The conservative activists and bloggers at this weekend's RightOnline conference are only a riverboat ride away from the liberals over at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, but the two camps are still worlds apart. And not just in ideology.

Speakers at yesterday's launch of the right wing online activism conference at Station Square acknowledged that Republicans have fallen behind Democrats when it comes to political organizing and fundraising on the Web, which is partially why the conservative Americans For Prosperity Foundation launched the first RightOnline meeting last year.

They are so far behind that attendees at the first meeting of the afternoon were peppering panelists with introductory questions about Web jargon. What is a splash page? What are Tweets, or hashtags? Those at the liberal Netroots Nation conference are already fluent, warned Emily Zanotti, who blogs at American Princess.

Netroots "isn't about instructing people how to use the tools, it's about engaging in the conversation," she said.

Republicans have fallen behind in harnessing the Web for political fundraising too, something Democrats have done effectively since at least 2006. RightWingNews founder John Hawkins noted that he helped raise $900,000 for Republican candidates through traditional means in 2006 and 2008, but has generated a measly $700 for his Web site online.

Web fundraising among Republicans is "like herding cats through a yarn factory in a flood," Mr. Hawkins said.

Mr. Hawkins got interested in the Web during the Clinton years, when the right was ascendent online. The Drudge Report launched in 1997, for instance, and made its big splash with the Monica Lewinsky scandal a year later. With Barack Obama in office, conservative interest in the Web will surge again, many said yesterday.

Mr. Obama's election spurred Jane Gordon of Highland Park to start Conservative Allies, a networking blog for Western Pennsylvania conservatives.

"I don't feel safe about what is happening in my country," she said.

There were many at the conference looking forward to a three-day march in Washington that culminates on Sept. 12, which is shaping up as the latest conservative "tea party" protest, following earlier ones on tax day and Independence Day. Organizers are using blogs, training seminars, video and other online resources to promote the event.

Attendees yesterday were also feeling good about the often angry conservative opposition to Mr. Obama's health care reform plans at town hall meetings lately.

"Right now we're winning," said Nathan Benefield of the Commonwealth Foundation. "The evidence is clear because the left has taken an 'attack the messenger' approach."

"The big theme is we're all mobsters," added financial analyst Eric Singer at a health care panel attended by 250. "If you're a mobster, raise your hand."

Almost everyone in the room did.