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The Big Picture

All of life is interconnected. So why is Media and our Communications disconnected? Imagine communities coming together to restore information systems by creating interconnected community media with each other? Imagine how our information systems can help communities worldwide restore health through open access to the wisdom of experts in their fields.  A restored dedicated and interconnected media ecosystem can unite us: bringing us closer to each other by sharing the unconditional wisdom of experts in their fields.  By learning from the universal laws of nature, we intend to establish a new kind of network by learning from the original network, Nature.

How communities worldwide are restoring trust, safety, and wellbeing through decentralized, interoperable, and human-centered information ecosystems.

How can we improve our information and communications systems to bring us closer to our ultimate potential: a healthier, more balanced and prosperous coexistence?

Information as Public Infrastructure

How communication systems — from broadband to public media — function as civic infrastructure necessary for health, democracy, and community resilience.
Communities are reclaiming control through municipal broadband, public-interest media, and cooperative data governance.

Federated & Decentralized Media Ecosystems (ActivityPub + Fediverse)

Centralized platforms failed; communities are building interoperable, decentralized media networks that resist censorship, disinformation, and monopoly control.
Exploring Mastodon, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Lemmy, and ActivityPub-based infrastructures.

Community-Owned Cloud, Data, & Digital Commons

• Why communities need control over data storage, processing, and sharing — and how cooperative cloud models, edge computing, and digital commons reduce extraction and surveillance.

Cybersecurity as Community Safety

• Cybersecurity reframed as collective care: shared threat modeling, local digital first aid, secure messaging, and protecting vulnerable communities from hacking, harassment, and surveillance.

5. Trusted Information Systems & Community Verification

• How neighborhoods, schools, and local media cooperatives create “trust layers” that counter misinformation: fact-checking hubs, community review boards, translation collectives, and local verification networks.

6. Cooperative AI & Public-Interest Algorithms

• AI designed by and for communities — not corporations.
• Includes public datasets, cooperative AI training, transparent models, and community-reviewed algorithms powering local decision-making.

Interoperable Crisis Communications & Resilience Networks

• Community-owned communications networks — mesh WiFi, solar-powered routers, radio, SMS hubs — that keep people connected during disasters, blackouts, or suppression.

8. Media Cooperatives, Independent Journalism & Community Storytelling

• How local journalism cooperative models, community-owned TV/streaming networks, and citizen storytelling platforms restore trust and improve community health outcomes.

9. Digital Rights, Privacy & Ethical Tech Governance

Description:
Ensuring communities have agency over their digital identities, biometric data, communication rights, and algorithmic exposure.
Includes data minimization, rights-by-design, and participatory governance.

Ideal Speakers:

• Cory Doctorow – Internet rights + anti-monopoly tech
• Carissa Véliz – Author, expert on privacy and digital ethics
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) leaders

Intergenerational Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship

• Co-designed learning ecosystems (schools, libraries, youth creators, elders) that build shared digital literacy, reduce polarization, and strengthen collective intelligence.

11. Decolonizing Technology & Indigenous Data Sovereignty

• Indigenous nations leading governance of data, communications infrastructure, and cultural knowledge — including Indigenous data protocols and tribal-owned digital networks.

Holistic Systems Design for ICT + Media

A whole-systems view of ICT — linking energy, infrastructure, governance, education, media, and culture.
How to design interconnected, adaptive, resilient communication ecosystems modeled after nature.

Open Protocols, Public Code & the Future of the Internet

• The shift from centralized, corporate-owned platforms to open protocols and public code — enabling interoperability, sovereignty, and community governance.

Hybrid Infrastructure: Blending Old & New Media

Mesh networks + community radio.
Public TV + Mastodon.
PeerTube + youth TikTok collectives.
Hybrid media infrastructures bridge generations and democratize access to information.

“Media as Medicine”: Information Systems for Community Health

• How trustworthy information reduces stress, panic, polarization, misinformation-driven harm, and supports mental health and shared understanding.