Politics and Social Media panel this evening in Sacramento; live on Ustream at 7 p.m.

This evening I'm on a "Politics and Social Media" panel organized by the Sacramento Social Media Club, taking place at the Urban Hive in midtown at 20th and H.  Here are all the event details - program starts at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live via Ustream until 8:30 (that's the plan, anyway!). It should be an interesting discussion -- the Sacramento Social Media Club has put together a diverse set of panelists:

Kim Alexander, President and Founder, The California Voter Foundation

Steve Maviglio, Principal, Forza Communications

Bryan Merica, President, ID Media and co-founder, Fox and Hounds Daily

Chandra Sharma, Director of Technology and New Media, Meridian Pacific, Inc

Seth Unger, Communications Director for the Assembly Republican Caucus

Torey Van Oot, Capitol Alert correspondent, Sacramento Bee

Here's the gist of what I'll be saying:

When I think of political practices online, I think about what the founders of the Internet envisioned this technology could create.  They had a very egalitarian, inclusive view of the world and hoped the Internet would democratize politics, enable more people to participate more effectively, help raise the public’s voice, balance out the imbalances between big money and grassroots.  I would say that while the Internet is probably a lot more “dot com” than what they imagined, it is still a place where a true grassroots cause can take off like wildfire, and where someone can put a creative, low-budget video together and post it on YouTube and get a million views.