Rep. Issa discussing CISPA, which he supports, at the Personal Democracy Forum.

One of Andrew Rasiej's favorite jokes is that legislators don't know the difference between a server and a waiter. Mr. Rasiej, chairman of the NY Tech Meetup and founder of Personal Democracy Forum, a summit on tech and politics, moderated on stage at NYU's Skirball Center. Mr. Rasiej faced off with netizens Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA). "Why is it that so many members of Congress don't seem to understand the Internet?" he asked.

"We don't use our children enough as advisors," Sen. Wyden said, in a joke that fell flat. "There is a generational divide on this issue."

Rep. Issa had a more thoughtful answer. "The path to Congress or elected office usually doesn't lead through tech activities," he said. "More than half of Senators are lawyers, slightly less than half the House are lawyers. There are more doctors than people who have ever started their own business."

He agreed there is a generational divide, with Congresspeople relying on IT staff to understand the Internet for them. "A lot of times, people have just simply gotten into the habit of not wanting to learn how things work because they're doing
other things... then they make these terrible jokes that show they really don't know how it works."

The uprising around SOPA and PIPA seems destined to hover around industry conferences indefinitely. Cheezburger Network chief Ben Huh said the now-legendary online protest that stopped the twin anti-piracy bills, SOPA and PIPA, would be the dominant topic at the Internet comedy gathering ROFLCon.

The pair positioned themselves as Internet-friendly, with Sen. Wyden even name-dropping TweetDeck. Rep. Issa thanked the audience and 15 million digital protestors "for what you did on January 18" to stop the bills.

Sen. Wyden proposed a "digital bill of rights," to repair the relationship between Congrees and the American web industry.  "It sounds like you're starting what amounts to a digital Constitutional convention," he told Mr. Rasiej. The bill of rights would enumerate broad rights such as "freedom," "open Internet" and the right of digital citizens to "share."

"The more I learn about the 'net, frankly, the less I know," he admitted.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post described Mr. Rasiej as a lobbyist. While he is a politically active techie, coordinating the Personal Democracy Forum as well as the large anti-SOPA protest in New York, he has never been employed as a lobbyist. Betabeat regrets the error.

John Lund (Getty Images)

It's starting to feel like someone declared war on Internet piracy earlier this year while we were busy reading Reddit. But while the battle over Internet laws continues, the discussion sparked by anti-piracy legislation earlier this year seems to have disappeared.

The fight now centers on ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that the European Union signed in January. This still-murky law, most of which was crafted quietly behind closed doors, has potential to threaten those who make the Internet their livelihood. So where are the Internet masses who came out in full force, blocking out websites and amassing in person in protest of the twin anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA?

As it turns out, the battle may not be ours. The latest roadblocks to ACTA in Europe likely means most of the anti-ACTA heavy lifting won't happen on this side of the Atlantic, said Andrew Rasiej, an entrepreneur and the chairman of the New York Tech Meetup who was instrumental in organizing protests in New York City against SOPA and PIPA.

A suspension of the law by the European Court of Justice has put the yet-to-be ratified and controversial multi-national agreement on hold until it can be determined whether or not it violates fundamental EU rights.

If ACTA stalls in Europe, it doesn't make sense to protest it here, Mr. Rasiej said in an email. "The battle over ACTA, as a threat to open architecture of the Internet is now being waged in other places, most notably Europe, where parliamentary approval is required for implementation," he said.

But that doesn't mean the Internet bloc can happily go back to its business. If anything, SOPA and PIPA should have been a wake-up call: nerds, the law applies to you too.

Internet activists should be concerned with more than just the challenges of combating piracy while maintaining free expression, or learning how to secure the ever changing digital infrastructure the world has come to rely upon, Mr. Rasiej said. Elected officials still don't seem to “get it” when it comes to making laws that impact technology. While Congress now knows (we hope) that the Internet is not a series of tubes, legislators still have a long way to go. "Politicians don’t know the difference between a server and a waiter," Mr. Rasiej said. "Imagine a future where our senators are explaining ACTA to us, not us explaining ACTA to them."

Mr. Diamond giving his candidate speech from the heart at New Work City.

About 60 of 200 registered attendees gathered at New Work City last night to hear two-minute speeches by the candidates for an open New York Tech Meetup board seat. Meetup and NYTM founder Scott Heiferman stood in the audience in a red hoodie, board member Esther Dyson settled on the window ledge in a #newsfoo t-shirt, and scene staple Gary Sharma wandered about with his sponsored tie (Pivotal Labs and Inkba) as 15 candidates gave their vision of what should change about the largest meetup in New York, which last year incorporated as a nonprofit 501c(6), giving it the power to lobby government, among other things.

The other bold-faced names, as far as New York tech goes, were among the candidates: Eric Friedman, head of business development at Foursquare; Shai Goldman, a 10-year veteran of Silicon Alley Bank who moved to New York a year or so ago; and David Tisch, the most talked about candidate of those who couldn't make it, as he had a prior commitment out of town.

NYTM held its first election for the board last year, when proto-blogger Anil Dash and NYU computer science professor Evan Korth were elected. A few things were different this time. Last year, speeches took place at the Skirball Center in front of the usual 800-some audience instead of the cozy New Work City Soho digs; there were also no women running last year, while this year there are four; and only one board member will be elected, rather than two. "This ties us directly to our membership and holds us accountable," NYTM board chairman Andrew Rasiej told the audience.

Whitney Hess, a user experience designer and NWC resident, almost ran for a seat last year before she realized she had massively overscheduled herself. She was the last candidate to step up to the mic last night, a prepared speech on her iPad, and proceeded to thoroughly critique the NYTM user experience from entry to afterparty, including the hated "hovering" until tickets become available "like a Justin Bieber concert."

Other candidates talked about improving the experience of attendees, broadening NYTM's role as an advocacy group, and making the meetup more welcoming to hackers and new members from the outer boroughs and other communities.

First up to the mic was Ben Kessler of CrowdTap--"you guys might know me as @kessler on Twitter"--followed by longtime NYTM volunteer Brandon Diamond, who dumped his script to the floor in favor of speaking from the heart, promising to bring more hackers into the organization if elected. Mr. Friedman's platform was "always be helping," which he illustrated with a quick survey of who was hiring and who was looking for work. Other highlights included the cosmopolitan Jalak Jobanputra, whose resume includes "NYC 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.," stints in venture capital, government and finance. "It's my goal to evangelize New York as the top tech hub in the world," she said, promising to make NYTM's voice heard in the White House.

Jonathan Askin, a tech law professor at Brooklyn Law School, emphasized NYTM's power to advocate. "We haven't stepped up," he said. "We haven't engaged the government to the extent that we should." Google, Amazon and Facebook are directing government policy on tech, he said, and that doesn't represent the interest of startups.

Murat Aktihangolu, director of Entrepreneurs Roundtable, spoke passionately about making New York more welcoming for startups; Mr. Goldman had a three-point plan: making it easier to move to New York, making sure entrepreneurs have a voice on policy, and reforming the image of New York as a two-trick pony (web and mobile) and getting some attention for cleantech and biotech.

Other candidates who showed up to give a speech included Gregory Schnese of Kikin, Jack Welde, Jesse Landry, June Cohen of TED Media, Luke Haseloff, Matthew Knell and Wei Zhao.

Audience members showed a bias toward the candidates "who showed up." "You just don't like David Tisch," one attendee chastised his friend. "These are community board members," the other pointed out. "Tisch would be better as a board member, don't you think?"

After the talks, the group swigged the Brooklyn Lager and Blue Moon and gobbled their way through several boxes of excellent pizza, talking enthusiastically about New York tech. "I think New York is the best place to start a company!" Mr. Aktihangolu said. New York is an "emerging market," founder Mattan Griffel explained excitedly. Many of the attendees had been to their first NYTM in 2004, 2005, 2006, when the scene was much dinkier, they told Betabeat. Now, Vanity Fair and "The Dylan Ratigan Show" are on the Meetup's press list, managing director Jessica Lawrence told Betabeat. "We should get Betabeat, New York Tech Meetup, Entrepreneurs Roundtable and some cool startups and go to Silicon Valley and recruit!" schemed Mr. Sharma. An entrepreneur in the conversation, Seth Bannon of Amicus, was working on a similar idea (currently in stealth mode), inspired by Paul Graham's recent visit.

Voting for the board seat opened at midnight, and will close December 20. As NYTM adjusts to its new nonprofit status, board members are figuring out their duties (candidates we asked weren't quite sure what they would be doing if elected). Board members serve three year terms.