The Big Picture

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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.

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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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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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.

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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.

 

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Digital Rights, Privacy & Ethical Tech Governance

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

 

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.

 

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.