Engage with government - or ignore it? [LWN.net]

Engage with government - or ignore it?

Posted Aug 15, 2002 15:26 UTC (Thu) by rgoates (guest, #3280)
Parent article: Engage with government - or ignore it?

Yes, we need to do both. But the political side of the effort needs to be improved dramatically. I've written to my state senators and representative about this issue and received only clueless responses. They and their staff don't seem to understand software related issues, and they are not alone. The great majority of citizens don't either. Just try mentioning the term "software patents" at your next party and observe the ensuing silence, blank looks, and changing of subject.

Education of the public is going to have to come first. And doing that is going to be a real challenge. We'll have to get past the initial "it's a geek thing" yawn before we can generate any kind of understanding in the average citizen. We need some high quality public relations help, in other words. Some kind of compaign that will explain the issues in understandable terms while convincing people that they have a stake in the outcome. This will take a coordinated group effort by the Open Source community.

After we have the ability to communicate effectively to the public, a few mass marches might do some good. The sight of lots of people in a public rally seems to get the media's attention more than anything else does, and media attention generates attention from politicians. But the message of such demonstrations must be easily understandable to reporters and the general public.

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