Happy Memorial Day and welcome to the unofficial beginning of summer! Along with warm, sunny weather, another change you're going to see starting right now is new energy from IPac for the 2008 campaign season.

I started IPac in 2004 because out-of-control copyright, ridiculous patents, mobile carrier gatekeepers, and many other issues were threatening technological innovation. Great groups like EFF, Public Knowledge, Creative Commons, and others are doing terrific work defending our rights legally, or pushing policies in Congress. But these issues are not a part of the debate in political campaigns, and therefore when we choose new representatives to Congress or a new President, we have little idea whether they will protect innovation or bend to the wishes of the gatekeepers and grant unnecessary government monopolies. This campaign season, IPac will be working hard to get our candidates on record on the issues you care about, so you can make the most informed decision about what to do with your votes, your dollars, or your volunteer hours.

I personally have been working as a Product Manager at Google for the past five and a half years. As of this weekend, I'm no longer working for Google, in order to devote the time and energy to IPac that it needs. There are lots of exciting projects in store for IPac, but I can't do it alone - we're going to need your help. (We is me, Ren, and Eric - IPac's board). We want you to participate in discussions on this blog about what policies are most important. We'll be asking you to get in touch with your Congressional or Presidental campaigns near you to ask them how they feel about protecting innovation. And we'll need you to spread the word to your friends, and help us keep going financially.

And I'll be blogging here on the IPac blog each day - so watch this space for more exciting developments!