Great news! Netroots Nation is proud to announce Lawrence Lessig as one of our keynote speakers for this year's conference.

Professor Lessig, who has been called one of the "leading minds in tech" and open-source democracy by the American Prospect, is the founder of Creative Commons, and spent years working to make sure that as the rules of the Internet got written, they were written in a way that put power in the hands of regular people. He advanced his ideas through numerous books, articles and blog posts. Respected worldwide, he is one of the true luminaries of the Internet.

Activists across the country are changing the face of progressive politics. But even in the heat of a Presidential election year, progressives are working locally -- doing everything they can to take their country back from the bottom-up, even in the most historically conservative states.

So this year, Netroots Nation is coming to Texas. Register Now

And because activism starts locally, we’re proud to announce that at this year’s conference in Austin, July 17–20, we’ll feature a series of panels, discussions and workshops that will highlight the accomplishments of the vibrant Texas Netroots activist community. Too often discounted by institutional politics and traditional media, local progressive bloggers and activists have been working every day toward building a new progressive reality.

It's only 90 days until the Netroots descends upon Austin for Netroots Nation 2008. If you've already registered and taken care of lodging, give yourself a pat on the back.

The Austin-American Statesman recently ran an article highlighting the fiscal impact of this summer's convention in Austin—an impressive $3.5 million, which translates to 159 jobs. Some other numbers that highlight just how large we're expecting Netroots Nation to be:

The doors are now open for parties interested in exhibiting at Netroots Nation to sign up. Here's your chance to be a part of what is shaping up to be the best gathering of netroots activists yet!

Here's your chance to get your organization in front of thousands of liberal activists just months before the 2008 election.

We want your ideas for panels, discussions and workshops at Netroots Nation 2008.

Run, don't walk, because January 30 is the deadline for public submissions.

The general information about submitting panels is here

You'll need the Proposal Submission Form

Make sure to also read over the Speaker Info Sheet

Netroots Nation is just around the corner, and we’ve got two announcements you can’t miss:

First, if you’re planning on coming down to Austin for Netroots Nation ’08, now’s the time to register. Right now (and only until December 27th at 11:59PM Pacific time), registration is still just $250, discounted from the full price of $450.

Take 2 minutes and sign up now!

Second – we’re happy to announce the beginning of the process to submit agenda ideas!

In order to create the most well rounded agenda possible, we need your help. We ask you--as members of the Netroots--to help us develop and organize two different types of sessions that accurately reflect the issues that are most important to our community.

We hope everyone out there is as excited about attending Netroots Nation '08 in Austin as we are about organizing it. In the few weeks that we've had registration open we've had a huge response from the community resulting in some early stats unheard of in conference organizing.

I've just got a few updates about registration rates and various other items for everyone to consider as the holiday season gets in full swing and politics takes a back seat to family, friends and gifts.

July 17-20, 2008: Netroots Nation is coming to Austin!

The face of progressive politics is changing. Regular people have taken it on as their civic duty to become activists, and citizen journalists, and even run for office. The trend toward more decentralized, people-powered politics and media is accelerating, and at Netroots Nation, we are doing our part to focus that trend on creating a more progressive America.

The face of progressive politics is changing. Thanks in large part to growing online communities, activism, organization, and communication are in the hands of the American people more than ever before. From electing candidates to fact-checking the traditional media and everything in between, people-powered politics will only become more influential as our Netroots community continues to diversify and grow.

Our organization's new name—Netroots Nation—reflects that shift. After two tremendously successful YearlyKos Conventions, creating and hosting the preeminent online progressive conference will stay central to our mission. But as we enter a new era in politics, we aim to do much more. In the coming weeks, we'll be talking more about our plans to further amplify progressive voices and brainstorming - with your help - ways we can give progressive activists the tools they need to hold elected leaders of all stripes accountable and ultimately see a new progressive agenda enacted.