Law Students

Lessig for Congress?

By Luis

Wowza. As I just submitted to /.:

With the unfortunate passing of Congressman Tom Lantos parts of Silicon Valley and San Francisco will be having a special election in June to send a replacement to Congress. Given the area, it would be great to have someone who is both tech and policy-aware fill the seat- and it looks like that just might happen, with a ‘Draft Lessig’ group forming on facebook, featuring some of Lessig’s old co-workers at Harvard and Jimmy Wales, among others, and Lessig apparently buying ‘change-congress.com’. No word from the man himself yet, but he’s been increasingly vocal about politics of late. If it happens, it would be a huge step forward for the representation of technology in Washington.

‘Huge step forward’ is a massive understatement, of course, but /. seems to like it that way.¹ Lessig is not always right, and he’s not himself a technologist, but compared to the current state of things in Congress, he’d be a revelation for the software industry and for users of technology.

1. Yes, I miss the early /., back when it was a college student and a blog instead of An Industry.

Full post as published by Luis Villa's Home Page on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).