GOP, Like Democrats, Turns To IT To Manage Convention

Like the Democrats a month ago, the Republicans are relying heavily on information technology to organize and manage their biggest event of the year. To ensure that this technology is easy to use and can be quickly set up and dismantled, the Republicans--like their opponents--are relying on industry-standard technology, much of it supplied by Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.

In fact, HP and Microsoft each have donated $1 million to the Democratic and Republican parties for use at their respective conventions. All equipment, including TC-1100 tablet PCs, 4350 iPaq handheld computers, desktop PCs, and printers, is being turned over to local government institutions and community centers following the Republican National Convention in New York, as was the plan for the Democrats in Boston.

Convention organizers are working on an infrastructure based on Windows 2003 Server and Active Directory as well as Exchange 2003 and Internet Security and Acceleration server. Organizers will have Internet access to E-mail via Outlook Web Access.