Esther Jang
Esther is a newly graduated PhD turned postdoc in Computer Science at the University of Washington. She is the Director at the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Local Connectivity Lab (LCL). She founded the Seattle Community Network (SCN) in 2019, building DIY Internet infrastructure for digital equity. She has installed community networks in the US and around the world, and teaches technical networking at the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp (TBB).
Esther's projects tend to center around DIY, empowerment, and pedagogy. For example- building communities of practice to sustain technical infrastructures, and vice versa.
Session
The Seattle Community Network is a volunteer-based, grassroots, nonprofit community ISP with a small operating budget (currently averaging $10-$50K in grants, donations, or in-kind contributions per year) that installs and provides internet access for homeless shelters; the services we provide to our users is critical infrastructure for their daily lives. This talk discusses some of the core operational challenges we face, the software infrastructure we use to meet those challenges, and its limitations.