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Comment by rosser | Hacker News Reader

If you want this to pass, don't sign the petition, and don't email or write your congresscritter. Call them. Interact with a human being in their office. Anecdotally, that has a much greater impact.

(Source: my cousin and his wife were congressional staffers for several years.)

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The reason this is, BTW, is that calling isn't scalable. Any idiot can fire off emails or print petitions or print and mail letters (albeit with a budget). Fielding calls is a huge pain in the ass and can be linked - via area code+prefix, among others - to a specific district.

Ah, a budget ... what I would give to have one of those :).

More seriously though, I have definite plans to build a click-to-call tool in the next couple of weeks, but this news was sprung on my late yesterday, leading to a mad rush to get that page ready in time for this morning. Next time there's an action like this for FixtheDMCA, there'll definitely be a way to call. And if I build it I'll almost certainly open source it so others can do the same. Sunlight Labs have a great API for looking up rep's phone numbers that means its really just a Twilio integration away.

> More seriously though, I have definite plans to build a click-to-call tool in the next couple of weeks

I'm not sure how you do this on Android, but for the iPhone it couldn't be much simpler[1]. Also, most mobile devices will detect and enable any phone number they find on the page, so just putting it there and easy to find is often enough.

[1] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/iPh...

I think they meant to allow click to call from any device, ala Twilio.

I wonder how much demand there is in the tech community for both an iOS and Android app that receives push notifications that drop you right into the UX to make the call when a campaign of calls is necessary due to pending legislation.

Crowdshout are doing something similar to this. Generally, push notifications are a great idea, though convincing people to download the app is trickier.

Click to call isn't interesting because of connecting the actual phone number. It's a UX problem of minimizing the steps to figure out which Congressman belongs to the constituent visiting the page. [This gets way more complex on a state officials level.]

Isn't calling slightly scalable, now that we have Twilio? ;)

It never hurts to make a small campaign contribution along with voicing your concern, or mention a past donation. Forming your own local donation pool or interest group, even if it's small, is another way to do it. I'm pretty sure if the average HN member formed a small group with local co-workers and agreed to donate just 1 hours worth of wages, it would be taken seriously.

Unless things have changed a lot since I was there, the real advantage of calling a congressional office is that you're entered in a database faster with your associated issue. It's not like your congressperson answers the phones. That's what the interns and staff assistants do, who hold zero influence.

Be patient with the person taking your call. Many people who call don't even do it right. They contact someone who isn't their senator or representative, which gets ignored. They just say "Don't vote for X!" and hang up without providing contact information.

Also, if you don't vote, many representatives have a database from their board of elections saying which registered voters actually showed up to vote. You're put on the bottom of the stack.

Because democracy has to be bought these days.

sigh.

Moneyocracy: the government rules by the the majority of the money, not of the people.

>Because democracy has to be bought these days.

What a naive thing to say. The cornerstone of representative government has always been supporting a candidate whose views align with your own. This includes campaign contributions along with voting for the candidate, volunteering for their campaign, and getting out word that they're running.

Always?

I think originally it was something to do with having land and privilege, or being a free citizen and not a slave. And definitely male... Then you could have a say.

And naive? Sure is, I like the naive view of democracy - that we all ought to have equal say in the way things are run, regardless of monetary or time contributions to a campaign.

For someone who has never called a politician to lobby for something, what do you say when you call them up? Is it as simple as "I'd like for you back this bill?" Honest question.

Pretty much. "This issue is very important to me and as your constituent I would like you to support this bill." You can either leave it at that or continue on with why you think the bill is important.

"Hi, My name is ____, and I'm one of Senator/Representative ____ constitutents from ___. I'm calling to tell my Representative/Senator that I think the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is affecting my freedoms as a consumer by preventing me from unlocking or jailbreaking my phone or tablets without fear of legal repercussions. I'd like to urge representative/senator ____ to join in supporting the Unlocking Technology Act, H.R. 1892. Not only would it grant greater consumer freedoms, but it would also empower security researchers, documentary filmmakers, remix artists, and archivists to do their important work without facing legal threats."

Make sure they catch and make a note of "the Unlocking Technology Act - H.R. 1892" part, as that's what they'll note down and use in their own counts of how many calls they've received.

Yes, it is that simple! I have found the experience of calling my congresspeople to be very rewarding and impressive. In general I have been connected to a very knowledgeable and intelligent staffer with minutes of calling. I explain why I am calling and say that I hope the Senator will support my position and the staffer generally replies with a few questions, clarifications of the Senator's position, etc., and says that he/she will relay my comments.

Truly, I cannot recommend this experience highly enough. Call! It only takes a few minutes and you'll be glad you did.

What about influencing local politics like the SF Board of Supervisors? I am curious as to the best way to influence zoning laws in San Francisco.

I took your advice. On a related note, does anybody know how organizations promoting certain legislation decide between emphasizing calling and e-mailing? Usually I've been asked to send an email, but sometimes the same organizations that normally use that strategy ask for phone calls specifically.

Do you have any insight as to how often the congressperson has already made up their mind on an issue, seemingly for political/lobbying/cronyism reasons, versus how many are on the fence and actually swayed by the calls they receive?

Currently the bill is in the House, you can locate House representatives here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ by inputting your ZIP code, or maybe here: http://whoismyrepresentative.com/ as it lists the known information (but I don't know if it's out of date).

Is there a website where we can easily find our rep's phone number?

FightForTheFuture's CISPA page has a good tool for this: http://cms.fightforthefuture.org/cispa/

I'll actually throw a link up to this on the post-email modal so that people can call if they want to.

FWIW, it is a little confusing getting dumped into a CISPA page after looking at a DMCA page, especially with the sample conversation. I realize this was a quick-turnaround project, so please take it in the constructive way it is meant.

Yeah, totally agree on that. Maybe best to take it off.

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

For the House of Representatives:

    http://house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=$YOUR_ZIP_HERE

For the Senate:

    http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=$YOUR_STATE_TWO_LETTER_ABBREVIATION_HERE

Click through to your representative's page and you will find contact info there. Most House and Senate reps will have multiple phone numbers, a DC number and at least one number for a local office. Senators will often have 3 or 4 (or more) offices throughout their state, each with a separate number.

Note that a lot of these folks have a "request a meeting" thing were you can request a face to face meeting. IF you can actually land one, that's probably the most powerful way of interacting with them. But, while I haven't ever tried myself (hangs head in shame) I am guessing you have to be "somebody" or be fairly lucky, to actually get a meeting.

I'm an introvert and a shy one at that. What do I expect when I call? What should I say? I feel like a fish out of water even thinking about it.

Agreed!

Congressmen value usable research and testimony. If you can hand them a credible argument for your point, well-condensed, well-organized, well-researched, and give a solid political bottom line (they are all about getting elected, you know) then you're ten miles ahead of the pack.

Or better yet, get some like minded people together and go down to your Congress person's office and at least try and create the impression that there are actual votes at stake on this issue instead of just impotent e-rage.

Or, better yet, do both: call your representative's office _and_ sign the petitions/send emails.

Why not do all of the above?

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