AUSTIN, Texas -- The third annual convention of liberal online activists kicked off tonight, with Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean starting the long weekend with a fiery keynote speech.

"In my generation, we would have started a political group," Dean said to the massive room of attendees seated at laptop-adorned tables. "The Netroots generation simply goes online to find an affinity group, and if it can't find one, simply starts its own to get things done."

Some 2,000 people from around the country (and abroad) are gathering at the Austin Convention Center for Netroots Nation 2008 -- formerly known as "Yearly Kos." Here, grassroots activists already utilizing the vast advantages of the Internet are gathering to exchange ideas and become more effective in pushing liberal issues and electing Democratic candidates. The weekend will be filled with numerous panel discussions, workshops and training sessions, and will feature speakers such as Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, Democratic Leadership Council chairman Harold Ford Jr. and a number of candidates for office.

Top billing at this year's event goes to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom attendees will engage with in a direct discussion on legislative and political issues. She is currently scheduled to speak Saturday morning for close to two hours. At last year's convention, held in Chicago, seven Democratic candidates for president attended, including both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The presumptive Democratic nominee will not attend this year, though members of his campaign are holding a panel discussion that will offer an inside look into how the campaign was organized.

Dean mentioned Obama on a number of occasions, calling him "the candidate of the future of America." He compared this presidential race to the one in 1960, when "Kennedy ran for the new generation, and Richard Nixon ran for the old one." Dean said he expects the race between Obama and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain to be close.

Before Dean stepped to the podium, retired Gen. Wesley Clark spoke to the crowd. "You keep America going in the right direction," Clark said. "We needed you for so long in this country, and we need you desperately right now." Clark thanked the Netroot-ers for helping launch his 2004 bid for the Democratic nomination, and noted his much criticized statement on CBS's "Face the Nation" that McCain's military service doesn't necessarily qualify him to be president. "I hate to say it, but I was taken out of context," Clark said.

Dean said it is time to "say no to the Republican politics of hate and division" and that Obama would bring a moral authority to the office of the president that he said has been missing for the last eight years. He called on the audience to continue to be politically active and "keep doing what you're doing."

"I thank you not only for what you've done," Dean said, "but for what you're about to do. ...We are passing the torch. That's what this campaign is all about."