Lenny MacAllister, co-founder of the Hip Hop Republicans, and Navarro Wright, the founder of Global Grind and former CTO of BET, discussed political activism in the digital age.   Their remarks can be summed up in three powerful words: interaction, participation and personalization.

MacAllister said that Hip Hop Republicans began as a site, but became a movement thanks to a viral migration to many social networking sites.     He shared three things that he believes technology means for politics.
1)     Increased activism.
2)     Redefinition of politics as the easily digestible online format makes for more informed citizens.
3)     Harder working politicians and more responsive elected officials

Navarro believes that social networks give everyone’s voice equality.   Obama was able to connect one-on-one with everyone because he had profiles on every major social network, including BlackPlanet and Hi5 alongside Facebook and MySpace.   Navarro believes that policymakers need to get more educated about the social networking landscape.

I repeat — Interaction, participation, and personalization!

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