Highlight videos from the 2009 Netroots Nation convention.

New House and Senate rules have given lawmakers more freedom on the Internet, and many lawmakers are taking their first steps into an expanded online world. This panel will explore how different members reach distinct constituencies—including those who are offline and overseas—while balancing the need to stay true to each member’s identity. How are video, podcasts, APIs and other tools changing the way lawmakers reach out to constituents, and is there a genuine dialog taking place? What can the public, non-profits and government officials do to help foster communication online now that new tools are available?

This panel will show how the United Steelworkers' web-based mobilization arose out of the union’s historically effective use of on-the-ground activism. Panelists directly involved in the evolution will discuss how to integrate on-the-ground and web-based mobilization systems, using the USW’s work on the Obama and Make Our Future Work campaigns as examples.

Global warming blogging is red hot: The Senate is debating climate change legislation. The Obama administration is pouring billions of dollars into clean energy and green jobs. Countries are maneuvering for position in this December's crucial international climate treaty conference. And nearly every week scientists are revealing how global warming is changing the conditions of life on Earth -- and how much worse conditions may become if we don't slash our greenhouse gas pollution. At this panel, some of the top bloggers covering environmental politics and climate science will talk about what they do, how they do it, and why it's more important now than ever before.

This panel is composed of individuals who are from—or blog about—different parts of the world. What is going on in other countries, and how do we draw wider points of perspective at a global level of what is happening globally through the netroots?

The election of Barack Obama as President has led many to view our country as entering a "post-racial" era. The Sotomayor nomination, the arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., reaction to Attorney General Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remarks, the controversy over the New York Post cartoon of a police officer shooting a chimpanzee and many other incidents indicate that Obama's election may only be the beginning—not the end—of a post-racial America. Panelists will discuss and share analyses on the role of race both following President Obama's inauguration, and its impact on progressive thinking and communication.

Early in the Obama presidency, few issues have raised as much controversy in the progressive community as his decision to send an additional 20,000 troops to Afghanistan. This decision now ensures that Afghanistan will likely be the paramount national security issue of the President’s first term. How do we define American interests and goals in Afghanistan? What are the necessary non-military elements of a comprehensive strategy? What role, if any, should the U.S. military play? What role is there for reconciliation with elements of the Taliban? How are the crises in Pakistan and Afghanistan related? What role is there for America’s allies and Afghanistan’s neighbors? The panel will include a variety of views, including those who oppose the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, supporters of the President’s plan, observers who have been on the ground and the perspective of one veteran who served in Afghanistan.

From the passage of Prop 8 to the election of Barack Obama to the White House, the 2008 election had a profound impact on the fight for full LGBT equality in all 50 states.

This panel will tackle how we win and defend marriage equality state-by-state and how we build momentum for full LGBT equality across America. What are the lessons learned from the Prop 8 loss in California that Maine and other states can learn in their battle for marriage equality? How will we restore marriage equality to California? And how can the netroots help win these battles?

Despite the popularity of social networking and other online tools, email is still the "killer app" for activism and fundraising - allowing you to reach thousands or millions of your supporters quickly at very low cost. But successful email outreach depends on doing a lot of things just right - including building your list, crafting your message, making the right ask and getting your message delivered to (and read by) your subscribers. Join Charles Chamberlain of Democracy for America and Will Easton of CREDO Mobile/CREDO Action to review email best practices, with plenty of real-world examples plus dos and don'ts that will ramp up the effectiveness of any email program, large or small.

As much as we would like to, campaigns don't have the people, time or money to talk to every voter. But picking which voters to contact and which to leave alone isn't always obvious. This session we'll look at how to break down the numbers, demographics and voter histories in your district and build your universe of likely voters. Then we’ll talk about how to write a solid workable plan to build a grassroots organization it will take to contact them.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

This caucus will be lead by Shanna Ingalsbee.

Update: Panel presentations and related materials are posted at Epolitics.com:
http://bit.ly/4hmWX

Obama for America used the Internet more effectively than any political campaign in history. What lessons from his online organization, outreach and fundraising efforts can state and local candidates and activists apply in their own communities and their own campaigns, particularly when they're working with limited resources?

This panel will cover the use of grassroots mobilization tools, online video, email, cell phones, social networking websites, blogs and online advertising to find supporters via the internet, to motivate volunteers, to raise money and to turn out real-live voters on election day. We'll focus on translating the experience of people directly involved in Obama's online campaign into the world of political operations that DON'T have half a billion dollars to spend, with an emphasis on achieving political results in the real world.

This panel will share insights and observations from some veteran pollsters and analysts that might help you interpret the next set of poll data you see. Charlie Cook (The
Cook Political Report, www.cookpolitical.com), Mark Blumenthal and Charles Franklin (www.pollster.com), and Nate Silver (www.fivethirtyeight.com) will join moderator Greg Dworkin (Daily Kos) on a discussion about how to get the most out of poll watching.

In 2008, young Americans proved their interest in voting and their passion for progressive causes. Now, a range of individuals and organizations are tackling the challenge of bringing the Millennial Generation—the largest, most diverse and most progressive in American history—into the realm of policy advancing. Join us for a structured conversation regarding tactics currently employed—and help us figure out how we can better transition from electorally-focused to passing progressive policy.

This session is dedicated to exploring some of the recent collaborations between traditionally online and traditionally offline organizations in pursuit of progressive public policy goals. This session will showcase some examples of collaboration from genesis to victory and offer a set of "lessons learned" for session participants, sparking conversations about the development of new partnerships and the deeper implications for progressive change.

The International climate negotiations that began in Bali, in 2007, are scheduled to culminate in a global warming agreement in Copenhagen this December. Key goals are for such an agreement to rapidly and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and for it to require wealthy, polluting countries that did the most to cause the climate crisis to bear the most responsibility for implementing solutions. Progressive and environmental bloggers and activists have traveled to and proven effective during initial rounds of these negotiations. Their engagement will be even more crucial leading up to and during the negotiations in Copenhagen.
The session’s participants will review netroots involvement in past negotiations and strategize about ways to increase their impact. In particular, we’ll discuss how blogging can lead to global action and influence negotiators, how those of us on the ground can coordinate effectively with folks at home, and how allied NGOs can support these efforts.

A host of online tools help us track Congressional voting records and hold members of Congress accountable to those who elected them. Learn how these tools work and how others are using them effectively. Joshua Grossman of Progressive Punch and the new Progressive Messenger will discuss how tracking tools are being used by bloggers and to do opposition research on incumbents. We'll also look at how other information sources—including Open Secrets, Campaign Money Line, MAPLight and Project VoteSmart—complement each other with data for users who want to know if and how their representatives are really representing them.

This session, moderated by AAM Executive Director Scott Paul, offers ideas and elicits participants’ recommendations on how bloggers can help combat Wall Street’s domination over the interests of working Americans.

You are a progressive activist. You sign petitions, call your congressperson's office and write letters to the editor. What's the next step? Fundraising as a carrot or a stick. In this training you will learn how to use online fundraising tools to encourage an elected official to make the right decision -- and how to use fundraising to marshall support against them when they repeatedly vote the wrong way. Plus, get a tour of the newest addition to the ActBlue online arsenal: Fundraising on Twitter.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

This caucus will be lead by Alisa Roost and Sarah Granger.

More and more candidates for public office at the local level are taking their campaigns online, and web tools are changing the ways that lawmakers and voters interact. Blogs, email, and social networking offer public officials the opportunity to communicate directly with voters and their constituents in a way that promotes a type of participatory democracy that is new and exciting. Join a conversation on the state of online campaigns, get examples of how some technologies are helping candidates breach the divide that exists between voters and politicians, and learn about the implications these developments hold for the future of government and public life.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

This caucus will be lead by Tina Lee.

With so many filmmakers, organizations and everyday bloggers creating video, Netroots Nation is delighted to offer a screening showcase that will feature short segments of the diverse work created by, distributed through and appealing to the Netroots. This showcase will present 5-10 film projects, giving each filmmaker up to 15 minutes minutes to show a clip, discuss the project, ask for feedback / help / connections. Kick off the Screening Series by meeting and engaging fellow filmmakers, and seeing a wide array of what's being worked on by whom, so you can continue the conversations throughout the conference.

Dirt! The Movie brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

A Sea Change asks viewers to imagine a world without fish. The film rings an alarm bell, revealing the startling impact of ocean acidification not only on aquatic wildlife, but the intertwined global ecosystem as we know it.

Earth Days looks back to the dawn of the modern environmental movement—from its post-war rustlings in the 1950s and the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s incendiary Silent Spring to the wildly successful first Earth Day celebrations of the 1970s.

“The Politiical Prosecutions of Karl Rove,” a compelling video by Project Save Justice and John McTiernan, whose film credits include “Die Hard,” “Predator,” and “The Hunt for Red October,” features experts who say that hundreds of defendants across the nation were targeted by federal prosecutors who focused on particular defendants for political reasons. Inlcuded are interviews of victims and their families who suffered at the hands of the Bush Department of Justice, the payoffs recieved by federal operatives, and highlights of those political prisoners still being held in US Federal Prison Camps.

"Free The River Park - The Story of Citizens' Fight to Free the
Schuylkill River Park" This mini documentary explores a neighborhood's ultimately victorious efforts to create and preserve at grade access to the Schuykill River Park despite the adamant objections of the CSX Railroad. The film tells the inspiring story of the Philadelphia community 'winning over' the railroad through interviews with key elected officials and citizen activists. Winner of the "best green film" award at the Delray Beach Film Festival, it has been shown at film festivals across the country. With an array of extras, the Free the River Park DVD is designed to be used as a template for inspiring and instructing other communities on how to use new media technologies and network centric strategies to win. See the trailer at www.freetheriverpark.org

This caucus will be led by Elisa of Mother Talkers and will take place at Pittsburgh's Hard Rock Cafe. Details can be found here.

How do you measure your ROI in social media spaces when you can't put a dollar value on user engagement? How do you begin to explain to your boss the value of a single Facebook fan or Twitter follower? We do it every day, and we've got some ideas we think work well. We'll show you how to measure your success with good planning, powerful tools and simple tricks. But know every campaign and every initiative is different, so we'll discuss ways to create a plan that fits your needs.