Asked by audience members what he had done wrong during the campaign, Trippi said one regret was spending $1 million on advertising in many states very early, before retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark entered the race.
"If I could take that one back, I would do it in a second," he said.
Trippi, a technology veteran as well as a longtime political operative, mostly recounted his success in taking Dean from an unknown former governor from a small state to a position atop the national polls until just before the Iowa caucuses. There, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry scored a victory that led to Dean's slide from front-runner status -- and Trippi's replacement as campaign manager.
Under Trippi's leadership, Dean embraced new technologies, allowing supporters to offer input on campaign strategy and communicate with each other through the Web. Dean also raised $41 million, much of it online and in small donations.
Trippi said mechanical glitches -- such as weeding out fake Web messages from people pretending to be campaign officials -- would be fixed as future campaigns improved the technology. The Dean campaign was just the first stop in an inevitable process of change, he said.
And Trippi intends to be part of whatever comes next. "I'm not going to sit on the sidelines," he said.
He said he had registered a now-dormant Internet Web site, ChangeForAmerica.com, and was trying to decide what to do with it.
Trippi said he was convinced that the Web would play a major role in harnessing support for the eventual Democratic nominee, but that such an effort might not prove a unifying and lasting force.
"The real moment of truth will come if that guy winds up losing. Is there a way to do it without a personality at the top?" Trippi asked. "That's why I'm here. This is our responsibility."
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Times staff writer Lisa Getter contributed to this report.
