2014-03-07 22:36 GMT+01:00 James Alexander jalexander@wikimedia.org:
The biggest take away I remember hearing from people in Washington after the SOPA protest was that they didn't see that with us and that's what got their attention so much. We gave people the contact info for their representatives but we never gave them a script (or even, really, talking points). They got massive amounts of phone calls and emails they attributed to our campaign but those emails and phone calls were from people they had never heard from before and they were personalized, in the voice of the person calling. It's that type of person who remembers it when they vote later, and so elected officials listen.
Such an effect depends on a system of constituency and some degree of personal responsibility. If, for example, a new InfoSoc directive moves to the European Parliament, such an intervention might be warranted (both for the plenary or the relevant committee sessions). In fact, some groups currently try to have people call their members in the EP in order to save net neutrality.
Mathias