

We need a Rapid Response Internet Task Force - sinak
http://sina.is/task-force

======
pvnick
For those who don't know Sina (OP), he is an incredibly talented, driven
person who has been fighting to uphold our digital rights for a long time,
especially regarding the recent NSA leaks. I've had the privilege of helping
as much as I could recently, and it's been loads of fun. Since there's a lot
of room for improvement in this area - like Sina said, they're currently very
understaffed - one person can honestly make a huge difference. I encourage
anybody who's passionate about about protecting digital rights to get
involved, it's really a great adventure.

~~~
sinak
Thanks Paul. And thank you again for all your help getting Aaron's email-to-
congress script up to date.

------
tlb
The need for rapid response is interesting. Although legislation is developed
over months, the Internet doesn't usually seem to find out about it until it's
reported in the press the day before the vote.

The alternative approach is to engage lawmakers early in the process, like
other industries do. You can bet that movie studios don't hear about copyright
legislation in the press and scramble to influence it at the last minute.

I fear that all a "rapid response" system can do is torpedo bad legislation. A
longer term approach is needed to get desirable laws passed, such as defining
what is or isn't private.

~~~
FedRegister
Then a "rapid response" organization needs to be tied into the Federal
Register[1]. The Federal Register is a Constitutionally mandated[2]
publication where the activities of the government are recorded. Just from the
latest issue[3] there are entries about a draft report from the NRC about the
effects of a beyond design basis earthquake on the spent fuel pool for a
nuclear reactor[4] (which included a request for comments) and a report on
which labs in the US are certified to do urine tests for drugs as part of a
pre-employment screening[5]. They also carry executive orders[6], actions of
the State Department[7], and all of the actions of the Copyright Office of the
Library of Congress[8].

Speaking of the Library of Congress, THOMAS[9] is the system you want for new,
pending, and current legislation so things don't happen behind your back. Not
only do they publish what passed Congress yesterday and was sent to the
president[10], they also post the floor activity on the House of
Representatives in real time[11], and daily issues of the Congressional
Register[12]. They also have a list of all House Bills[13] and Senate
Bills[14], and a page on each bill that tracks its progress as it moves
through the legislative process[15].

With all of the above tools you will be more informed than anybody who watches
the news on television. There's a niche here for special interest issue web
apps to make sense of this data. Think Big Tobacco, the NRA, and other
interest groups aren't either using or looking into using this data to send
alerts to people on the ground in their organizations?

A "rapid response" organization should also have its members in touch with
their local representatives on a moderate basis - not too much so the staffers
set the "obsessive" flag on their communications but not so little that they
wonder "who the heck is this guy?!"

[1] [https://www.federalregister.gov/](https://www.federalregister.gov/) [2]
Article I, Section 5, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the United States [3]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02)
[4]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02/2013-158...](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02/2013-15840/consequence-
study-of-a-beyond-design-basis-earthquake-affecting-the-spent-fuel-pool-for-a-
us-mark-i) [5]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02/2013-157...](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/02/2013-15735/current-
list-of-laboratories-and-instrumented-initial-testing-facilities-which-meet-
minimum) [6] [https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/executive-office-
of...](https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/executive-office-of-the-
president) [7] [https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/state-
department](https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/state-department) [8]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/copyright-office-
li...](https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/copyright-office-library-of-
congress) (including a history back to 1994) [9]
[http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php](http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php)
[10]
[http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rss/presentedtopresident.html](http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rss/presentedtopresident.html)
(along with an RSS feed) [11]
[http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx](http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx)
(along with an RSS feed) [12]
[http://thomas.loc.gov/home/Browse.php?&n=Issues](http://thomas.loc.gov/home/Browse.php?&n=Issues)
[13] [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/d?d113:0:./list/bss/d1...](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/d?d113:0:./list/bss/d113HR.lst): [14] [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/d?d113:0:./list/bss/d1...](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/d?d113:0:./list/bss/d113SN.lst): [15] [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/D?d113:11:./list/bss/d...](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/bdquery/D?d113:11:./list/bss/d113HR.lst:@@@X) (each bill has its own RSS
feed)

------
jmduke
The first thing this post reminded me of was the Internet Defense League,
spawned by the first incarnation of CISPA:

[http://internetdefenseleague.org/](http://internetdefenseleague.org/)

Whatever happened with this?

~~~
sinak
The IDL is awesome, and FftF, who run it, are good friends and incredible
people. But IDL is specifically for spreading messaging across multiple sites
around a particular action, not for actually creating the pages that those
campaigns point to:

From the IDL website: "When the internet's in danger and we need millions of
people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action. (Say, a
prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.) With the
combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more
effective than any one organization."

------
captianobvious
I thought we had an army of guy fawkes mask wearing kids who use the power of
4chan to strike terror in the hearts of giant corporations and governments
from their parents' basements.

------
bhauer
I arrived here simply because the name you gave your vision is similar to the
name of my side project [1]. It's not what you're describing, but it may be
interesting to build out the necessary pieces, augmenting what the site
already does.

[1] [https://www.brianstaskforce.com/](https://www.brianstaskforce.com/)

------
kirualex
I don't think Rapid Response _anything_ Task Force is a viable long term
solution. Those have a bad tendency to turn into some kind of militia force
turning on each and everyone that displeases the leaders of that force, and
thus creating one of those unlawful organism they aim to fight in the first
place.

I am for a Slow Response Internet Task Force, where every decision is
subjected to a poll along with a debate. Then and only then a "Task Force" is
created to ensure the reached consensus is applied.

------
kumarski
Well done Sina. Glad someone is piping up about this stuff.

------
devopstom
I proposed something very similar (albeit only at a conference, to a select
group of people) after the PDFTribute thing..

It's a great idea, and awesome achievement to go from nothing to working site
in under 24 hours.

I think the slowest part of the entire process for us (the pdftribute team)
was getting the domain registered, and the DNS propagated. Find some way round
that bit, and it'll be awesome.

~~~
szabba
Maybe something along the lines of
[http://youshallhear.us/PRISM](http://youshallhear.us/PRISM),
[http://youshallhear.us/ACTA](http://youshallhear.us/ACTA), etc?

