Announcing...
After many late nights and very early mornings, YearlyKos beta is up for your review!
Continue across the fold for the exciting details, more information about the YearlyKos mission, and how to participate, register, and donate.
YearlyKos: Launching a website and building a movement...
Check out our new site!
It's not yet as pretty as our old website, but there's an important difference: the new site is built with open source software developed by the good folks at CivicSpace Labs. Not only does CivicSpace match our philosophy of creating in an opensource environment, their software has allowed the non-techie YearlyKos team to actually put up a website that works. Of course we had a lot of help. Thanks to Andrew and our friends from CivicSpace for helping us get the job done. We're still in need of development help and, obviously, a real designer, as well in other areas you may notice as you tour the site (it's beta, remember), but we've entirely rewritten the copy and changed the concept of how our website will work and flow.
Please take a look at how we've fine tuned our message and some of our website collaboration tools.
The big news is that we can now take paid registrations and donations. But before we shoo you over to register or donate, let's talk a little about our "fine-tuned" message.
Who we are...
YearlyKos.org will provide a platform where individuals, organizations, and institutions with common values can collaborate to change the direction in which this country is going. We want to take the voices of the many (and we are many) and harness that energy so that we are heard. So that we are more than a cash machine to those who share our values and want our votes.
What the hell that means...
It means that there are thousands if not millions of people using blogs and sites like the DailyKos, MyDD, Atrios, AmericaBlog, Raw Story, and Talking Points Memo for information, news, and commentary. A huge percentage of those people are progressive and go to progressive sites for commentary and opinion. Because our numbers are so strong, we are courted by elected officials, organizations, candidates, and political parties. But what have these folks done for us lately? Do they really "get" the netroots? How do we make them "get" it? What are we doing to make sure we're heard and not just plundered? How do we hold our elected officials accountable for their votes on legislation, nominees, and policy?
We start something like YearlyKos, that's how.
What we're doing...
YearlyKos will bring individuals, institutions, organizations, candidates to the netroots. We won't just bring them to a convention, we'll bring them into the process of building the convention. We'll invite everyone to collaborate to build the convention agenda in the Think Tank and to reach out to the community in which the convention is to be held in the LAB Las Vegas. YearlyKos will give velocity to our beliefs, heft to our voice. And we'll leave organization and a common voice in our wake, infrastructure, and the building blocks for a future in which we are not discounted.
Ok, sounds good. But what are the specifics?
How we will do it...
YearlyKos will put blogging technology to uses outside the blog. The netroots will plan the convention through two systems: The Think Tank and LAB Las Vegas. The planning will be open source, open contribution, transparent. To borrow a line from Walter Cronkite, YearlyKos will be a sharp contrast to the secrecy of those currently in power, it will let the public share in construction of a convention and a progressive future.
The Think Tank will center on collaborative agenda planning. The community will discuss how issues are presented at the convention. The LAB will be our outreach to the local community of the city in which the convention is to be held. We hope these blog-like systems will become standard progressive tools throughout the country. Watch for future diaries explaining more about how the Think Tank and the LAB work.
What we want from you and how you can give it to us...
We want you to participate in building the convention. Then we want you there. We also need to raise approximately $40,000 in this quarter to pay for hotel deposit installments (approximately $27,000), a server and custom programming ($4,500), web development (approx. $1000) and around about $7,500 in operating expenses including reimbursement for legal filing fees, travel expenses, supplies, etc., for the all volunteer YearlyKos staff. We hope you will consider investing in YearlyKos so that YearlyKos can continue to investing in you, the netroots.
We could also use our own version of a bat to track our progress. Artists, feel free to contact us with your ideas!
If you don't know by now, the YearlyKos Convention 2006 will be on June 8 - 11, 2006 at The Riviera Hotel off the Las Vegas strip. It will cost money to come ($95 for early registration plus transportation and lodging) and we'll ask for further donations if you are willing. We're also asking you to tell us which organizations and corporations you want us to ask for monetary contributions, because our registration fees only begin to cover our cost. Thanks to Martha and our friends at BuyBlue for helping us find the kinds of organiztions we would like to sponsor us.
Further, we'll have a store with YearlyKos goodies, including the soon to be famous Trollhouse Cookbook, and will ask for further input on fundraising as we approach the convention.
Why you should help plan and attend the YearlyKos convention...
There have been many diaries of late regarding the need to convene and capitalize on the downward slide of those who oppose progressive values. We're not a political party, we're nonpartisan, we won't endorse any candidates. But in order for the current power structure to know what we want and what concerns us, we need to start walking the walk off the keyboard and up to the megaphone. Go to the YearlyKos website, poke around, talk, listen and work with others. Help plan the YearlyKos convention and register to attend.
It's going to be amazing and we want you there!
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