At an event held in Boulder, CO, on Thursday night, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and key figure in the online fight against the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills earlier this year, shared a loose thought: "This may be a terrible idea," he volunteered, "but what if we chose a day to 'geek bomb' DC, and we scheduled meetings with representatives and senators?" He went on. What if we "brought in geeks from every one of their districts, for one day, to talk specifically about these issues?"

His language instantly became less conditional. "It'll be [an] organized setup, kind of like a flash mob on DC," he said.

"A national Geek Day."

And just like that, we see how Reddit's next chapter will start: in politics.

The event was held as part of a bus tour organized by Ohanian and Reddit General Manager Erik Martin to raise awareness about internet policy. (The tour started at the debate in Colorado, and ends at the next on in Kentucky.) The subject of the panel was "Startups + Politics: Why You Should Give A Shit," and it took place in the office of a startup, Simple Energy. This is precisely the kind of general, vague plan you might expect to hear during a panel in front of these people, in this room.

But by the end of the night the campaign — event? holiday? — was already taking a recognizable shape. Dates were floated, volunteers stepped forward. One attendee approached Ohanian after the panel to ask him if he would spearhead an effort to write a constitutional amendment for internet freedom; he wisely and gently demurred. But this was just minutes after he explained to the crowd, virtually unprompted, how he deals with people who ask him if, or "when," he said, he might run for office. (The "decision tree," he says, leads him to believe that for the "foreseeable future," he can do more to change politics from the outside.) There was to be a new subreddit. At the time of writing, /r/geekday is unoccupied. Update: In the minutes since posting, another fold in the plan: a possible Geek Day pilot, or beta, focused on a single state's legislature.

Asked if he intended to see the campaign through, no more than an hour after first mentioning it, a visibly animated Ohanian told me, "Of course!" The idea, he admitted, came to him while he was on stage.

"SOPA/PIPA was the start, the Declaration [of Internet Freedom] was a next step, the Internet Defense League was another step," he explained. "Getting Republicans and Democrats to include the language of internet freedom in both their platforms was another step, this bus tour is another," he went on.

The recent visit to Reddit by Barack Obama, who participated in a hugely popular (if somewhat unsatisfying) Q&A with users, was the most visible aspect of what is certainly a moment for the site; it's obvious within minutes of talking to Ohanian just what kind of "moment" Ohanian believes this to be.

Reddit, in his vision, has become a political force and as such bears a new responsibilities. As one of its leaders (since focusing on his other startups, his only official position at Reddit has been on the board, but he still works closely with the site), he sees himself increasingly — maybe even primarily — as a political figure.