Page:Code Swaraj - Carl Malamud - Sam Pitroda.djvu/144

Code Swaraj proclamations explaining the many merits of the recipient. The ones I've seen are quite beautiful and I've got my eyes peeled for a suitable source to scan and post.

When I'm not petitioning, I’ve also spent a lot of time printing Gandhi posters, which I gave to the Sabarmati Ashram and have presented to people in the U.S. who have helped me on various endeavors. I also enjoy printing postcards of Gandhi, legal figures, and other artwork, and (if I may say so), I'm a bit of a whiz when it comes to custom labels and postage stamps, and I stand behind few when it comes to package assembly.

The reason I do elaborate print jobs is partly because I like to print, but it is also a sign of seriousness. When I worked on liberating state codes, I sent a large-format Proclamation of Promulgation, flat-packed in a red shiny 19"x22" bubble envelope to the Speaker of the House of Georgia. He was not impressed, but he certainly gogot [sic] the message and I'm pretty sure he figured out that I wasn't going to simply go away if he didn't answer. I also sent the same proclamation to a lawyer I knew, and he was so impressed he agreed to represent Public Resource pro bono on the case.

An elaborate print job is more likely to be noticed as it is delivered. Simply getting the package delivered to the intended recipient is never a foregone conclusion in the case of senior corporate and government officials. My hope is that the recipient will realize I spent time in preparing the document and will thus perhaps spend time considering the matter.

Some people hate hardcopy or simply don’t like what I have to say. When I sent a big box of printed standards with a report and packed it in a box with red, white, and blue crinkle-pak made to look like an American flag, the American National Standards Institute thought I was crazy. Cass Sunstein at the White House told his staff to return the box to sender, and it arrived in a big plastic bag.

On the other hand, I heard from John Podesta’s assistant at the White House that the mail delivery staff who bring packages around on carts in the West Wing “got a huge kick” from my packages. The Archivist of the United States loved the package and shot me email saying it was “quite the elegant presentation.” Congressman Darrell Issa was blown away by the American Flag made out of crinkle-pak and tweeted a photo. The Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz sent me a note that he loved the packing job and was doubly impressed that the popular blog Boing Boing had covered the