Wednesday, February 8, 2012

I'm Writing A Book With George W. Bush's Webmaster (Seriously) // Read Hacking Politics


Maryland Juice's life is an ongoing experiment in advocacy and social change efforts. Last year, I took a job with a start-up Internet organization called Demand Progress. The organization was founded by a young tech prodigy (Aaron Swartz) and a former Rhode Island State Representative (David Segal) who grew up in MoCo. By promoting civil liberties and progressive causes, they quickly attracted a following of over 300,000 Internet users.

Photo with Senator Ron Wyden and Members of the Anti-SOPA/PIPA Coalition After Defeat of the Legislation

Over the course of the year, we virally grew the organization's membership from 300,000 to over 1 million users, and in the course of doing so, we helped organize Internet protests against dangerous innovation-stifling legislation called SOPA and PIPA. You may have seen some of the results of our coalition's work.

Though most of you know me as a bomb-throwing progressive, I've always stated that I'm an issues-guy at heart. That's why the fight to protect the Internet from undue government and private sector control put me in a coalition with conservatives (Tea Party/Liberty/CATO/Heritage) and liberals (MoveOn/Reddit/etc). Even Kim Kardashian got involved.

Now, I am writing a book with my Demand Progress colleague, David Segal --- along with Patrick Ruffini, the e-advocacy guru for the RNC and George W. Bush. We are going to tell the story about the largest Internet protest in history, and what it means for the future of organizing. Already, pundits are pointing to the SOPA protests as the precursor for Susan Komen and likely a wave of new activism.

Find out about the new era of organizing on the Internet: Sign up to receive a copy of our free e-Book. The project will feature insights and commentary from many noteworthy advocates, alongside newly emerging leaders of the movement for open information and a free Internet. Stay tuned!

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