Call it the political counterpart of Moore’s Law: With each quadrennial national political convention, the use of information technology seems to grow exponentially. This year, with the Democratic and Republican gatherings barely two months away, officials of both parties involved in planning the conventions say they are utilizing technology to get their messages across in more ways than ever before.

For example, the Republican convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul has a YouTube channel and has launched a YouTube video contest to attract Internet users -- while the Democratic gathering in Denver also will make heavy use of the YouTube technology. Compare that to 2004: YouTube didn’t exist four years ago when the Democrats and Republicans met in Boston and New York, respectively.

Microsoft General Manager of Government Solutions Joel Cherkis said that the planning committees for both party conventions have shown much more interest this year in reaching out to tech providers and considering the role of technology early on in the planning process.