Now my article is up on Newsforge I can jot down some supplementary personal thoughts. First off, I really want to encourage everyone to sign up to this pledge to raise money for digital rights activism. When Rufus hired Gavin Hill for the FFII-UK it made an enormous difference to our efforts against software patents. If we could have two full time activists doing press, fundraising and coordination work we could really begin to gain influence over politicians, the media and existing NGOs working in related areas. I'd also like to encourage people in the UK to have a look at our new Free Culture UK organisation - we want to make this participatory and grassroots, which means you should get involved and be part of a network of people making a real difference to our future. With a little money and mass involvement we can start rolling back copyright terms, and putting the public domain, free software and Creative Commons at the centre of policy.

Exciting stuff... I just hope that we can also get plenty of people to real-world meetings to take part in training workshops, decision-making sessions and other things that you really need to be effective. I've spent the past four years doing activism and have changed my University to green electricity, helped force major UK lumber yards to only source sustainably logged wood, helped stop software patents in the EU as well as various smaller successes. I've been part of several great grassroots organisations, studied social movements, I have undergone many a training workshop and given a few myself. But I still have a lot to learn. Empowerment is key to activism; we won't get anywhere unless we all make a big effort to empower ourselves and others, to build a network of knowledgeable activists. We have to drop the notion that we can get by with random letters from constituents that have no follow up, lobbying by a handful of activists and press releases that read like mini essays!

On a more positive note I met lots of lovely people and felt like I'm finally penetrating the inner circle of people who attend these kinds of events all the time. Suw Charman was nice, and has some great ideas for a Spread Creative Commons web site; it was good to talk to Becky, Rufus, Dave, Gavin amongst others. My brain hasn't yet assimilated all of the information that was thrown my way, mostly in discussions with fellow activists outside the lectures and seminars, so this will have to do. Leave a comment if you have any thoughts on activism and advocacy...