The 2008 Democratic National Convention: The Most Technologically-Savvy Event Of Its Kind?

Is this just another bogus promise by a political party? We are here in Denver to investigate the claim that "some of the most innovative technology available will be front and center" and find out how truthful it is.

First, we need to know what they mean by an "Event of its kind". We are going to have to assume they mean political conventions, because most technical conventions are far more tech-savvy then this than these politicos could ever muster.

"Anchoring the Convention’s technology offerings is the official Web site", says the official web site, which is nothing special, but will have fairly standard features like blogs and streaming video. The video is using SilverLight, like the Olympics, but they claim the streaming live video will allow the user to select different camera angles, which was not available on the Olympics site. I'm not sure if that is a significant technological advantage for this kind of event - they are just liars, I mean politicians giving speeches, after all.

So far, we're unimpressed, but over the next four days we will dig into all of the technology available to the general public and let you know how "tech-savvy" these democrats really are. Watch this space.

So far, we have learned that the wiring in the Pepsi center was woefully inadequate, or so Qwest said, and they had to lay miles of new copper, probably billed to the taxpayers of Denver. According to CNet, "The upgrades required approximately 3,344 miles of single strands of fiber and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable.

Qwest also added approximately 2,600 additional data lines and 3,400 voice grade circuits to serve both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field. Both venues are installed with video equipment with the capacity to to handle 130 simultaneous video feeds."

While impressive for the sheer magnitude of the project and the stupendous waste of money and resources for a 4-day event, made worse by the forced duplication at the football stadium, there is nothing particularly exciting from the technological perspective. Telephone lines, data lines, fiber optics, ho-hum.

The CIO of the City and County of Denver, when asked about the technology being used at the DNC by Government Technology magazine, could only come up with the mention of a backup 911 call center, portable AT&T cellular towers, some GIS mapping, and a replacement radio system for emergency responders. Other than the cell towers, these infrastructure items were scheduled anyway, and obviously had no visible impact to viewers and attendees.

Strangely, ColoradoBiz magazine quotes Chuck Ward, President of Qwest Communications-Colorado as saying: "Qwest is donating $6 million in services to the Democratic National Convention. Since July 8, when the Democratic National Committee moved in to the Pepsi Center, dozens of Qwest technicians have been installing 3,000 data lines, 2,500 telephone lines, 160 miles of copper and coaxial cable and more than a dozen miles of fiber-optic cable."

The numbers are not the same, but fact that Qwest donated all or most of the cost is significant. Does this represent a campaign contribution?

This is not to say that the convention was totally bereft of any exciting technology, as we heard numerous raves about sophisticated goings on at 3rd party sites like the Google Big Tent, the Microsoft Innovation Truck, and sites by other computer and phone vendors.

All in all, we have to conclude that, similar to every other claim about the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the assertion that it transcended all other conventions of its type is overblown at best.

Back to top

Next Page