I went to a great session moderated by my former boss at the Examiner, Mark Tapscott. David All from Tech Republican and Slatecard.com, Erick Erickson of the awesome RedState.com, and Ralph Benko were all on the panel, with a special appearance by Saul Anuzis. They all offered some really cool and insightful advice about how to take better advantage of online resources to support the movement and the Republican Party.
Actually, that’s not quite accurate. We didn’t talk about how to use these resources so much as that we need to get off our activist asses and start putting these ideas into action. Erick made the great point that we need to stop talking about techniques to use and actually start doing something. It’s a bit vague, and I think that’s his point. Too often we sit around and discuss Twitter, facebook, etc. and how important it is to use them.
Erick says there are two things he wants to do: Get people who are not online, online, and to get people who are online, offline. His message to us was that we need to use technology to get “regular folks” out there calling their representatives, protesting, and getting the message heard in the 3D world. It was an excellent message for a group of people who probably like to be “activists” from their computers only.
I asked a question about an internal struggle I have: should I be a journalist or an activist? There was a lot of discussion about this, and the consensus was that we should be both. We need to use the investigative aspects of journalism to let people know more about their government and what they can do to have their voice heard.
Saul Anuzis, the Michigan GOP chairman who ran for RNC chair, had a brief cameo where he gave a summary of a new online initiative he’s rolling out as the tech guru at the RNC on protecting the secret ballot. Saul’s from a heavily-unionized state, so it’s a natural issue for him to take up. I’ll have more info on that when I find out more.
Can you tell CPAC’s got me all rah-rah about things? A reenergizer it certainly is. More later, but I’m off to have dinner with an old friend.
