This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 8, 2012 - Best known for "the front page of the internet," Alex Ohanian, co-founder of reddit.com, will be in St. Louis Tuesday night as part of an Internet 2012 Bus Tour.
Ohanian's tour will follow the course of the presidential debates from Denver to Danville with the purpose of raising awareness about internet freedom as a political issue. The tour bus is painted half red, half blue in a spirit of nonpartisanship and is partially funded through an indiegogo fund. Ohanian sold Reddit in 2006 but remains an influential force within its internet ecosystem.
Before anti-piracy bills SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IPA Act) were defeated in January 2012, Ohanian's Reddit was at the center of a fierce internet resistance, blacking out its site for a day in a show of protest.
Reddit is a community of users who submit and generate content and then upvote or downvote each post. Successful posts rocket to the top of reddit, launching initially obscure observations, jokes, or news to the "front page of the internet." Posts spawn long threads of commentary, known as subreddits, in which users can debate. The site has also been used as a lever to build pressure on whatever piques the wrath of its users. The main subreddit for the bus tour can be found here.
SOPA and PIPA were bills designed to protect intellectual property, but many felt the laws held the potential to curtail internet freedom, with the government able to shut down sites on a whim. The main subreddits against the bills can be found here.
Now, in the heat of a debate season fixed upon the jobs and the budget deficit, Ohanian wants to ensure that the internet, which he calls one of the healthiest parts of the economy, remains protected. In a press release about his tour, Ohanian said:
"It's about parents taking Skillshare classes on blogging in Boulder, TED meetups in Omaha, Kentucky folk festivals that get funded on Kickstarter, artists in Missouri who can sell to the world on Etsy and retirees who can make some extra money renting out a room on Airbnb."
Presented by StartLouis and Build Guild STL, Ohanian will speak at 7 p.m. in the T-REx building downtown (611 Olive St.), the heart of St. Louis' startup culture. Anyone is welcome, no RSVP necessary, no entrance fee.
Dylan Hassinger of StartLouis said in an email, "We are very stoked to hear from one of our startup heroes about a cause that should be important to every entrepreneur and internet user."