If you'd like to have more influence over Congress, here are some suggestions: 1. Writing paper letters is great, but they take a long time to arrive, and many

If you'd like to have more influence over Congress, here are some suggestions: 1. Writing paper letters is great, but they take a long time to arrive, and many of them spend time in decontamination, etc., because of the various anthrax scares. Phone calls seem to work reasonably well, and they get there immediately. 2. Get a smart phone app for calling your Senators and Representatives, and for tracking legislation. On Android, I'm extremely fond of "Congress" from Sunlight Labs (which is apparently available as "Real-Time Congress" on the iPhone). Using this, you can make phone calls, track legislation, find related news stories, and so on. The current bill, for example, is apparently "S. 3804". 3. Before talking to your Senators' or Representatives' offices, write down some notes about what you want to say. Make sure you include the bill number, your background/job title (if it's relevant), where you live, and what you think they should do: vote for it, vote against it, etc. 4. Be polite. I'm told that if you're _really_ serious, the next steps are figuring out how to reach the specific staffers who handle the issues you care about, and to start building networks in your home state. Organize 20 or 30 like-minded hackers, and you, too, can flood your Congresspeople with intelligent calls, ask to meet with them when they're in town, and so on. Any other suggestions?