With so many policy discussions going on regarding Leveson, the DEA, and the ever-elusive Communications Green Paper, this is a good time to step back and reassess the role of the citizen in developing media and technology policy and whether we’re doing enough to influence the debate.

If recent attempts at pushing through communications legislation in other jurisdictions are any indication, with the current international trend towards strong IP protections at the expense of privacy and due process, these are processes in which citizens will want to be involved.

What SOPA, PIPA, and now ACTA, are revealing, other than a tireless pursuit of anti-consumer policies by a coalition of content providers, is that there is a widespread popular resistance to such policies. But making sense of the policy process and keeping track of all the moving pieces can be overwhelming for many people.

Following on the heels of the High Court decision to deny the TalkTalk/BT appeal to abolish some sections of the Digital Economy Act, the Open Rights Group will try to put these moving pieces into perspective at ORGCon, their annual digital rights convention.

This year’s keynote speakers include digital rights activist, and ORG co-founder Cory Doctorow speaking on the dangers of the move away from general purpose computing and perhaps the most widely known copyright reform proponent, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig. Lessig will be closing the event with “a plea for some realism about IP activism.”

The event will be an excellent opportunity to get involved in the debate and get a handle on the issues that will have a profound and lasting impact on how you interact with media and technology.