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I'll happily sign it, but is this effective? As a noob developer and someone who cares about online privacy, what tangible things can I do to actually change t

I'll happily sign it, but is this effective? As a noob developer and someone who cares about online privacy, what tangible things can I do to actually change the system/ make a dent in it? Suggestions: 1.) Free SEO growth hacking for politicians that vehemently oppose invasions of online privacy. 2.) Help me out......

mindcrime 13y ago
As a noob developer and someone who cares about online privacy, what tangible things can I do to actually change the system/ make a dent in it? 1. Cash. Cold, hard, cash. Donate it to the EFF, and/or whatever other organizations you think stand to move public policy in a better direction, or otherwise contribute to improving the situation. Maybe also consider the Free Software Foundation, EPIC, the Libertarian Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, etc. 2. Organize people and educate them. Start a "Digital Privacy Meetup" in your town, and invite speakers to talk about using Tor, I2P, GPG, SSL/TLS, etc. Get some people educated on these issues and then send them out to speak at other events. 3. Join Toastmasters, practice giving speeches and presentations. Get really good at it. Run for public office. Get elected (or not). In either case, your campaign is a platform to promote a message and spread the word about something you believe in. 4. Give cash to the campaigns of candidates who you believe actually reflect your values. Don't limit yourself to Democrats and Republicans either. If the Libertarian Party candidate, or the Green Party candidate, or the Constitution Party candidate, or the Pirate Party candidate are best in your opinion, throw some support their way. 3rd party candidates can influence the debate, and influence the election, even when they aren't the eventual winner. Don't ignore the nth order effects.
smacktoward 13y ago
If you can raise a pot of money, you can get politicians' attention. The bigger the pot, the more the attention. Start a PAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee). Yours would be a "non-connected" PAC, meaning it's not associated with a corporation, trade group, etc. This is just a matter of filing a form with the FEC; they even provide a toolkit (http://www.fec.gov/info/toolkit.shtml#nonconnected http://www.fec.gov/info/toolkit.shtml#nonconnected) with the required form and instructions on how to fill it out. Now you can start raising money. Use your SEO skills to collect donations online. PACs are restricted to raising $5,000/year from individuals, but in the world of small-dollar online donations, that's fine. Your goal is to get lots of small donations, not a few big ones. Now you've got your pot of money; what can you do with it? First, you can give some of it directly to candidates -- up to $5,000 per cycle to each candidate. That may not sound like a lot, if you establish yourself as a "maxed out" donor to a candidate, they will be very interested in your opinions. More interestingly, you can take that money and make what are called "independent expenditures." This means buying ads that directly urge people to vote for Candidate X or against Candidate Y. The "independent" part just means you can't "coordinate" your ad plan with any campaign; so if you're going to run ads slagging Candidate Y, you can't work with her opponent to harmonize your ad calendar or message with his. There are no limits to how much a PAC can spend on independent expenditures, so if you can raise enough money, you can pick a candidate who's particularly bad on your issues and absolutely carpet-bomb his district with negative ads. It may not be enough to cost him the election, but you'll win either way: if you unseat him, you have a trophy you can wield to convince other candidates they should listen to you; if you don't, you'll have made it very clear to him that you're prepared to make his life difficult every two years as long as he maintains his current position. Many politicians' positions are weakly held, so he may be happy to change his stance in exchange for you carpet-bombing his district with ads saying how great he is next time around.

mindcrime 13y ago

As a noob developer and someone who cares about online privacy, what tangible things can I do to actually change the system/ make a dent in it? 1. Cash. Cold, hard, cash. Donate it to the EFF, and/or whatever other organizations you think stand to move public policy in a better direction, or otherwise contribute to improving the situation. Maybe also consider the Free Software Foundation, EPIC, the Libertarian Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, etc. 2. Organize people and educate them. Start a "Digital Privacy Meetup" in your town, and invite speakers to talk about using Tor, I2P, GPG, SSL/TLS, etc. Get some people educated on these issues and then send them out to speak at other events. 3. Join Toastmasters, practice giving speeches and presentations. Get really good at it. Run for public office. Get elected (or not). In either case, your campaign is a platform to promote a message and spread the word about something you believe in. 4. Give cash to the campaigns of candidates who you believe actually reflect your values. Don't limit yourself to Democrats and Republicans either. If the Libertarian Party candidate, or the Green Party candidate, or the Constitution Party candidate, or the Pirate Party candidate are best in your opinion, throw some support their way. 3rd party candidates can influence the debate, and influence the election, even when they aren't the eventual winner. Don't ignore the nth order effects.

smacktoward 13y ago

If you can raise a pot of money, you can get politicians' attention. The bigger the pot, the more the attention. Start a PAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee). Yours would be a "non-connected" PAC, meaning it's not associated with a corporation, trade group, etc. This is just a matter of filing a form with the FEC; they even provide a toolkit (http://www.fec.gov/info/toolkit.shtml#nonconnected http://www.fec.gov/info/toolkit.shtml#nonconnected) with the required form and instructions on how to fill it out. Now you can start raising money. Use your SEO skills to collect donations online. PACs are restricted to raising $5,000/year from individuals, but in the world of small-dollar online donations, that's fine. Your goal is to get lots of small donations, not a few big ones. Now you've got your pot of money; what can you do with it? First, you can give some of it directly to candidates -- up to $5,000 per cycle to each candidate. That may not sound like a lot, if you establish yourself as a "maxed out" donor to a candidate, they will be very interested in your opinions. More interestingly, you can take that money and make what are called "independent expenditures." This means buying ads that directly urge people to vote for Candidate X or against Candidate Y. The "independent" part just means you can't "coordinate" your ad plan with any campaign; so if you're going to run ads slagging Candidate Y, you can't work with her opponent to harmonize your ad calendar or message with his. There are no limits to how much a PAC can spend on independent expenditures, so if you can raise enough money, you can pick a candidate who's particularly bad on your issues and absolutely carpet-bomb his district with negative ads. It may not be enough to cost him the election, but you'll win either way: if you unseat him, you have a trophy you can wield to convince other candidates they should listen to you; if you don't, you'll have made it very clear to him that you're prepared to make his life difficult every two years as long as he maintains his current position. Many politicians' positions are weakly held, so he may be happy to change his stance in exchange for you carpet-bombing his district with ads saying how great he is next time around.