PDF intern Caroline Coburn spent part of the day doing brief interviews with conference participants, and the responses she got were illuminating. In no particular order, here they are--feel free to add your own reflections in the comments section. [The editors.]

Who you are: Joe Green
Where you’re from: Essembly.com
Why you’re here: “It’s really a great place to learn more about networking, to figure out today’s 1960 moment. Networking has been successful with music and college – can it apply to politics? [Politics] is always a couple of years behind.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I’m the youngest speaker here, meeting new people has been useful.”

Who you are: Bert Helm
Where you’re from: Business Week
Why you’re here: “I’ve been covering net neutrality for a while, I wanted to hear what people had to say.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “Eliot Spitzer’s talk was very interesting. I was amazed by the net neutrality debate.”

Who you are: Don Hazen
Where you’re from: AlterNet – a webzine on politics and culture
Why you’re here: “It’s a good place to network and learn about trends – some good, some bad.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “It’s interesting to hear bloggers speak about their business models and making money. AlterNet has a hybrid model, with foundation grants, ads, and money from readers.”

Who you are: Joe Trippi
Where you’re from: joetrippi.com
Why you’re here: “It’s an incredible conference to see all the new innovations using technology to make a better and stronger democracy. This conference is my favorite thing, I flew the red eye out so I could make it – I’m too old for the red eye.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I helped to pioneer some of these innovations, I like to see where they’re going. Spitzer’s speech was incredible.”

Who you are: Andrew Boyd
Where you’re from: Billionaires for Bush
Why you’re here: “To support the President…and to explain how to generate a lot of noise without a lot of money.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I learned I want Eliot Spitzer to be the next governor of New York.”

Who you are: Jason Calacanis
Where you’re from: Weblogs, Inc.
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I hate politics, so some of the discussion I found very circuitous and meaningless. However, some nuggets were interesting. When it comes to politics, so much of it is spin. Five percent actually means something. I knew political bloggers were polarized. This conference confirmed a lot of that for me. It was confirming to see that people in politics are driven by money. Big money influence and screamers are the biggest problem with democracy. The whole ecosystem is a mudpit.”

Who you are: Jeff Stewart
Where you’re from: Monitor110
Why you’re here: “Because the internet is playing an increasingly important role in the way decisions are made. Wisdom resides in all corners of the internet.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “We are on the cusp of the innovation of the Kennedy-Nixon TV event with video blogging.”

Who you are: Dina Kaplan
Where you’re from: Blip.TV
Why you’re here: “I came because I really do think that political communications are going to change even more drastically. Videoblogging is going to change the landscape of politics. Its like TV but the means of production are in the hands of everyone.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I loved the conference. There was a great exchange of ideas – very stimulating.”

Who you are: Tim Karr
Where you’re from: Free Press
Why you’re here: “Because I was a speaker, and because Micah and Andrew do a very good job of getting people from all sides of the political spectrum.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I’ve absolutely learned a lot. [Net neutrality] is a very intense campaign, and we face a very well funded opposition. We must counter their money with grassroots activism.”

Who you are: Jay Greco
Where you’re from: Lincoln Voters
Why you’re here: “I’m interested in learning about voting technology.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “It wasn’t exactly the people I was looking for, but I still learned a lot.”

Who you are: Benjamin Rahn
Where you’re from: ActBlue
Why you’re here: “It’s a great opportunity to pimp ActBlue.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “It’s a great opportunity to meet new people.”

Who you are: Adam Klaus
Where you’re from: Working Assets
Why you’re here: “It’s a great opportunity to meet other people who are at the forefront of music technology and politics.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “There’s a real value in meeting people who are leaders in the industry.”

Who you are: Mike Krempasky
Where you’re from: Edelman
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I’ve met a lot of talented people who are doing great stuff.”

Who you are: David Pollak
Where you’re from: New Political Outreach
Why you’re here: “Because this conference was and continues to be on the cutting edge of political and technological strategies.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I got a lot out of it – I heard about new ways of communication.”

Who you are: Mary Hodder
Where you’re from: Dabble
Why you’re here: “Because Micah asked me. Also, hearing about net neutrality was important to me. I am very much a net neutrality advocate – we need it, it’s valuable.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “It is very interesting to think about how innovation can change politics. We can build communities online about elections, and then these ideas can merge right into government. The internet allows the whole deal to happen. This requires open internet.”

Who you are: Loren Blackford
Where you’re from: came independently
Why you’re here: “I came last year. It was very informative and an interesting mix of people.”
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “I enjoyed a number of the panels. What I most liked was the diversity – dealing with the [political] other side.”

Who you are: Susan Crawford
Where you’re from: OneWebDay
What you’ve gotten from the conference: “It was a lot of hard work. I’ve learned a lot about what the Republicans are doing, and that our side [of the net neutrality debate] needs many more professionals.”

Tags: pdf2006