SXSW Interactive Activism Sessions Announced

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21st Century Political Technology at SXSW Interactive Festival

Scheduled March 11-15 in Austin, TX, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival brings together leading innovators in the new media industry. Part of the 2005 program for SXSW Interactive is a mini-track of sessions that explore the relationship of technology to democracy and advocacy. This mini-track was created by Activist Technology ( HYPERLINK "http://activist-tech.org" http://activist-tech.org), a loose coalition of technologists and activists who have been thinking and talking about political applications of technology since the Dean presidential campaign, and some well before that. Working with SXSW Interactive, the group has conceptualized a set of sessions that will explore how activists and developers can work together, and how the Internet offers a platform for activist collaboration and democratic evolution.

"Do blogs really have a democratizing effect?," wonders Jon Lebkowsky, one of the organizers of these sessions and author of an upcoming book on the impact of new media on democracy. "Are we just creating mobs with better tools, or are we facilitating a collective intelligence where the whole will be much smarter than any of its parts? Are we seeing a new kind of politics? Or will political technology be co-opted and controlled for business as usual? We have ideas, but we don't really know. We'll offer some of our own ideas, but we're also eager to hear feedback from the people who join us." Lebkowsky was also an organizer of last year's Digital Democracy Teach-In, sponsored by O'Reilly Books.

The Activist Technology sessions, sponsored by e-Volve Foundation and Andy Rappaport, are:

March 14
How to Create Activist Technology (5:00-6:00)

March 15
Deliberative Democracy and Interactive Technology (10:00-11:00)
Are Political Parties Obsolete? (11:30-12:30)
How to Think About Democracy and Technology (3:30-4:30)

Speakers include:
Amalia Anderson - League of Rural Voters
Tom Atlee , author of The Tao of Democracy
Ren Bucholz - EFF
Christian Crumlish , author of The Power of Many
Kaliya Hamlin, Identity Commons, Planetwork, and Integrative Activism
Aldon Hynes - Center for Investigative Online Research
Jon Lebkowsky, Polycot
Rebecca MacKinnon - Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Jerry Michalski , Sociate
Jed Miller , ACLU
Kathy Mitchell , Consumer Union
Andy Rappaport , August Capital
Mitch Ratcliffe - Internet/Media Strategies Inc.
Dan Robinson - E-Volve
Erin Rogers - Union of Concerned Scientists
Shabbir Safdar - Mindshare Interactive Campaigns
Glenn Smith , Drive Democracy, author of The Politics of Deceit
Lars Torres , AmericaSpeaks
Nancy White , Full Circle
Ethan Zuckerman - Berkman Center for Internet and Society

For more information about the Activist Technology group, see HYPERLINK "HYPERLINK http://www.activist-tech.org http://www.activist-tech.org" HYPERLINK http://www.activist-tech.org http://www.activist-tech.org or email HYPERLINK "HYPERLINK mailto:[e-mail] mailto:[e-mail]" [e-mail].

Keynote speakers at the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival include Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Marie Cox, Alex Steffen and Bruce Sterling. For more information about SXSW Interactive, see HYPERLINK HYPERLINK http://www.sxsw.com/ http://www.sxsw.com/ HYPERLINK http://www.sxsw.com/ http://www.sxsw.com/ or e-mail [e-mail]. The registration fee to attend the SXSW Interactive Festival is $250 through February 11 and $275 thereafter. Register online at HYPERLINK HYPERLINK www.sxsw.com www.sxsw.com HYPERLINK www.sxsw.com www.sxsw.com."