free culture by congressional district?
long, long ago (it seems), a great thing was born on the net, instigated by a good person (akma) and evolved quickly into a complete audio book. this is an inspiring thing unto itself, and it got me thinking…
…i was sitting around, soaking in the quagmire that is modern american politics, i had a crazy idea. this isn’t anything new or particularly surprising – i have crazy ideas all the time – but this is a derivative crazy idea, so maybe it’s less crazy than some of my solo flights of fancy.
there are only 435 representatives and 100 senators in the united states congress… i wonder what might happen if people from each of the congressional districts created a remix of some or all of free culture for their individual congresspersons. as much as i like the idea of the 14 chapters (plus 4 or 5 other sections) each recorded by different people in each of 435 different districts and forwarded in plain old boring cd format to the offices of the appropriate representatives and senators, that’s a bit limited.
read it, copy it into your individual handwriting, interpret it as a painting, take a photo with the book, videotape a dramatic reading of the conclusion – the net is full of creative people, and we have the tools. make a remix that is related somehow to the district that the congresspersons represent. mix your local news or local companies or just your local voice into a little bit of free culture and make it relevant.
that means many thousands of people would have to play along, and that could be a powerful message… is it unrealistic to find 20 (or so) people in each congressional district that care enough about the future of culture to send a message to congress?
we have the license, we have the precedent – can we find enough people to make free culture into a valid, targetted, political message for each and every congressperson? can the builders of the grassroots political web coordinate an effort like this?