Michael Maranda advocates and organizes around media policy issues and the public use of technology. He fights for digital literacy, access & equity as executive director of CTCNet Chicago, founding chair of the Illinois Community Technology Coalition, and co-founder of the Chicago Digital Access Alliance. As president of the Association For Community Networking (AFCN), Michael promotes local and regional networking as the foundation of the global community information and communications technology (ICT) movement.

Michael bridges community media and technology sectors locally through Let? Talk Media networking events. He established Get Illinois Online [GIO] as the center of statewide dialogue and as a rallying cry for broadband deployment proponents of all stripes. Among community technologists, he actively applies the principle of Movement as Network, opening space for cross-sector dialogue and partnership.

An avid proponent of community-owned and driven solutions, Michael is dedicated to promoting cooperative solutions and creative support structures in the non-profit/voluntary sector. Michael is a co-founder of NPOTechs, a Chicago volunteer network bringing open source and free technologies to non-profits.

A New York native, Michael resides with wife and daughter in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, dreaming of finishing his Ph.D. in Sociology.