Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Connect
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times is reporting that Amazon is now providing the ability for authors to reach out to their fans via blogs in a program called Amazon Connect. So far, Amazon has recruited a group of about a dozen authors, including novelists, writers of child care manuals and experts on subjects as diverse as real estate investing, science, fishing and the lyrics of the Grateful Dead. Now the authors finally have the ability to respond back to comments!
Let's take this idea to the government level. Who cares if a book should have a different ending, let the ass-monkeys in Washington do this with the people they are supposed to serve.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
I know, it's just sooooooooooooooooo hard to get in contact with your rep.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
I must admit, most of the people I hear trumpeting this '[insert aspersion of choice] in Washington' crap have scarcely bothered to contact them, yet have the gall to blame their reps for not representing them. If you're concerned that any rep but _yours_ is ignoring you, well, you suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding of how democracy works.
Truly amazing that people expect representative democracy to work when they don't engage their representatives--and it's not like you need to be told how to do so. Chances are, their office is withing f'ing walking distance of your house. If operating pen and paper, telephone or email are all too complex and mysterious for you and you're too lazy to travel a mile to speak in person, I can't imagine what sort of contribution you could possibly make, so it's probably best that you've passively excluded yourself from the process.