Speaker Pelosi's Office meeting report

I had a great meeting with CongresswomanSpeaker Pelosi's Senior Policy Advisor Melissa Shannon this morning (well, 1pm DC time), they were very interested in what we had to say and seemed extra interested because SomaFM is based in San Francisco as well. I had a "professional lobbyist" (largely paid for by DiMA, the trade group that represents a variety of webcasters) along for moral support (mostly to help me find my way through the capitol, via security, and all that).

I got to go through all these innards of the Capitol Building. From the beautiful "statue room" (under the giant dome), to the Speaker's Office, to the 4th floor speaker's expansion area (via a tiny elevator and down some strange almost-catacombs) to meet with Pelosi's Aid.

Melissa Shannon was very interested in what I had to say, asked relevant questions (to which I even knew most of the answers), and were very engaged. I ran out of things to say before they got bored with the meeting (as opposed to a meeting earlier in the week with staffer who was paying more attention to her blackberry than to us).

I will be having further phone follow-ups with Melissa, and another staffer who is more involved in copyright issues. (Melissa is an advisor on technology among other things.)