20 minutes against software patents
20 minutes against software patents.
Whenever the tech media reports bad news about the software patents directive, discussions break out on web and email forums about how something should be done. So here’s my suggestion for how to do something very useful if you can only give maybe 20 minutes:
Pick a clueful document, pick two of your political representatives, and with a two-line email, ask them to read the document, and listen to person(s) and/or organisation(s).
Why?
It scales. There is a limited number of clueful documents, so out of 10 emails, only 50% of the document suggestions will be unique. In 100 emails, the percentage probably drops to 15%. And if the timespan is short, the percentage drops further. So your representative will not be swamped by volume.
The division of labour. We need to (a) convince our representatives that something must be done, and (b) tell them what they must do. Both tasks need help, but (b) cannot be done well in only 20 minutes. So the above suggestion is about how to help with (a), but by mentioning the people and organisations that you want your representative to listen to, you make the people doing (b) much more productive.
When people phone up MEPs’ offices, they have a much better chance of being given an appointment if the name of the organisation they represent is known to the MEP or their assistant. If you want your representatives to listen to FSFE, FFII, and IFSO: tell them.
The quality stays high. There are plenty of good articles, press releases, and open letters released regularly, but we can’t expect our representatives to go looking for them. We should be handing it to them on a plate. Lets!
Take an educated guess for who to write to. The legislative process is complex, if you’re waiting for certainty before sending an email, it will probably never get sent. Pick two representatives based on whatever knowledge you have, and send your email.
Could you spare 20 minutes right now?
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Ciarán O’Riordan,
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