Lawrence Lessig ... speaking to a packed house at the DIA user conference keynote.

(ot) Seating nailed down at the power strip oasis. Why are there never enough outlets? airports are a special offender in this ... or, maybe i should think about a computer with more than 30 seconds of battery life.

Monday's registration deadline for the DIA user conference has passed, but you might have noticed you can still get to the registration page.

Here's the deal: there are about a dozen spots left. We'd like to fill them, but we also need to have a final-final head count for the hotel by the end of the week. So registration is going to be held open to tomorrow, Friday, June 20. That's the stone-cold, after-the-deadline deadline; we won't be able to handle on-site registrations, so if you're still juggling plans or otherwise uncertain, get in touch with us and let us know what's up no later than tomorrow.

This. Is. Hot.

Lawrence Lessig, Stanford law professor, free culture paladin, social change advocate -- man, in short, about the technology activist town -- has just been officially confirmed to keynote the upcoming DemocracyInAction Community Conference.

The conference takes place June 26-27 in downtown Washington, D.C.; Lessig will address the morning plenary on Friday, June 27th on "Change Congress". Maybe you caught him at the recent National Conference on Media Reform?

You'll find him on the expanded agenda also just released.

Did we mention (repeatedly?) that that's on top of two days' wall-to-wall Salsa training, online strategizing, and elbow rubbing with the best and brightest?

Did we mention there are only three days left to register?

Don't put it off another day -- register now!

The speakers list is coming together, and dang if it isn't a fine one. Rub elbows with the likes of:

• Marty Kearns (Green Media Toolshed, Net-centric Campaigns)
• Judith Freeman (New Organizing Institute)
• Marc Laitin (Consultant)
• Colin Delany (e.politics)
• Jenn Smith (Watershed)
• Allyson Kapin (Rad Campaign)
• David Taylor (Radical Designs)
• Rosalyn Lemieux  (Consultant)
• Alan Rosenblatt (Center for American Progress)
• Trina Zahller (Oil Change International)

And crib organizing notes from the best and brightest, like

• MomsRising
• Center for American Progress
• Oceana
• 1SkyBrave
• Step It Up
• Oil Change International
• CIVIC
• True Majority
• Genocide Intervention Network
• Code Pink

Did we mention that you're running out of time to register?

Last-minute shoppers, the June 16 deadline for registration is fast approaching.

Maybe you've been busy. Haven't had time yet. Been waiting on a few things to fall into place. We've all been there.

But the calendar has rolled over to June and space is limited, so now's the time to make the time to register.

Salsa Commons, a new common site for all organizations using the Salsa toolset whether through DemocracyInAction or anywhere else, debuted today.

At the moment, what you'll see is a user manual, which is (in ascending order of importance):

• A massive update from the previous manual available, which had become dated in several key areas;
  
• An easily updatable wiki that will serve as a living document we can update and add to as we build;
  
• The kernel of a much larger project to build in other kinds of documentation, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and a panoply of other resources.

We've been talking about launching this vessel so long, it's sweet to smash the champagne. It comes with a new feedback address -- documentation at salsacommons.org. Tell us there, here, or anywhere what you think!

"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks." -Mary Wollstonecraft

A couple of weeks ago, there was a thread called "google & privacy" on the lib-techie mailing list Progressive Exchange, commenced with an innocent question about the search behemoth's ubiquitous IP tracking, and losing itself on the fringes of a trackless mire over the relative corporate responsibility of making profitable terms with the Chinese government.

Google makes slick tools, and I've certainly left my own fingerprints all over their logs. But it's pretty surprising the degree to which many progressives are willing to let Google skate with no more accountability than its Wal-Mart-smiley slogan, "Don't Be Evil" -- or even, in criticism, to underscore some perceived failure of non-evilness as a matter for corporate ethos and little more.

It's here! In the spirit of providing the best learning opportunities, networking possibilities and progressive leadership for 2008 and beyond, we've been working hard on preparing our first ever community conference.

We're talking two days of hands-on, interactive training from DemocracyInAction staff and your colleagues in other member organizations!

The conference will take place in Washington, D.C. on June 26-27th at the Hotel Palomar. If you haven't checked the location out yet, it's a sustainably developed hotel in the heart of Dupont Circle with fabulous conference space (think windows in every room) and delicious meal plans (vegans and veggies, rejoice!)

Save the date and watch for updates: June 26-27 in Washington D.C., at the Hotel Palomar we'll be hosting our first user conference.

A lot's been happening in the year since we rolled out Salsa, both in the toolset and in the space, so there'll be plenty to talk about.

We'll do some tools features, both old standbys and the new toys that seem to roll out every day; we'll do some strategy training and best practices; we'll do a lot of peer learning because there are much smarter people than us doing all kinds of innovative things; we'll have no shortage of socializing, networking, and general merrymaking with the fantastic circle of progressive activists using Salsa; and we'll learn from each other where we should be headed next.

The agenda is in a developmental stage, so if you've got something you're dying to see happen, drop it in the comments here or drop one of us a line.

On April 5, 2004, e-CRM toolmaker Kintera peaked at $17.73 a share. On that date, Bear Stearns' high was $87.53 -- a little less than five times Kintera's value per share.

At any point in the intervening four years, Kintera shareholders would have been overjoyed to trade at one-fifth Bear Stearns.

Today, they got there. Current valuations:

Kintera $0.66
Bear Stearns: $3.82

???

Profit!