 1.5 trillion went we finally get out of there (direct, indirect, and future liability costs which lasts about 15 to 20 years after a war ends) and republicans loved paying for a fake war.Now because of massive incompetence we have to spend 1.6 trillion on of tax payer money, 750 billion on TARP and 800 billion on the economic stimulus bill to help America from going into a death spiral.  I think the economic stimulus bill should have included some money to keep GITMO open. We should round up some of these bad banking executives and heads of regulatory agencies (   (Christopher Cox’s specifically) and some politicians like Cantor and classify them as “Financial Terrorists” give them no   Habeas Corpus, and let them spend some time at GITMO among their own kind!!!  Give my best to Mr. Cantor

 

Hey, I gotta question

Submitted by lgm on Sat, 02/14/2009 - 12:03.

Internet technology is a great way to reach people who (without access to Fox) otherwise would be without the conservative message.  It's the best way to get the word out.

But hey, I gotta question . . . what's the word?

Economics

Submitted by lagomorph on Sat, 02/14/2009 - 18:45.

I believe that's the word, preceded by "Free" and "Market". 

In other words, the middle

Submitted by In between on Sat, 02/14/2009 - 21:18.

In other words, the middle class gets the shaft. 

How the middle class really gets the shaft

Submitted by lagomorph on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 13:57.

The middle class does not get the shaft from free market economics per se, and I have no objection to the regulation of financial services so long as these regulations aren't recklessly promoting policies that lead to extreme failure, such as the policies created by the Carter Administration in the form of the hopefully titled Community Reinvestment Act.

The middle class gets the shaft from government central planning policies such as forcing banks to lend home loans to poor homebuyers who cannot afford to repay their debts based on well-meaning but irresponsible "social justice" policies.  Just because government representatives mean well and want to help the poor and disenfranchised does not mean that legislators who are not economists are able to fully comprehend the unintended consequences of their actions.

Just think of how much better off we'd be today if community organizations such as ACORN would have campaigned to rigorously promote donations and volunteers to a private charitable organization than intimidating bank boards to implement high-risk lending practices.  Ironically, there is just such an organization:

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization building simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.

We might also think of how much better off we'd be today if activists partnered with Christian charities instead of condemning the ideology that provides their guiding principles.

If that's the word, you're gonna lose

Submitted by lgm on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 14:11.

Republicans tested this message throoughly in the last election.  It flopped, in part because it isn't true.  Almost all subprime loans were made willingly by private sector banks under no goverment order. 

One of the things that damaged Bush and the Republican brand is that he and they could not admit mistakes (except by others).  Blaming our present crisis on Carter is an example of something that won't sell.

The middle class gets the

Submitted by In between on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 14:39.

The middle class gets the shaft because of failed ideologies and laissez-faire. We have seen pretty good evidence of this in the last 8 years.

Trickle down and the money does not trickle down. Free trade as factories close. Nothing fixed as it is just tax cuts and laissez-faire. And just total ignorance of our infrastructural needs.

I have no problem with religion as long as we keep the separation of church and state.

The free market leaves gaps. It means people lose jobs, low wages, less healthcare, and less pensions. While that is the basis of free market, you need to fill in the gaps with other programs, innovation, research and development . You cannot ignore the situation like Bush and the republicans did. Our jobs are leaving the country and we have to make up for the loss. You look at problematic areas and you fix it. 

Newt says Party has to listen to the American people.

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 17:03.

The closest anybody actually got at the GOP Tech Summit to describing what the party needed do to regain the confidence of the American people was Newt Gingrich. He mentioned it during his third point (Index:7:22), when he started talking about the Internet as a powerful communicative tool that will allow us for the first time in history to actually contemplate self-government on a grand scale.

As many of you here know, this is kind of where I'm with my own vision thing at The National Online Party, with my work with Unity08, Ron Paul's web experience  and now at GOP.com. Although, in the end, as Newt suggests, I include every American -- I include all the People in my vision.

Without going into too much detail, I have narrowed it down to a simple motto, one that I hope I can get adopted by the grassroots group at GOP.com: The party must give everyone a voice, allow all to speak and to be accurately heard.

If the Republican party can adopt this as its grassroots motto, Newt Gingrich will be right, "Nobody knows how to do this. But what we do know is, if you have faith in the American people (the wisdom of the crowd), and you listen to the people. Learn from the American people"... the party will reflect the political aspirations of its members and pursue the common good of all.

 

ex animo

Photobucket

davidfarrar

When does the listening begin?

Submitted by artigiano on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 18:49.

If the Republican party can adopt this as its grassroots motto, Newt Gingrich will be right, "Nobody knows how to do this. But what we do know is, if you have faith in the American people (the wisdom of the crowd), and you listen to the people. Learn from the American people".

Apparently, this is going to be a pretty steep learning curve for the GOP, because lesson one was Nov 4, 2006, and lesson two was Nov 4, 2008, and you boys don't appear to be getting any smarter.

The country is shifting to the political left, while the Rep. party moves further right. Completely tone deaf. At this point, Spector, Collins and Snowe are the only ones listening.

I hope soon

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 20:43.

I hope someone at the GOP Tech Summit was listening to Newt. I hope Chairman Steele was listening and understanding the party must give every Republican a voice, allow them to speak and to be accurately heard, period. This is the only way the party can become the party of the people, by the people and for the people.

ex animo

davidfarrar

The GOP techno geeks...

Submitted by acinphx on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 12:22.

might want to start by dispatching a teen to show the defacto, self-anointed head of the party (El Rushbo) how to use the search function on pdf documents.  Last week he was ranting that the pdf of the stimulus bill was not searchable, a disservice to both his credibility and his listeners.  It's hard to make much progress on the techie front and convince people that the party isn't mired in the past when basic computer functions known to schoolchildren are clearly beyond the knowldge base of the party's mouthpiece.

I heard the initial version was hard copy only

Submitted by lagomorph on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 15:53.

I believe that when the bill first hit the streets for viewing after midnight, it was handed out as an 1100 page printed document.  It's searchable now, but every Republican in Washington complained that their staffers had to manually read through the bill.  Now I don't live in Washington, nor am I a staffer, and I'm not saying that hundreds of Republicans can't be wrong and certainly technically challenged.  I'm just saying I think in this particular instance it wasn't initially published as a .pdf file. 

in that case, I pity the staffers.

Submitted by RisingTide on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 16:17.

but I would imagine even if it was searchable, they'd still have to read the whole dang thing, to prevent any stupidity from the transcribers (whoops! we put WA instead of PA! no money for you!)

But Rush was specifically

Submitted by acinphx on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 19:05.

But Rush was specifically complaining about the pdf file and explaining to listeners what a pdf file is 'for those who don't use computers.'  I'd agree with you if he was complaining about a hard copy but that wasn't the case.

PDF's were not searchable text

Submitted by Keith_Indy on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 21:05.

The PDF's that were posted consisted of scanned images of the printed bill.  They were not searchable.

 Now, since you seem tech savy, why would the Democrats go though the extra step of printing the document, then scanning it in, to turn it into a PDF???

Oh, and here's the link.  As of last Thursday evening, the linked documents were scanned images.  They may have changed them since then, but I doubt it.  Oh, and here is my blog post about the fact last Friday.

And I think an interesting question for Obama supporters is, if this was such an emergancy, why did it sit in the Presidents inbox longer then the Senate had time to read it??

easy. part of this is timed to work with the stock market.

Submitted by RisingTide on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 09:31.

our entire financial industry is bankrupt -- but the amount of money that their stock is worth plays a major factor in how orderly the bankruptcy proceedings will be. we do NOT need bear-baiting right now.

Huh??

Submitted by Keith_Indy on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 10:48.

And the stimulus bill does what for the financial markets??

Currently the DJIA and the S&P 500 are down considerably since last Thursday.

It's getting so low, that we'll probably be directly investing in stock soon.  Buy low, sell high, afterall.

if you mean you as an individual, then by all means!

Submitted by RisingTide on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 11:03.

Somebody started something In Asia, possibly having to do with Korea. Kindly watch calculated risk, maybe they've figured out what in HELL was going on.

But dropping interest rates is guaranteed free money, and has been done repeatedly over the past year to stabilize markets.

Obama's plan ain't exactly the greatest, but signing it gives good places for folks to invest. And that means that stocks go up, at least some of them. This isn't exactly greek, ya know?

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