[DC LoCo] OT: Tim O'Reilly and others say call your congress-thing and tell them to oppose SOPA / E-PARASITE / PROTECT IP bills

[Mackenzie Morgan]

Yes, I've heard that *form letters* are bad... but that's true in any
medium, including the piles of form letter faxes some of them get (who
uses faxes???). If you actually use your congressperson's contact form
on their website to type in what you think, though, that's not a form
letter so gets the same weight as any other letter without pissing off
the people having to skim it to decide what pile it goes in.

Also, physical letters take days to arrive (and I kind of doubt the
sorting is same-day), whereas you can email ya know...now, right in
the middle of the hearing, and have it actually get there.

I like PopVox.com for telling congresscritters what I think of bills.
It was started by a former staffer partnering up with a former
lobbyist to let people send either simple "I support HR1234"/"I oppose
HR1234" or longer user-written emails to their congresspeople and then
the same one automatically to senators as well if it moves from HR to
S (or vice versa if other direction) and publicly tally the opinions
for nation, state, and district with maps and graphs.  Good for
transparency (can see when the congresscritters vote against popular
opinion), and easier for the hill-people to sort.  For the
congresscritters whose website contact forms are just plain broken,
they show up with Santa-Claus-like bags of letters to drop on
someone's desk.

Here's SOPA: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr3261/report#nation

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Jeremy C. <jeremyc4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Their staff can think whatever they want ... that doesn't discount that your
> post card/letter will in fact be tallied. It's also MUCH more likely to
> actually be read by someone than just drag-and-dropped along with hundreds
> of other emails.
> I've also spoken to several staffers (I was previously part of the ACLU's
> online advocacy team in their DC lobbying office)  and many of them have
> relayed that when they see a deluge of form "letters" that come from an
> online advocacy campaign (that are delivered as emails), they tend to
> discount the fact that some organization was pushing that campaign and that
> people simply clicked twice to send the message .... while personal,
> thought-out, one-off physical letters where much more influential and even
> potentially could be passed on to the Representative as an example of
> broader constituent sentiment.
> Either way, folks ... do one or the other ... and then follow up with a
> quick phone call noting the bill number (HR 3261) and that you would like
> your representative to STRONGLY OPPOSE the legislation.
> - Jeremy Caverly
> http://about.me/JeremyCee
>
> On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Mackenzie Morgan <macoafi at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Sending physical mail instead of emails just makes their staff hate
>> you because then they have to go sort it, tally it, put it in the
>> computer, etc. by hand instead of... clicking and dragging from the
>> mail client to the "oppose" pile.
>>
>> That junk teachers told you in middle school about physical letters
>> being better than email for constituent communications? Multiple hill
>> staffers and former-staffers have told me it's junk and makes their
>> lives harder. They want email.
>>
>> (Though if your teacher said an online petition is ineffective,
>> they're probably right, because those tend not to include addresses,
>> which are necessary for determining whether you're actually a
>> constituent...or ya know...exist at all...so they tend to be highly
>> suspect for fraud reasons. But using your congresscritter's contact
>> form that requires your address? Go for it!)
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Jeremy C. <jeremyc4 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Or better yet ... send them a Post Card for free
>> >
>> > - http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/15/speak-out-against-sopa-send-congress-a-physical-letter-in-just-a-few-clicks/
>> > Video Explaining the Legislation
>> > http://vimeo.com/31100268
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:36 AM, Kevin Cole <dc.loco at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi all,
>> >>
>> >> According to a recent Google+ post from Tim O'Reilly
>> >>
>> >> https://plus.google.com/u/0/107033731246200681024/posts/Vr1spDFt8Aj
>> >>
>> >> > "This is really important. They aren't even hearing testimony from
>> >> > opponents
>> >> > of the bill. The 'hearings' are a sham, with testimony from
>> >> > supporters
>> >> > only."
>> >>
>> >> IMHO, regardless of one's opinion of the legislation, there should at
>> >> least be a better pretense of a hearing.
>> >>
>> >> See the above link for more info / opinion.
>> >>
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>> >
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>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mackenzie Morgan
>>
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>



-- 
Mackenzie Morgan