Here's a peek at the emerging program for this year's fifth annual Personal Democracy Forum, which is coming up this June 23-24 in New York City. We're pretty excited about the line-up that's taking shape (and the fact that this is the first year we're expanding to two days). Plus we think that this year's event is going to be a seminal moment in defining the Internet's impact in opening up not only politics, but also governance (i.e., all the important stuff that happens after the election is over).

"Rebooting the System" is our overall theme, and we'll be delving deep into how internet-driven mass participation is transforming everything from political media and message-making to fundraising and field organizing, along with how big institutions like governments, campaigns and membership organizations are adapting. Day One will focus on the impacts on politics (campaigns, elections, media, etc.), while Day Two will focus on the ways that governance and civic engagement are being changed.

What follows is an overview of what to expect; everything is still subject to change, and I'm not putting in a detailed minute-by-minute schedule because that is still in flux. Plus we have a few panels that are still in formation and some major speakers who aren't quite ready to be announced...

Day One is focused on how technology is changing campaigns, elections and the media system, and inevitably as this is an election year, we're paying close attention to how voter-generated content is emerging as a major force in politics.

The morning plenary will include keynote talks from:
-Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody) and Zephyr Teachout (Dean '04 internet organizer), each talking in different ways about how we're just beginning to see the potential of the internet play out in politics;
-Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post) and Chuck Defeo (CEO of Townhall.com), each taking a close look at whether internet-powered media is creating a genuinely new media system;
-Jane Hamsher (FireDogLake.com) and Patrick Ruffini (The Next Right), exploring, respectively, how the role of the net-roots and the right-roots is being redefined by this election; and
-Elizabeth Edwards, returning to grace PdF again with her presence (she keynoted two years ago), to give her firsthand view of the power and prospects of internet-driven politics.

Scattered thru the plenary will also be a handful of demos and data visualization presentations, including an eye-opener from Anthony Hamelle of Linkfluence, on visualizing the political blogosphere and the campaigns' role in it.

In the afternoon, we'll move into in-depth concurrent breakout sessions on a wide variety of topics. Here are some of the highlights:
-Jose Antonio Vargas (Washington Post), Ana Marie Cox (Time), Ben Smith (Politico) and Sarah Lai Stirland (Wired) will talk about the covering the political web and web politics, a topic that they have been pioneering this whole election cycle;
-Catherine Geanuracos (Live Earth), Jed Alpert (Mobile Commons), Becky Bond (Credo Mobile) and Katrin Verclas (Mobile Active) will give us the latest from the rapidly growing world of mobile politics, with a focus on what it will take to "unblock" the future and substantially expand the use of mobile phones as political tools in the U.S. (Hopefully, we'll have a participant from the Obama campaign on this panel too, but I can't confirm that yet.)
-Mayhill Fowler (Off the Bus), Mary Katherine Ham (Townhall.com), Amy Holmes (CNN), and Jay Rosen (PressThink) will look at how citizen journalists and "semi-pro" bloggers are helping to reinvent political media and, sometimes, even change the campaign narrative.
-Matt DeBergalis (ActBlue), David All (SlateCard), Justine Lam (Ron Paul '08), and Julie Barko Germany (IPDI), will explore the internet fundraising frontier, and make sure we all understand how to generate an online "money bomb."
-Ed Cone (Ziff Davis), Wendy Norris (Colorado Confidential), Michael Van Winkle (Sam Adams Alliance), Liza Sabater (Daily Gotham) and Alex Hunsucker (Eventful.com) will follow the old adage that "all politics is local" and focus on how local bloggers are shaking up the local political scene in cities and states across the country.

Day One will close with a plenary panel on what worked and what didn't work with the internet strategies of the 2008 presidential campaigns. All of the top campaigns will be represented; more details on this soon. I'll also have more details on other Day One breakout sessions as they congeal. We'll close the day out with a rollicking party for all the registered attendees.

Day Two is focusing on how technology is changing governance and civic engagement, and we'll be cutting new turf on everything from the potential of "collaborative governance" or "wiki government" to new ways of attacking and solving BIG problems like political corruption, climate change, and improving basic services.

The morning plenary will include keynotes from:
-Douglas Rushkoff (author of Open Source Democracy, among many titles), giving us the big picture on the new Renaissance age that we're entering;
-Larry Lessig (Change-Congress.org), talking about how open data and open government can help reduce corruption and restore public trust;
-Robin Chase (ZipCar and GoLoco), and Van Jones (Green for All) will explore how social technology can help us address the urgent issue of climate change;
-Beth Noveck (NY Law School) and MP Tom Watson (UK Cabinet Office) will discuss the power of information and the social web to reinvent governance;
-Matthew Hurst (Microsoft), one of the leaders in the growing field of data visualization, will use his tools to explore how social media and mainstream media are colliding and affecting our perceptions of politics;
-Morley Winograd, the co-author of the new book, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics, will explain why current trends suggest we are on the verge of a new "civic generation" in American politics; and
-Mark Pesce, digital anthropologist and co-inventor of VRML, will give us his vision of "Hyperpolitics," i.e. what happens when everyone in the world is connected.

After lunch, we'll shift into concurrent breakout sessions again:
-Vint Cerf (Google), Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) and Alec Ross (Obama '08) will wrestle with national technology policy, and the best ways forward for America;
-Josh Marshall (TalkingPointsMemo), Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films), Matthew Sheffield (Newsbusters.org), and Steve Grove (YouTube) will share their secrets for mastering the new world of online political video;
-Ellen Miller (Sunlight Foundation), Mark Tapscott (Washington Examiner), and Matt Stoller (OpenLeft.com) will explain the strange bedfellow politics of transparency;
-Steven Clift (e-democracy.org), Tom Steinberg (mySociety.org), Bev Godwin (USA.gov), Sarah Schact (Knowledge as Power) and Justin Hamilton (Rep. George Miller's office) will dig into "Design principles for online democracy: how to connect government and constituents in the internet age";
-Jason Calacanis (Mahalo), Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), and Ami Dar (Idealist.org) will explain how they make messages that go viral, in a session we're calling (pace Seth Godin), "Ideas that spread win";
-Vijay Navindran (Catalist), Paul Davis (Voter Genome Project) and Greg Elin (Sunlight Labs) will gather the real data geeks in the house for a session on building new tools for getting out the vote, getting out the vote and going hyper-local;
-Henry Copeland (BlogAds), AJ Schuler (Commonsense Media), Michael Bassik (MSHC), and Kate Kaye (ClickZ) will talk about online advertising and new ways of both making and spending money online.

We'll also work in some demos of cool new tools for finding out what government is up to, and for collective decision making, interspersed through out the day. Plus we'll bring back the "Idea Market," the movable feast of fast talks and hands-on demos that was a hit at last year's conference.

Day Two will conclude with a major closing plenary on the question of "Redefining Leadership in a Networked Age." Confirmed speakers include Craig Newmark (Craigslist.org), Joe Trippi (Edwards '08), and Scott Heiferman (Meetup.com).

As I said above, the program is still a work in progress. I haven't listed every session, as several are still taking shape. So if you're already a confirmed speaker and I didn't mention you in this post, don't worry, things are coming along nicely and I'll be updating as we go along.

Remember, the early bird rates on registration will close May 31. If you haven't registered yet, go to pdf2008.confabb.com and sign up!