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.