August 13, 2002 Geeks in Government: A Good Idea?
The notion that cybergeeks should stay out of the political process and stick only to writing code is a misguided idea that could have damaging consequences. In the past, tech activists may not always have effectively organized or expressed their opinions, but now that our ability to use technology as we intended is under attack, there is no better time to change this.
Writing code and taking political action are not logical opposites when it comes to protecting freedoms. You need one to do the other. For example, take the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The code that would allow someone to play a DVD on my GNU/Linux operating system already exists - but it is illegal under that law. Any code that gets written to do the same job is going to be illegal under the DMCA. Political action to repeal or amend the DMCA is the *only* route for geeks.
No amount of good code can overcome harmful laws and bad policy. Public Knowledge Board Member Larry Lessig has made this abundantly clear. Code, law and the future health of programming must be compatible. Geeks are the best people to help lawmakers understand the impact of bad technology laws and policy.
Declan is right in one sense - geeks sending a bunch of flaming emails to lawmakers is not going to work: that is one reason why Public Knowledge exists. We are organizing real and effective political participation that lawmakers can understand - sophisticated geek knowledge and understanding is a critical part of this process.
Public Knowledge makes it easier to participate politically. The ten minutes it takes to sign up on our mailing list, make a donation, or participate in a campaign isn’t going to mean you don’t write a piece of amazing freedom-producing software. You can take political action and you can write code.
Public Knowledge is taking on the task of turning geek activism into effective policy action. Here is how we propose to do it:
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Over the next few months, we are going to launch technology to organize and consolidate grassroots activity on policy issues affecting copyright and technology. The idea here is to build a true grassroots movement on these issues. When real people in large numbers organize to make their voices heard, Congress listens - legislation regulating tobacco and campaign finance reform are just two examples where the American people have won over large corporate interests.
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Public Knowledge will continue to work with and organize other important constituencies. We are already working with the libraries, educators, scientific researchers, artists, musicians, writers and representatives from the consumer electronics, retail and tech industries to strengthen our political clout.
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Public Knowledge has hired a new Public Policy Director with over fourteen years of substantial legal and Hill experience related to technology. He will continue, and strengthen, Public Knowledge’s day-to-day policy advocacy activity in the halls of Congress, in administrative agencies and in the press.
