Lessig

This is slightly off topic, but Professor Lawrence Lessig, famous for his work on copyright, has decided for the next 10 years to focus his efforts on battling corruption. This is his first lecture on the subject.

He's talking about corruption in government (money in politics), but also more generally about corruption in the sense that money incentivizes certain practices that it shouldn't, creating failures in supposedly free and peer-reviewed markets.

In light of what has been uncovered in the student loan industry, contractors in Iraq, and the failures of our government to take action on global warming despite an overwhelming scientific consensus on the subject, this seems particularly relevant. Lessig is making important points about the underlying reasons as to why our government is failing on these issues that are of such high concern to young voters.

Towards the end he gets at solutions, giving props to new organizations that use technology and peer production to increase transparency in the system, like MAPLight, and the Sunlight Foundation, but ultimately sees traditional reform and new technology as only part of the solution. Most specifically he's calling for us to figure out how to change the cultural norms that enable corruption. It's a long lecture, but the 65 minutes is well worth your time.

On a related note - check out this NY Times article about Students for a Free Culture, a Lessig-inspired student copyright organization.