Even though that video centers on intellectual property issues, Lessig talks about how his focus came to shift away from hoping Congress would pass rational policy. He remarks that the "economies of influence" that dictate congressional policy are fundamentally corrupt, as a system. That made me reflect that Sunlight’s mission is, in a sense, to cultivate an ecology of popular influence, to build the culture of information and deliberation that is necessary for good governance. I wonder how often it is that people are drawn to process reform by virtue of their frustration in working on other issues? The leap shouldn’t be difficult for Lessig to make, since the cultural shift he describes as changing the nature of creativity (and, therefore, the landscape of intellectual property) — that cultural shift to creativity and digital empowerment is exactly the cultural sphere in which Sunlight is thriving. Instead of mashups of disparate clips of audio and video, we’re working with legislative data, creating an approachable and relevant congressional pallette of civic information.

This video speaks also to that cultural shift, discussing exponential growth of digital culture.

Both pieces cited above provide extensive background on Carl’s work, including information about his recent success in getting four congressional committees to upload high resolution video for public consumption, helping move toward one of our goals: free and open video access to digitized congressional hearings and floor activity.