The sixth annual gathering of Netroots Nation, the largest gathering of progressives online, is taking place offline in Providence this weekend.
Ari MelberAbout six years ago, users of the popular liberal blog Daily Kos did an experiment. A few commenters and bloggers decided it would be fun to organize a conference for the progressive netroots, and the inaugural gathering of “YearlyKos” in Las Vegas turned out ot be a big success, drawing presidential candidates and many leading liberals. This week, activists are gathering in Providence for the sixth such conference, now renamed “Netroots Nation,” and a range of up and coming progressives are signed up for the ride.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is delivering the opening keynote on Thursday night (video below), illustrating the interest in state-level politics and the ongoing hangover from the mortgage crisis. Schneiderman has both battled and cooperated with the White House over mortgage reform.
Other keynotes that reflect this year’s politics, from a panel discussion of the policies for “an economy of the 99 percent” to a discussion of the “war” on women and an address on criminal justice and racial equality issues by Rashad Robinson, who heads up ColorOfChange, a group that mixes the politics of the NAACP with the tactics of MoveOn.org.
Live video feeds for the keynotes and several panels are posted below, and The Nation will feature coverage from the conference throughout the weekend.
Netroots Schedule here.
Keynote Footage:
Breakout panels:
Ari MelberTwitterAri Melber is The Nation's Net movement correspondent, covering politics, law, public policy and new media, and a regular contributor to the magazine's blog. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Contact Ari: on Facebook, on Twitter, and at amelber@hotmail.com. Melber is also an attorney, a columnist for Politico and a contributing editor at techPresident, a nonpartisan website covering technology’s impact on democracy. During the 2008 general election, he traveled with the Obama Campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent. He previously served as a Legislative Aide in the US Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign. As a commentator on public affairs, Melber frequently speaks on national television and radio, including including appearances on NBC, CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX News, and NPR, on programs such as “The Today Show,” “American Morning,” “Washington Journal,” “Power Lunch,” "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," "The Joy Behar Show," “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” and “The Daily Rundown,” among others. Melber has also been a featured speaker at Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Columbia, NYU, The Center for American Progress and many other institutions. He has contributed chapters or essays to the books “America Now,” (St. Martins, 2009), “At Issue: Affirmative Action,” (Cengage, 2009), and “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004). His reporting has been cited by a wide range of news organizations, academic journals and nonfiction books, including the The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, FOX News, National Review Online, The New England Journal of Medicine and Boston University Law Review. He is a member of the American Constitution Society, he serves on the advisory board of the Roosevelt Institute and lives in Manhattan.