Franklin Project

Jake Braun, national security advisor and co-founder of the DEF CON Voting Village, announces the launch of the "Franklin Project" on the DEF CON 32 Main Stage.

[03:47] Braun reflects on the massive public policy impact of the Voting Village, which directly influenced congressional funding, federal election security policy, and vendor transparency. He explains that the Franklin Project aims to replicate this success across all national security and foreign policy domains [07:30].

[11:12] Named after Benjamin Franklin—America's founding diplomat, scientist, and inventor—the Franklin Project creates a permanent mechanism to connect grassroots hacker research directly with policymakers in Washington, DC. Braun calls on the DEF CON community [14:59] to volunteer their technical expertise, participate in technical working groups, and inject ground-truth empirical research into national debates regarding cyber defense, critical infrastructure, and digital sovereignty.

(AI summary — Gemini Flash)