Change Congress — love that

Of all the possibilities that the digital age brings, I find the prospect of social network-driven grassroots democracy — that could actually change congress – to be most intriguing.

It all started after I read the Business Week article about the tech company Blue State that worked on the Howard Dean campaign. The article’s reference to Blue State’s work for AT&T offered a great example of what democracy in the digital age is all about. At that time, 2005, AT&T was trying to expand to its service to include digital television. Considering the hold that existing cable companies had on the market, AT&T really needed help circumventing stiff cable franchise laws in certain states, particularly, Connecticut.

Blue State used the Web and social media networks to rally grassroots support to appeal to Connecticut legislators. The more than 30,000 letters from grassroots groups to the state’s legislators resulted in a new law passed in October 2007 that allows for the issuing of cable franchise licenses to companies other than the tradition cable companies. The new legislation gave AT&T the leverage it needed to compete with that state’s cable giants.

If that kind of grassroots rallying, organized primarily online, helped influence Connecticut legislators, could online grassroots groups influence national policy issues? Groups calling for congressional reform think so. One such movement, I stumbled upon while reading snippets and listening to soundbites from the personal democracy forum conference, was Larry Lessig’s Change Congress movement …

“It’s not enough to change government every four years, we have to build a more sustained movement that after a period a time can really embed the change the government needs to make it a government people can trust again. This ideal has motivated members [citizens] and candidates to build the change congress movement,” Larry Lessig.

Craig Newmark, of Craig’s List, is an expert on the power of “ordinary people,” to take matters into their own hands and get things done when they have access to the Internet. Newmark says he’s endorsing Obama because he embraces pooling people together to effect change. When the government failed to provide relief for Katrina victims, Craig’s list was a valuable resource that resulted in many victims getting temporary housing and reconnecting with displaced friends and family. Another example of ordinary citizens connecting over the Internet to get things done.