From Dean to Obama: Four Years in the Internet Revolution
Four years ago, the Dean campaign ushered in a new era of politics—an era where a base of grassroots supporters, combined with cutting edge technology, fundamentally altered the way politics is done in America. Today the people behind that revolution are still forging this new path, and they'll talk about the lessons they learned then and how they are changing politics now.
Joe Trippi worked on his first presidential campaign for Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1980. His work in presidential politics continued with the campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Howard Dean and, most recently, John Edwards. He heads up Trippi and Associates a multimedia consulting firm. Trippi appears regularly on CBS as an election analyst and commentator He is the author of, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything. The father of three, he lives with his wife, Kathleen, on the eastern shore of Maryland.
Amanda Michel is the Director of HuffPost's OffTheBus, a citizen-powered and produced campaign news site. This spring the Knight Digital Media Center awarded Michel a journalism fellowship for her editorial innovations with OffTheBus. Previously, Michel worked as the communications director at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, as a member of John Kerry's Internet team and as the National Director of Generation Dean. She co-founded the New Organizing Institute and was a contributor to "Mousepads, Shoeleather, and Hope," a book on the Dean campaign's approach to organizing and technology.
Karl Frisch has worked in politics for more than a decade. He served as multimedia communications director on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. In 2005, Frisch worked as press secretary for Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY). In 2006 he served as communications director of Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett’s U.S. Senate campaign and then as press secretary at the DSCC. Frisch now serves as communications director at Media Matters for America. Prior to his work with progressives and Democrats, Frisch worked for Republicans including former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) and the 2000 presidential campaigns of Lamar Alexander and John McCain.
Zephyr Teachout is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Duke Law School, teaching and researching in the field known as the "Law of Democracy." She is an internationally known expert on online organizing and the use of the internet in political campaigns. She was the director of online organizing for Howard Dean's Campaign, the National Director of Baobabs College Labs, and the National Director of the Sunlight Foundation, where she spearheaded distributed research projects on Congress and earmarks. She has an MA in Political Science from Duke, a J.D. from Duke and a BA in English from Yale.
