Goal: Bring together organizations who are promoting a people-powered Internet such as Project Liberty (represented possibly by Braxton Woodham; the Sustainable Media Center represented possibly by Emma Lembke; and Todd Gillette, Chair onAir Networks).
Proposed Title: People’ Internet
Subtitle: Reclaiming the web: Own your content, Regain agency
Proposed Date: April 27, 2026
Proposed Time: 11 AM to Noon EST
OnAir Post: Proposed ISOC-DC Panel
Project Liberty builds solutions that advance human agency and flourishing in an AI-powered world.
The Project Liberty Institute is a nonprofit research and convening hub that advances democratic values and governance to shape a people-centered digital economy.
Technology: Frequency gives people control over their interactions with AI and social platforms.
Governance: Uniting frontier tech and policy to build a people-centered digital future.
Community: Bringing together 150+ organizations to align AI and innovation with humanity’s interests.
Source: Project Liberty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhDwH0lFWk0
Project Liberty is stitching together an ecosystem of technologists, academics, policymakers, and citizens committed to building a better internet—where the data is ours to manage, the platforms are ours to govern, and the power is ours to reclaim.
OnAir Post: Project Liberty
Braxton Woodham, Co-Founder of Frequency, is a technology leader with 20+ years of experience building scalable platforms. At Project Liberty, he develops infrastructure for decentralized social networking.
Previously, he led product and technology at Fandango, co-founded Sun Basket and kuma.capital, and built Tap11, a real-time media analytics platform. He also held key roles at Sony Music and InfoSpace.
Braxton began his career as a Lead Propulsion Engineer for Atlas missions and served as a U.S. Air Force Captain. He holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Source: Coindesk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E67EwKXZ2Aw
Key Pictures presents: Behind the Code Web3 Builders with Co-creators of the DSNP: Harry Evans, CTO of Project Liberty Labs & Braxton Woodham, President.
Harry & Braxton discuss the mission of Project Liberty Labs, its work with Social Graphs, Network Effects & the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol – the DSNP. They share about building the Frequency rollup on the Polkadot Tech stack, onboarding MeWe & the ultimate potential of Social Web3.
OnAir Post: Braxton Woodham
Our mission is to act as a catalyst for change—partnering with GenZ to give them agency over the digital world they navigate, create, and influence every day.
From social platforms to generative AI, today’s digital environment shapes how we connect, communicate, and understand what’s true.
We believe young people deserve more than protection—they deserve power.
Through tools, funding, and cross-generational support, we help GenZ lead the way—guided by a framework we call Social Intelligence: technology built with values, purpose, and human insight.
https://youtu.be/yDdCEV2ihSs
This is a test of how NotebookLM can create a “brief video” from this SMC onAir post consisting of publicly available content… mostly sourced from SMC website and YouTube channel.
OnAir Post: Sustainable Media Center
Emma Lembke is a leading Gen Z digital rights advocate. A 2025 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied political science and psychology, Lembke now serves on the Gen Z Advisory Board of the Sustainable Media Center. She will be joining the organization full-time in New York working on youth-led strategies for platform accountability and digital reform.
At SXSW 2025, Lembke delivered a keynote introducing ACTV8.Media, a groundbreaking co-design incubator developed in partnership with the Sustainable Media Center. ACTV8 empowers Gen Z creators to build the next generation of social technologies—with mental health, safety, and civic well-being baked into the code.
Lembke has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, met with White House officials, and been featured in The New York Times, NPR, CBS News, and Bloomberg. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2024.
Source: Sustainable Media Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACYCTwp5rXM
In this talk, Steve Rosenbaum and Emma Lembke from the Sustainable Media Center lay out why the digital public square is falling apart — and what it will take to rebuild it. They argue that today’s social platforms profit from division, turning public conversation into a commodity and eroding trust across communities, markets, and democracy itself.
Emma shares her own experience growing up inside the algorithm and explains how Gen Z is pushing back by organizing, advocating, and redesigning digital spaces from the inside out. Steve reflects on the early promise of the internet and how algorithmic systems have reversed much of that optimism.
Together, they introduce the Sustainable Media Center’s initiatives: Actv8.Media, a Gen Z–led incubator building healthier platforms; the Social Intelligence Framework, which reimagines data control and AI; and a new Safe Social certification to help families and policymakers recognize healthier digital environments.
Their call to action is straightforward: treat conversation as public infrastructure, fund alternatives to outrage-driven platforms, and build a digital world where truth and trust support both democracy and the economy. The public square isn’t lost — it’s unfinished — and they invite partners to help build what comes next.
OnAir Post: Emma Lembke
Our Vision: The Internet Is for Everyone.
The Internet Society supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich people’s lives, and a force for good in society.
Our work aligns with our goals for the Internet to be open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy. We seek collaboration with all who share these goals.
Together, we focus on:
Source: Website
OnAir Post: Internet Society
Todd Gillette is CTO for onAir Tech, a startup chartered in Virginia building an innovative knowledge sharing platform. Todd is also Chair of onAir Networks, the 501c3 nonprofit overseeing the implementation of the onAir platform for public online networks.
Todd currently serves as a Staff Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Mission Systems as well as Todd earned his PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 from George Mason University, having researched informatics and data analytics methods applied to neuronal morphology and function. He holds a BS in Engineering and BA in Computer Science from Swarthmore College.
Along with his many years working with software, Todd’s experience includes mission engineering and systems engineering, determining and documenting the key problems to be solved, deriving requirements, architecting and evaluating candidate solutions, and verifying designs and implementations. He has worked with cyber systems and software engineers to address anti-tamper and unintended emissions concerns and to integrate defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.
Todd has also studied and applied artificial intelligence, including machine learning and logical ontology-based techniques. The intersections of AI and biological brains, and how to leverage them to enhance human capabilities in an ethical and human-centered manner, continue to be one of Todd’s primary interests.
OnAir Post: Todd Gillette
The onAir Network is a human-curated, AI-assisted network of topic hubs that bring together online communities of experts, students, organizations, and other stakeholders … to LEARN more about a field and advance its research-driven knowledge base; DISCUSS key issues and challenges; and CO-CREATE exploring and implementing solutions. A key onair feature is that members control where and how their content and conversations are shared – free from paywalls, algorithmic feeds, or intrusive ads.
The onAir platform and hubs enable members to:
Our Future onAir hub aggregates the best knowledge, people, and organizations seeking to better address challenges related to Nature, Health, Science, Technology, Society, and Nations. Our support for the People’s Internet hub reflects our commitment to social media that are based on Decentralized Social Network Protocols.
Michelle De Mooy is director of the Tech & Public Policy program in Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. She is a leader in technology policy, focused on ensuring that emerging technologies advance human rights and democratic values.
For the Tech & Public Policy program, De Mooy is building initiatives that translate academic insights into actionable policy that drives impact. Current projects include innovative programming to reimagine policymaking, a partnership with a social media platform to provide access to data for Georgetown researchers and an AI Policy Lab.
Source: Tech & Public Policy website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvLeJffipc&ab_channel=ImaginingtheDigitalFutureCenter
Michelle De Mooy, Director of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, talks about how the Internet has become more trustworthy because of the technological innovation of privacy
OnAir Post: Michelle De Mooy
