All over the country and internationally, people are realizing that they have a stake in the media and communications systems that impact their lives every day. They are learning to use their voices to challenge the dominant powers that have historically shaped media and telecommunications policy, to make their own media that represents and speaks to their communities, and they are imagining, building, and growing community-centered communications infrastructure such as public access centers, low power FM radio stations, and municipal wi-fi networks. They organize and turn out in the hundreds and thousands to tell the FCC that big media is big enough and the Internet should always be open and democratic. They are joining national organizations like Free Press and regional ones like Reclaim the Media, based in Seattle. Organizations that have traditionally focused on issues like women's rights, labor, and civil liberties are incorporating media policy agendas as they discover that they no longer have to accept the mainstream media system that systematically marginalizes their constituencies.

The question is, "where is everybody?" We know they are out there - activists, organizers, legislative advocates, public interest attorneys, researchers, journalists, and bloggers, but our information is scattered and underdeveloped. We need to see where our resources are, where we are strong, and where we can make strategic investments to fill gaps and support the growth of nascent groups. If this project is developed, we will build a tool to visualize and track the growth of this exciting and vital movement. People are already out there changing the world by challenging and changing the media. This tool will change the world by making these resources visible, defeating the sense of isolation change agents often struggle with, and helping us identify opportunities to build a movement that sees that a better media system is necessary and possible.