Tonight, Lawrence Lessig will return to the Berkman Center and Harvard Law School in a major address on his new initiative, Change Congress. Lessig was the first Berkman Professor, ten years ago, when the center was just getting off the ground. Harvard Law School is honored to welcome him back, as part of the Berkman@10 Series, celebrating where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Please join us today at 5:00 p.m. in Ames Courtroom at Harvard Law School, Friday, April 4, 2008. Admission is free and open to the public.

Change Congress!

Please join us over at PledgeBank to show your support for DRAFT LESSIG.  You are saying that you have or will give at least $23 and/or volunteer for the campaign if Lawrence Lessig runs for the Congress.  A great new way to show your involvement in the DRAFT LESSIG Challenge!

There’s huge innovation going on in the DRAFT LESSIG movement: for instance, check out this Facebook video pledge.

Many, many thanks for all the unbelievable efforts on behalf of the DRAFT LESSIG Challenge. The creative and hard-working responses of so many to this challenge show how well Larry Lessig’s message would resonate in the event that he decides to run for Congress for the CA-12th.

Where we stand, and what you can do:

FUNDRAISING: Through your hard work, ActBlue shows that the Lessig would-be campaign has 450+ contributions and $38,000+ in total funds, well more than the two other candidates (who have declared) combined. This is an exceptional performance over a few days. It also doesn’t include additional funds pledged (from $10 to $2,300) by those who say they’ll give if and when he gets in the race, nor does it include all those ActBlue contributions before he created his committee ($2500+). The single most important thing that anyone can do, though, is to keep this fundraising effort going. If you haven’t contributed, please do; if you can contribute again, please do; and most of all, please email at least 10 friends and point them to ActBlue, and urge them to give between now and Monday.

We’ve also got at least 6 fundraisers planned: SF, Boston, NY, DC, Austin, and Chicago. If you are willing to co-host or give at an event, please let us know at info@draftlessig.org or track down finance chair Betsy Masiello. Or put it on the wiki.

VOLUNTEERS: Amazing responses! The Facebook group is more than 4000 strong. The email has been too heavy to answer all of — apologies to anyone who has not gotten a reply email; we’ve got you down and are so delighted to hear the feedback from the committees that are organizing many creative efforts — from Hackfest to video creation to Second Life to Meetups in person and on and on. Keep it coming. We have hundreds of volunteers engaged and ready to rock if the campaign goes into full swing.

WHAT MORE YOU CAN DO: Please join the doubled-down, 1000 Strong to DRAFT LESSIG Facebook group to commit to more, and join the “I
Donated $23 to DRAFT LESSIG” group if you gave $23 or more.

We’ll have another call over the weekend, on Sunday mid-day, to gear up for the week. Stay tuned for call-in info. And keep up the netroots efforts — they’re working! Many thanks, all.