Why I Created the Mike Koedinger Foundation

(Welcome note from the launch event at Mudam, extracts)

Let me start with why I have decided to set up a foundation, and what we are going to do.

And why we need you, and many others, to get involved.

 Simply put: This is an act of resistance and civic engagement.

We live in a time where media integrity, independent thinking, and democratic dialogue are under increasing pressure.

Over the last decade, two parallel developments have profoundly reshaped our societies and the global public sphere.

On one hand, we have witnessed the rise of populism, far-right ideologies, and increasingly authoritarian forms of governance.

On the other, digital platforms have come to dominate public discourse while too often amplifying hate speech, disinformation, public outrage, and mass manipulation in the pursuit of attention and profit.

These developments are deeply interconnected.

Together, they erode trust, weaken democratic institutions, and polarise societies.

They must be challenged through active civic engagement, strong and independent media, and a renewed commitment to the rule of law, open societies, and democratic values.

At the same time, these converging phenomena are unfolding at a moment when citizens are losing faith in democratic societies, as the decades-long promise of continuous growth is being challenged by the post-COVID polycrisis.

So, it’s time to act. And this is why I have set up my foundation.

If you as well, refuse to accept that truth, trust, and democratic debate are becoming collateral damage of the digital age, you are invited to join a community of changemakers.

So what are we going to do?

First of all, we will inform and encourage people to act up.

Today, we start with a conversation on the new forms of censorship in media.

Hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll publish our first book, a highly Visual Dictionary on Power, Media and Democracy.

This book will serve as a base for further educational material, using gamification techniques, to reach a large audience of citizens, parents, policy makers and business owners.

The foundation will finance the book: the research, writing, editing, designing and printing of the first edition.

We will make sure to own all the commercial rights to allow us to make the book accessible at a very low cost for a massive distribution in schools, companies or any kind of organisation that want to join the mission of informing and the effort of distribution.

If opportunities rise, we’ll finance translations from English to French, German or Spanish, allowing potential partners from public or private spheres to simply finance the printing to get copies for their network as this is a matter of speed and scale.

Before change, comes information.

So please join us in the effort of getting these messages around.