Feb
20
2008
Opinions

Free Culture to Change Congress

Author An article by Phil    Comments No Comments

Lawrence Lessig, founder and CEO of Creative Commons is considering a new challenge, Congress.

http://lessig08.org/

Lessig ’08 – Change Congress. via kwout

Lessig believes that money is acting as a corrupting influence in Washington and is establishing a Change Congress movement to address that issue. Key actions for candidates supporting the bipartisan movement are:

  • refuse donations from lobyists or political action committees
  • ban earmarking of funds
  • support public financing of campaigns

Lessig is himself considering running for office in the California 12th as a way of advancing the project.

Laurence sees on-line communities and technologies as timely and important mechanisms for mobilizing the electorate and increasing transparency.

The Sunlight Foundation, for example, “supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people”.

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/

Sunlight Foundation via kwout

Activists are already emerging. A “Draft Lessig” site has been set up to promote and fund raise; together with a MySpace Page and a Facebook Group.

draft lessig

Internet activism in political, economic, spiritual and cultural areas has been stimulated by:

  • the Obama campaign
  • the EBay Strike
  • Anonymous vs. Scientology
  • the Free Culture movement

Providing fertile ground for grassroots empowerment.

While the campaign is focused on the United States the lessons, messages, frameworks and packages will have relevance internationally in political and non-political arenas where stakeholders perceive corruption.

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