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Newark's Mayor Cory Booker shares President Obama's deep understanding of the power of digital media as a means for community organizing. As of yesterday, Mayor Booker has 833,779 Twitter followers, and 14,768 Facebook supporters.

According to the US Census Bureau the Population of Newark is 281,402 (2006 estimate) which means that Booker has more than 3 times the population of Newark following him on Twitter and the equivalent of 5% of the population of Newark as Facebook supporters.

When he post to his Facebook page, you can see by the volume of "comments" and "likes" that his Facebook supporters are actually engaged in conversation with him. So, what is he doing that fosters engagement?

Authenticity and humor are powerful tools when it comes to getting your audience to engage with you, and Mayor Booker understands this. He, jokingly, used Facebook and Twitter as a platform to challenge Obama. He asked his Facebook supporters and Twitter followers if they thought his jump shot is better than Obama's.

He uses Twitter to warn the citizen's of Newark should they litter, they are in danger of getting pulled over by him.

And he shares words of wisdom that inspire him.

So Mayor Booker--I am not sure if you jump shot is better than Obama's, and I promise you that I won't litter in Newark-or anywhere else for that matter. I thank you for your words of wisdom and I applaud you for your understanding of social media engagement.

The rising cost of health care reform has the attention of many, but how can citizens make a deeper impact in the debate? Frederic Guarino CCO of keenkong.com, and attendee at PdF2009, asks how citizens and how they can use technology to engage in the health care debate.

Paul Rieckhoff founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, asks, "What can we do to bring internet based technology to the war zone? New media consultant Eric Kuhn responds.

At PdF 2009 in New York we asked "If you could ask the PdF audience one question, what would you ask?" We would like to hear your answers to the insightful questions that were asked at our 2009 conference. Please post your comments below.

Mark Pesce, digital ethnographer from University of Sydney Australia, asks, "What do we do to make the idea of participation so alluring so seductive that people want to participate?" Hear the author of Open Source Democracy and Life Inc Douglas Rushkoff respond. Both Pesce and Rushkoff were speakers at PdF2009 conference in New York.

PdF 2009 in New York we asked "If you could ask the PdF audience one question, what would you ask?" We would like to hear your answers to the insightful questions that were asked at our 2009 conference. Please post your comments below.


Interested in hearing more from Mark Pesce or Douglas Rushkoff? Watch Pesce on The Dangerous Power of Sharing at PdF2009, or watch Douglas Rushkoff on the New Renaissance at PdF 2008.

Hear what Beth Noveck White House Office Science and Technology wants to know about how the government can create useful feedback loops with crowdsourcing. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, a graduate student at Columbia University who studies the use of new technology in politics, offers his response. At PdF 2009 in New York we asked "If you could ask the PdF audience one question, what would you ask?" We would like to hear your answers to the insightful questions that were asked at our 2009 conference. Please post your comments below.
Interested in hearing more from Beth Noveck? Hear what she said to PdF 2009 in her keynote titled Innovation in Government, Obama-Style: Participation and Collaboration.

"HuffPo and [Talking Points Memo] really are the assignment editors for many in the Washington press corps"

--Liz Mair is an online communications expert and Account Services Director with Hynes Communications.

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PdF Chat Time,a new feature here at Personal Democracy Forum, gives you a behind the scenes glimpse into the lives of the politechnorati. Hear what inspires them, what keeps them up at night, and who throws the wildest parties. Get informed by the most knowledgeable players in the world of politics and technology.

Know someone who I should interview? Email your suggestion to me at anna@personaldemocracy.com.

"The key to being expert on database work is having a spatial intelligence, a creativity that involves building things in three dimensions - sometimes with a recipe, but often from scratch."

-- Tanya Tarr is the director of legislative and political mobilization with the Texas American Federation of Teachers.


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PdF Chat Time,a new feature here at Personal Democracy Forum, gives you a behind the scenes glimpse into the lives of the politechnorati. Hear what inspires them, what keeps them up at night, and who throws the wildest parties. Get informed by the most knowledgeable players in the world of politics and technology.

Know someone who I should interview? Email your suggestion to me at anna@personaldemocracy.com.

Sam Graham-Felsen is currently serving as content director and director of outreach for Blue State Digital. Sam was the Director of blogging and blog outreach for Obama for America, where he also helped to produce online videos for the campaign. Prior to the Obama campaign, Sam covered youth politics for The Nation and was a video producer for Current TV. He graduated cum laude from Harvard in 2004.

Hear Sam's experience of how he went from being one of the first bloggers on the Obama Campaign to managing a whole team. Sam shares the secrets of his blogging success and talks about his current work at Blue State Digital.

PdF Chat Time, new feature here at Personal Democracy Forum, gives you a behind the scenes glimpse into the lives of the politechnorati. Hear what inspires them, what keeps them up at night, and who throws the wildest parties. Get informed by the most knowledgeable players in the world of politics and technology.

This interview was conducted by phone on June 22th at 3:00pm and has been edited for clarity.

Know someone who I should interview? Email your suggestion to me at anna@personaldemocracy.com.

Cheryl Contee, Partner at Partner at Fission, specializes in helping non-profit organizations and foundations use social media for social good. She is also the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics writing as Jill Tubman on one of the top 10 black blogs online.

She has over 13 years of award-winning interactive expertise and previously served as lead digital strategist for Fleishman-Hillard for the West Coast in San Francisco. Cheryl has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, BBC and CNN among other media appearances. She received her B.A. from Yale University and has an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Hear advice on launching multi lingual websites from Cheryl Contee who has launched over 40 multi lingual sites. Find out where she gets her inspiration, and learn what keeps her up at night.

PdF Chat Time, new feature here at Personal Democracy Forum, gives you a behind the scenes glimpse into the lives of the politechnorati. Hear what inspires them, what keeps them up at night, and who throws the wildest parties. Get informed by the most knowledgeable players in the world of politics and technology.

To read the interview conducted by IM on June 22th at 1pm click read more below.