Thursday’s vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky., was to mark...

technology industries, including the social news company. The tour began at the presidential debate in Denver last week, and focused on cities in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri to “highlight the stories of startups, organizations and local governments that are doing important things to create jobs and help the economy” using the Internet, Reddit General Manager Erik Martin told us. The tour’s organizers “wanted to go through the heartland” to show that innovation and the use of online tools like social media to build businesses is happening everywhere, he said. The tour has encountered entrepreneurs, Martin said, including Local Motors, which uses an “Internet powered business model” to design cars with collaborators across the world, and a St. Louis company that built a brick-and-mortar jewelry shop after its founders met online and sold jewelry through Etsy. While the goal of the tour is to “highlight what we're trying to protect,” Martin said, “we're not focusing too much on any specific policies.” Instead, he said, the tour’s town-hall like discussions have touched on policies ranging from trade negotiations, patent reform and immigration reform to industry policies, such as data caps imposed by Internet providers. One common topic of these discussions has been preventing legislation that would hinder the ability of the Internet to “provide a level playing field for small businesses,” Martin said: “We're threatened by any undue regulation,” like the failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which Reddit and its users heavily protested earlier this year. Martin said the SOPA debate was eye-opening for many in the technology and Internet industries. Many entrepreneurs who had focused on building their businesses rather than getting involved with politics “realized that’s not enough and that we have to get involved,” Martin said, including himself. Because of SOPA, many people for the first time read a bill’s text and analysis and contacted their federal legislators, Martin said, which is “good for the country no matter what side of the issue you're on.” Reddit is hoping to capture that grassroots energy again during a yet-to-be-scheduled day where Reddit and Internet users lobby their state and federal representatives. “Everything regarding” the day of grassroots advocacy “is still in the works, but in general I think it will include” meeting with state legislators and visiting congressional district offices, Martin said. “We're definitely planning on doing this,” he said, adding, “it may be an international thing.” Like the scheduling, the goals of the potential day of Internet advocacy haven’t been specified. “The community will collectively figure that out,” Martin said.