Earlier today, Lawrence Lessig spoke about Change Congress at the Free Press’ fourth annual National Conference for Media Reform, being held this year in Minneapolis. As always, Larry gave a killer speech. You can watch an earlier speech he gave at the National Press Club in March when he launched Change Congress here. Which reminds me…

Not to be missed: In the current edition of The Nation, Christopher Hayes, the magazine’s Washington editor, profiles Larry and Change Congress. It’s an extensive profile and a good read. (And I say this not only because he quotes me!) You don’t have to take my word for it, Cory Doctorow called the profile "fantastic." Hayes writes "playing David to various Goliaths (armed with a laptop as slingshot) is the defining narrative of Lessig’s career." If you’re a Lessig fan, it’s a must read.  If you’re unfamiliar with this bona fide and burgeoning cult hero, check it out…And join the revolution!

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Everyone loves Professor Larry Lessig’s lectures. He’s known for his impressive keynote presentations. (I know that sounds like an oxymoron but trust me in this case it’s not). He always leaves the rest of us wondering how we can emulate his delivery skills. And mostly, we can’t.

His recent talks about his latest project — Change Congress — don’t disappoint. And now he’s making it all available for remixing. Dig in here.

(Full disclosure: Larry serves on Sunlight’s advisory board.)

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As promised, here’s video of Lessig’s Sunshine Week lecture, sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network:

Official Footage from National Press Club:


Sunlight Footage:

Audio from the Change Congress lecture (mp3, 34mb)

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Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University law professor and world-renowned expert in intellectual property, is announcing that he’s going to invest a significant amount of his time and energy confronting the pervasive and corruptive influence of money in our democracy. You may have heard of the recent Draft Lessig movement that almost convinced him to run for Congress. He ultimately decided not to make the run, but he’s not retreating from the fight.

Today, at a lecture here in Washington, sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network, he’s launching the ChangeCongress project where he’ll focus his academic interests on the issue of the systemic corruption of American democracy. Lessig will outline his hopes for ChangeCongress and how it will help citizens reclaim their democracy from the culture of corruption.

Lessig will give his lecture at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) today at the National Press Club. We are very proud that Lessig recently joined Sunlight’s advisory board, where he’s helping us stay on the vanguard of using technology to promote a transparent and open government. If you can’t make it to the lecture you can watch the Web cast.

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We’re continuing the Sunshine Week festivities with two events dedicated to promoting a more open government. We invite you to join us, and for those of you who can’t make it to Washington, DC, we encourage you to watch the webcasts of the events.

Today at 1pm EDT, in conjunction with Open the Government, Greg Elin of Sunlight Labs will moderate a panel to demonstrate new ways nonprofits have made government data open and useful to the public. Panelists include:

• Sheila Krumholz of Center for Responsive Politics
• David Moore of OpenCongress.org
• Sean Moulton of FedSpending.org
• Daniel X. O’Neil of EveryBlock

The event will be held in the Holeman Lounge of the National Press Club in DC, but you can watch it live online. (You’ll need to register first. The registration page is the same page you’ll visit to view the webcast.)

Then tomorrow at 1:30 EDT, Sunlight and Omidyar Network will host a press briefing featuring Lawrence Lessig, who will announce the launch of his new Change Congress project. Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property, founder of Creative Commons and Sunlight Advisory Board member, recently changed his mission to combat the influence of money in American democracy. The event will be held in the Murrow, White and Lisagor rooms of the National Press Club in Washington, and will be webcast here.

Hope you can join us!

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It’s Sunshine Week here in DC and, well, the sun is shining which is an auspicious beginning. This is a hugely important national initiative launched six years ago about the importance of open government and freedom of information. How important? According to a Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University survey released today just 4% of the surveyed Americans believe the federal government is very open — and 44% believe it is very secretive.

Participants in Sunshine Week activities which are held throughout the country include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. Here in D.C. there are two panels on Wednesday at the National Press Club plus a lecture by Professor Lawrence Lessig that Sunlight and Omidyar Network are sponsoring on Thursday. More details tomorrow on both of these.

In honor of Sunshine Week one of our grantees, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, has launched its Legislative Committee Analysis Tool, or CAT, which organizes campaign-finance data by the major legislative committees in each state. Here’s an example of what you can find. This new tool uses Project Vote Smart’s APIs for committee assignments. (The Institute’s own APIs are here.) You’ll NIMSP also links to candidate biographies. Look for links to candidate scorecards and bills shortly.

Next up for these folks who focus on money in state politics: zip code lookups paired with Legislative District Boundary Maps and analyses; a 50-state Lobbyist Link tool that will show where lobbyists are focusing their giving.

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Chris Soghoian writes at his blog Surveillance State about how Capitol Hill just got its first computer geek lawmaker.  Last Saturday, Bill Foster, a physicist with a Ph.D. from Harvard, won a special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who resigned late last year. Here’s a lawmaker who no doubt understands the power of technology for  Democratic renewal.

Lawrence Lessig writes that Foster is "the kind of CHANGE Congress needs." 

And Foster’s already had an impact.  Tuesday evening, Foster cast what was quite possibly the deciding vote on H.Res.895, which would establish an Office of Congressional Ethics. Nice start.

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Larry Lessig, renowned expert in intellectual property and Sunlight Advisory Board member, will launch his new "Change Congress" project in a Sunshine Week lecture on March 20. In this lecture — sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network — Lessig will describe his decision to focus his academic interests on the issue of the systemic corruption of American democracy. He will explore the ways in which our democracy is threatened by corruption and ways we, as citizens, can respond.

The event will be held at the National Press Club from 1:30 to 3 PM on March 20th, in Murrow White and Lisagor Rooms and it will be Webcast.

Space is limited so RSVP soon.

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