Talking to Kevin Marks about the Open Rights Group, I realised that one of the things that concerns me is that they might be too focussed on the media.

One of the stated objectives is to connect journalists with experts and activists, which is all well and good. I want people to understand our technical and philosophical objections to certain ideas.

However, I think that ORG should also see a key part of their role as explaining the legal technicalities and the implications of things like EU directives and proposed legislation to concerned technical people like me.

I also think that there is a danger of the people running the group coming across as a small clique, very much wrapped up in their own agenda, rehearsing the same arguments to other members of the inner circle - in effect preaching to the converted.

There are a lot of intelligent, educated people out in the real world who agree with their aims instinctively, without necessarily having a deep understanding of all the issues. We (placing myself immodestly in that category for a moment) need help with this stuff - we need someone to be our agent, sifting and selecting the important news for us - just as much as we need someone explaining it to the media.