DNC/RNC Convention Watch

01 Jul, 2008 by Skye

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In the Democrat Corner:

DNC Prostest Will Be Behind A Fence:

The fence around the public demonstration zone outside the Democratic National Convention will be chicken wire or chain link, authorities revealed in U.S. District Court today.

That may allow protestors to be seen and heard by delegates going in and out of the Pepsi Center during the convention.

But the American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups have filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the city and county of Denver that says protestors and demonstrators may have their First Amendment rights violated by security restrictions

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Perhaps after the Convention, the protesters can organize an ‘Experience the DNC Fence’ tour similar in style to the current Experience Gitmo tour.

In the Republican Corner:

An Exponential Leap in Technology

“This year, the Republican National Convention planning team is much more focused on using new media to get the party’s message out, said Matt Burns, director of communications for the convention.”

“The Republican convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul this year has a YouTube channel and has launched a YouTube video contest to attract Internet users.”

“In addition, USTREAM.TV has formed a partnership with the Republicans to stream video live. Burns said recent progress in video streaming technology will make it easier to provide live coverage of the convention to online users.”

“In addition, the convention has a Twitter account and FaceBook page and MySpace pages- and has launched an interactive online forum known as CONVENTIONiNSIDER where visitors can ask questions about planning in Minneapolis/St. Paul.”

“The Republican convention team also said a Spanish language Web site is under development, and that video and streaming in Spanish would occur.”

In fairness, the DNC is also hosting a video contest which is sponsored by the Denver Film Society and the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs entitled Cinemocracy. This weekend my big plan is to submit a video to this contest.