Wow. What a great topic. I sure wish that it was recorded. You are doing brilliant work.
On Wed, Jun 24, 2026 at 11:41 AM Russell Senior <[email protected]> wrote: > Who: Ryan Sayre > What: Death & Digital Succession, Cloud Optimization, and the > Resurrection of a .US Locality Registrar > Where: 1930 SW 4th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97201-5304, Room 86-01 > When: Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 7 PM > Why: The pursuit of technology freedom > > Summary: > > What happens to legacy internet infrastructure when the sole technical > owner passes away? When Jon Backstrom (AKA Prairie Nyx) died in 2023, > they left behind critical pieces of community infrastructure under risk > of going offline completely —including the nameserver prairie.net and > vital segments of the geography-centric .US locality domain space (RFC > 1480). > > This talk covers the messy, real-world saga of digital succession and > infrastructure rescue. We'll walk through the technical and human > challenges of breaking into systems without passwords, tracking down > next of kin and the remaining passionate user base to keep them informed. > > On the technical side, we will look at how to quickly audit, patch, and > migrate legacy services under pressure. We'll discuss practical > strategies for cloud juggling, lowering operational costs, and > eliminating both technical and human single points of failure by > balancing the best of modern cloud automation with DIY resilience. > > Finally, we will dive into the history, near-death, and possible > resurrection of the Internet for actual human communities. Ultimately, > this is a talk about digital stewardship, service preservation, and > remembering why we build and maintain systems for the pure joy of the > craft. > Bio: > > Ryan Sayre is a cloud and storage technologist who enjoys the > restoration, maintenance, and tinkering of vintage computing hardware. > In his spare time, he manages legacy internet infrastructure (skylab.org > and prairie.net), coordinates a Portland school bike bus initiative, and > tries to keep good stuff alive for the good of the commons. > > Calagator: https://calagator.org/events/1250482620 > > With luck, the talk will also be streamed live here: > http://www.twitch.tv/kngbwlf, and later posted to YouTube. > > PLUG is back at Portland State University, thanks to the Computer > Science Department and to Andrew Greenberg. The room is in the basement > of the PSU Engineering Building (also connected underground to the > Fourth Avenue Building, or FAB). Enter through the Engineering Building. > The outside door will be locked, but there should be someone present at > the entrance to let you in starting at 6:40pm until 7pm. There will be a > sign on the door with a phone number you can SMS if there isn't someone > there to let you in immediately. > > -- > Russell Senior > PLUG Volunteer > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org > PLUG-announce mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > -- John Sechrest @sechrest http://www.oomaat.com
