Building Community-Owned Critical Infrastructure at ChiNOG 13

On May 28th I got to talk about Open Pipes at ChiNOG 13, in a session called "Building Community-Owned Critical Infrastructure."

ChiNOG is home turf for me. This is Chicago — the same city where I lived when I started the Chicago Internet Exchange years ago — so getting up in front of this particular room felt less like a conference talk and more like catching up with the community that shaped how I think about interconnection in the first place. It's always great to see the people who keep showing up, year after year, to build and argue and fix this stuff together.

The talk is about why critical infrastructure — the exchanges and interconnection that the Midwest's Internet actually runs on — belongs to the community that depends on it, not to whoever happens to own the building. It's the thinking behind why Open Pipes is a neutral, nonprofit exchange rather than one more toll booth.

Here's the full talk:

The slides are posted on the ChiNOG 13 agenda page if you'd rather skim than watch.

If any of it resonates — or if you want to argue with me about it — that's exactly the point. Come find us: [email protected]