The American political system (especially Congress) is very corrupt. This is due to the fact that it is almost impossible to be elected without raising a lot of money, and even harder to get reelected without doing so. This requires Congresspeople to spend a large fraction of their time contacting potential campaign contributors and convincing them to give money. It also makes them very very aware of which positions on which issues will bring in money. It also leads to large proportions of ex-Congresspeople and former Congressional staffers becoming (very well-paid) lobbyists.
And that because of this, nothing substantial to improve the current corporate/financial domination of American society can be done until the influence of money in politics is removed.
The poll statistics he quotes are worth noting:
1) 96 percent think that lessening the influence of money in politics is important.
2) 68 percent think that this is very important.
3) 91 percent think it's unlikely, and therefore not worth spending any effort on.
The technology bit starts at 34:15. I'm paraphrasing here...
I'm here to recruit you. To help turn us from cows to ants, to build awareness, to save this republic.
This movement has enormous needs which you [tech] uniquely can provide. This movement will only succeed if we can find way to knit people together in a different model than tv / advertising model of politics today. This needs to be built and people with your skills can do this.
If you think you can help then email SCALE@lessig.org
So he has an open ended problem, not a spec, that he believes technology can play a large role in solving.
He mentions Aaron Swartz as inspiration multiple times through the talk. I think he wants more people with Aaron's technical skills to contribute to the movement to politically empower the wider population.
EDIT: More specifically, I am wondering why he's calling for the help of "technically enabled" people. What is the relevance of technology here?