[Silhouette]

Until congress starts to realize that nerds are not basement dwellers, and instead are pop culture (Facebook, The Internship) they will continue to roll their eyes at any sort of lobbying.

Good. That creates an opportunity for more enlightened people to challenge the incumbents, backed by the ample funding that the nerds are going to be throwing around increasingly in order to protect their industry from the incompetents.

A saying that begins "First they ignore you" comes to mind.

[bulatb]

That seems like wishful thinking. Nerds don't run for office. They're not interested and mostly busy doing other stuff. Spending Valley lobby dollars might buy our industry a timeshare in a politician, but "our" rep won't have any more respect for nerds than anybody else in Washington.