Growing roots in the heart of the Silicon Valley
By Julie Niemi
What a weekend. Sunday morning there's a feeling of sadness in the air and I find myself asking "what happened?"
The information and socializing at Netroots moves so quickly: after the parties, hundreds of 15 second conversations, and business cards, we need time to process. And so today, as we all return to our homes and back to our normal ebb and flow, is a good day to reflect on the highlights from the conference.
Thursday afternoon, NationBuilder Taxonomist Rachael Stern, participated on the panel Moving the Needle: How We Won Gay Marriage in 2012.
Prior to coming to NationBuilder, Rachael served as the digital director on the Marylanders for Marriage Equality campaign, where she managed a robust team of activists and raised a significant amount of the budget online. Along with other digital organizers from marriage equality campaigns in Maine and Washington, she shared some of her challenges and success stories when fighting for equality on Thursday.
Friday was a day of food truck insanity and slingin' M&M's like it was our job--which is indeed part of our job. After lunch, I attended a very enlightening panel on Silicon Valley's workforce, conducted by UC Davis Professor Chris Benner. Silicon Valley has drastically changed the type of labor performed in our economy. Shifting attention from the production of material goods to immaterial labor in a "knowledge economy," our work force is challenged with this impulse to be constantly "on;" or always available and always working. The discussion covered topics ranging from production to ethical hiring right in the heart of San Jose in Silicon Valley.
On Saturday morning, the exhibit hall pulled an early, delirious morning crowd in the direction of the New Tools Shoot Out, hosted by Dan Ancona from Democracy for America. Over twenty people representing twenty new tech tools participated, including NationBuilder's own Joe Conte. Each person had only five minutes to show off their platform. Joe walked the audience through setting up a nation, starting and disseminating a petition on NationBuilder.
Following the new tools demo, Zerlina Maxwell moderated a Q&A session with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Many topics ranging from women's role in politics and the recent NSA issue were discussed, and at one point, the NSA controversy resulted in a man being escorted out of the lecture hall.
To end the weekend, Organizer Lauren Brown Jarvis brought down the house with the Ask a Sista panel. The panel had a power team of African-American women with active voices in politics. They spent the hour shedding light on African-American progressive women and their views on politics, policy, pop culture and scholarship, and how the Democratic party can mobilize them for midterm elections and 2016. The buzz quickly scattered around the #nn13 and #askasista Twitter hashtags and eventually trended nationally.
I return home with many takeaways and new relationships with activists, journalists, and intellectuals involved in agitating and throwing a wrench in the status quo from across the country, and even the world (shout out to my new Australian friends!). Although as I sit down to write this I am exhausted and overwhelmed at the events and knowledge obtained this weekend, I am more curious and anxious to keep writing and learning about the crucial issues that are facing us. Until next year!