@silmathoron I agree. But how to convince them to spend time on that, and that there's a win-win on the long term? Mostly the project-specific tasks absorb all attention and there's little focus on the broader picture beyond. It is understandable, because there's already so much to pay attention to, to keep a good project going.
@humanetech I do think that it's easier for somewhat stable/big projects that can either donate to the NGOs that do some lobbying, pay people with legal expertise to work on that, or directly have one of their members go meet the politicians.
However, some small projects have successfully done some lobbying... maybe ask @aral how he got the EU to invite him?