Present Moment collaborates with humans to create healthy technology ecosystems.
We help local governments, organizations, schools, companies, and groups of all kinds take action and create values-aligned tech policies, practices, and products.
We facilitate learning for everyone.
We create space for governance.
We dream of healthy tech futures.
What we do
Present Moment is a cooperatively governed, mission-driven consultancy. We support people, governments, and groups seeking creative solutions for technology safety, governance, and wellbeing.
Approach
Present Moment believes that people have the power to create meaningful tech resources and governance in their school districts, local government, nonprofits, foundations, community organizations, and every institution that serves us.
We work collaboratively, bringing our expertise in technology & society to community engagements, risk and assessments, participatory research and ethnography, democratic governance, and more.
People
Present Moment is a networked collective of educators, librarians, technologists, scholars, artists, policy experts, organizers, and more, with many different skills, knowledge, and methods to apply to tech issues and opportunities.
Workshops and Classes
We convene groups to reflect on how tech is affecting our lives, and to take intentional, concrete action.
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Growing Up in the Age of AI - supporting parents and caregivers seeking healthy tech futures with their families through responsible school policies & peer support.
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From Polycrisis to Polychrysalis: Connecting through portals of change and challenge - applying mindfulness methods to engage in organizing while staying grounded and intentional.
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Tech Sovereignty with Kids - a 6-week class covering consentful tech, information & AI literacy, hands-on experimentation, & co-design of peer mentorship guides.
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Alt-Tech-Delete - workshop and trainings for organizations and groups seeking alternatives to big tech platforms that better fit their values and ethics.
Research & Development
We apply participatory research, ethnography, data analysis and tech development to conduct:
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Studies and audits of AI products in the wild.
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Participatory research and digital ethnography.
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Create purpose-built, local, open AI tools.
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Research digital needs, risks, and dreams to shape tech policies and product design.
Creative Practice
We explore and create with all kinds of tech - FM microbroadcasting, mesh wireless, and more. Recent participatory radio broadcasts include: Radio Past Radio Future and Radio Doppelganger with The Lobby NYC; and Shadows and Waves, an evening of Shadow Puppets and Radio, White Rose, and Too, Stop the War. Let us know if you have an idea or curiosity about participatory transmission.
Somatic & Mindful Engagement and Facilitation
Our workshops and classes integrate somatic practices like guided meditation, deep relaxation, and principles of skillfull speech and deep listening, rooted in the mindfulness tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, to reduce overwhelm and enable productive dialogue.
Testimonial
"I have known and worked alongside Greta Byrum for the past three years and continue to be inspired by how she approaches leadership, partnership, and problem-solving with grounded wisdom and generosity.
Greta has a gift for guiding people through complexity without losing sight of humanity, relationships, or purpose. She creates environments where people feel heard, challenged, and supported all at once, which is a rare balance.
Present Moment Enterprises reflects Greta’s ability to help organizations and leaders think more deeply, act more intentionally, and build toward meaningful and lasting change."
— Kyla Williams Tate
Greta Byrum is an expert in technologies for digital opportunity, resilience, safety, wellbeing, and imagination. Her work focuses on building infrastructure and technological self-determination with communities to create digital wellbeing instead of exclusion, surveillance, and extraction. She has contributed extensively to research on digital governance, including risks to vulnerable populations and pathways to collective action.
Affiliate
is a data and operations consultant and digital service designer working toward a future where innovation strengthens public systems, empowers communities, and ensures that solutions to the modern era’s evolving challenges serve the public interest.
Affiliate
is a researcher-investigator using technologies and storytelling frameworks to open up community-oriented data frameworks and discourses. Todd is currently a Just Tech Fellow at the Social Science Research Council, teaches at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and is a radio journalist by training.
Affiliate
is a researcher investigating the social impact of AI systems, leveraging both computational data analytics and digital ethnography to create concrete accounts beyond performance metrics.
Partners
We would love to hear from you
Have an idea, request for services or collaboration, or just want to say hello?
We are seeking clients, partners, and supporters interested in seeding creative action to steer AI & tech in ways that affirm our humanity and respect our living planet.
Please fill out the form below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! Or email us at hello@presentmoment.tech
Foundations & gratitude
We integrate practices fom Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village, bringing people into restorative connection through active listening.
Our work is rooted in Community Technology, a method of teaching and learning about technology to heal relationships and strengthen communities.
Thank you to the visionaries, teachers, and practitioners who inspire us.
