

Fight SOPA/PIPA -- let your visitors call their senators in 1 click - kandalf
http://www.grassroutes.us/sopa

======
jroes
I like this a lot.

My senators have a system that requires me to press 1 to leave a voicemail and
2 to speak with someone. I had to actually dial on my phone to make it happen.

Maybe a little keypad could be displayed while on the call?

~~~
tessr
Would you prefer an on-screen keyboard or a connection through your real
phone? (i.e., we call you and then put you through)

Thanks so much for the feedback (:

\- someone who is partially responsible for this

~~~
jjcm
Hard to say. I think many people on HN would prefer an on-screen keyboard, but
that's sampling power users. Then again, it may be that the power users are
the ones that are willing to take a stand.

~~~
deserted
I would prefer google voice style, my phone rings and I am connected. I don't
often take phone calls through my computer, despite using skype chat and
having a webcam. I suspect many others are the same.

Which makes me wonder what percentage of internet users have ever had a google
hangout?

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plasma
This sort of thing needs to be shown on the blackout pages, so people can
easily do something (call to action) instead of just leaving the page.

~~~
tessr
We would _love_ that. But we're not sure how to make it happen.

~~~
natep
I was very confused by this statement, until I realized that you created the
widget and were talking about how to get blackout pages to display your
widget, and not a site owner unsure of how to copy-paste an iframe tag.

Great job with the widget, it shows all of my reps and the calling works. To
answer your question, being on the front page of HN should help. Have you
tried the relevant subreddits (r/sopa, r/politics, etc)? Reaching out to
Wikipedia, reddit, etc directly?

Have you thought about making this more generic, and/or letting people
customize instances of it, so that it can be used for other issues?

~~~
tessr
That's actually what Grassroutes does: <http://grassroutes.us/>

We created it as a generic, customizable widget for activists. Anyone could
add talking points, a title, etc. We also have a way to browse through the
widgets that other people have created. (Although since we made it at a
hackathon this weekend, there's not much there.)

We made the SOPA widget and page AFTER the hackathon was done, because we
realized it was an ideal use case.

~~~
catch23
I'm guessing you haven't tested it much yet? My senator's office doesn't even
allow the call to go through unless the caller presses '1' to speak with
someone, but your interface lacks a keypad! Hopefully you guys get it out
before the 18th

~~~
kandalf
The keypad should be live by morning. We have it up and running locally.
Thanks for the feedback!

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elliottcarlson
My IP geolocates to NJ while I am in NY; it would be helpful if you could
change the state manually in such a scenario (which is not uncommon).

~~~
drewinglis
You can! Just click on the "Not your representatives?" link at the top. =)

~~~
quadform
Please give an indication on the form what we're supposed to type into the
search box. City/State? Zip code? Something else? I can't get it to work.

Also, you might make the link more prominent --- I didn't see it the first
time.

~~~
tessr
If you're running any browser other than Internet Explorer there's a zip code
indication which is obvious.

------
slewis
Well done. Clean and simple. Can we get usage stats from you after tomorrow?

~~~
tessr
We'll do our best to do a blog post sometime this week. (Disclaimer: We're all
busy college students trying to keep the Internet open _and_ pass our classes
at the same time.)

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cowholio4
I made this into a Facebook app for Page Admins to have this as a tab.

<http://sopa.cowholio4.com/add/>

Once you have it as a tab. Edit your page and make it the default tab. This
way it's the first thing fans see on your page.

See it in action: <https://www.facebook.com/cowholio4>

@kandalf Thanks for making this. I can make you an admin of the app if you
want. Also https support would be awesome. :D

~~~
tessr
Yo! Wow! Can you tweet at us @_grassroutes? Would love to be in touch!

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Fice
As I said already, they do not care what we say as long as they get their
money. Even if SOPA will not pass, efforts againts Internet freedom will
continue.

The wide boycott of RIAA, MPAA and all SOPA/PIPA supporters is necessary. If
you give them money, you do in fact support Internet censorship no matter what
you say. There is no way to protect freedom conveniently without sacrificing
anything.

------
studentrob
This is really really really really cool.

Unfortunately it got my geolocation wrong for all three of my internet sources
(Cable, phone, and Clearwire). Since this seems such an unreliable method of
getting the answer correct, make it easier for the user to make a fix:

(1) Show the current state name (2) Put the zip code search on the main page

~~~
kandalf
Good ideas. Displaying state/zipcode is definitely on the todo list for
tonight.

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AlexeyMK
For the curious, the demo of this service (grassroutes.us) at PennApps this
past weekend, where tessr, kandalf and drewinglis built this:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_NT6f-8bc&context=C39f6...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_NT6f-8bc&context=C39f682fADOEgsToPDskL_4Vp1SBbXxcmHhslr8z7H)

------
justindocanto
I really want to add the one-click call functionality to this:
<http://www.piparollcall.com/>

I already have 2-click tweets. This would be perfect. Let me know if you guys
are interested. =)

------
pleahy
Great job guys! Keep it up!

~~~
tessr
Thanks man (;

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easp
Good work, Tess & Drew (and friends)!

I notice that this is choosing the correct senators for my location, but where
it is supposed to be naming my location it says "0"

------
kapitalx
Maybe you could add a little script of what one would say! Or maybe a sample
recording of someone's conversation, it would help people get over the fear of
calling!

~~~
tessr
We have a script! Just call and it pops up!

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KeithMajhor
I'm in Oregon and Wyden came up for me but hes already a SOPA/PIPA opponent.
Shouldn't he (and the others) be omitted to direct traffic to where its
needed?

~~~
tessr
You can tell him how much you appreciate his stance.

Also, this is actually built on top of Grassroutes, which is a more generic
service--so there isn't a good way to do this.

(And yes, keep telling the anti-SOPA reps that they're doing something right.)

------
cjoh
Should have this route randomly to constituent offices in the states so that
it scales better once the hill exchange goes haywire (which it will)

~~~
kandalf
Anyone happen to have data for telephone numbers of local representative
offices?

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stefan-zh
How to Support From Posterous: <http://i43.tinypic.com/302t9ib.jpg>

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apsurd
thanks for making it easy guys, I just pushed your code live in about 2
minutes. Not sure I would have done anything otherwise =/

Thanks!

( <http://jekyllbootstrap.com> to see it in action)

------
coreyrecvlohe
Really awesome app, great job!

~~~
tessr
Hey, thanks!<3

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danso
Why is PIPA referred to as "SOPA"'s little sister? Does that reflect the
changes proposed by the managers' amendments? Both bills need to pass their
chambers for any part of SOPA to become law.

~~~
tessr
As the person who chose that wording:

It's not supposed to be a serious remark. People have been been referring to
PIPA as the little sister, merely because SOPA is the more commonly known
piece of legislation. (I chose to keep SOPA the focus, even though it's been
temporarily shelved, just because it's the signature phrase in this whole
ordeal.)

Also, I think it's kind of funny to call PIPA the evil little sister, and I
hope a little levity makes this grave ordeal easier for everyone.

