Leveraging Strength: Effective Collaboration Between Online and Offline Organizations and Activists
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.
Nathan has been with ACORN for 17 years and has been the lead online staffer since January. Before that, as part of ACORN's national political division, he did all the demographic targeting for the record-setting voter registration drives in 2006 and 2008. His broad organizational background gives him a unique perspective on the intersection of online and offline campaigns. He is a graduate of Carleton College and a former student of Paul Wellstone.
He also loves futbol and is a front-page blogger for the Los Angeles Galaxy fan blog housed at TheOffside.com. Ole, ole, ole!
James Rucker is co-founder and executive director of ColorOfChange.org, an online activist organization of more than 600,000 members that aims to strengthen the voice of Black America. It was founded in 2005 by James and Van Jones in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. James also serves as co-director of Citizen Engagement Laboratory, which uses digital media and technology to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups, particularly people of color and youth. Prior, James served as Director of Grassroots Mobilization for MoveOn.org Political Action and Moveon.org Civic Action and was instrumental in developing and executing on fundraising, technology, and campaign strategies. Prior to joining MoveOn, James worked in various roles in the software industry in the San Francisco and has provided coaching and technology consulting for other start-up ventures. He grew up in Seaside, California and received a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.
Robert Greenwald is a producer, director and political activist. Greenwald is founder/president of Brave New Films, a new media organization that uses moving images to educate, influence, and empower viewers. Under Greenwald, BNF has produced dozens of videos on social justice and political issues which have been viewed over 40 million times and forced pressing issues into mainstream media. Greenwald is currently directing Rethink Afghanistan, a documentary about the dangers of military escalation in Afghanistan. Greenwald is also the director/producer of several documentaries including: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism.
