Greta Byrum

Greta Byrum, Present Moment's founder and principal, is an expert in technologies for digital opportunity, resilience, safety, wellbeing, and imagination.

She was the inaugural director of the Just Tech Program at the Social Science Research Council, director of The Digital Equity Laboratory at The New School, and co-founder and director of the organization Community Tech New York.

Her work focuses on building infrastructure and technological self-determination with communities to combat digital exclusion, surveillance, and extraction in data-driven systems. She has contributed extensively to research on digital governance, including risks to vulnerable populations and pathways to collective action.

Her approach centers on designing technologies that serve democratic, equitable, and local needs.

Digital Opportunity Leadership

As a Loeb Fellow, Benton Institute Fellow, former director of the Digital Equity Laboratory, Community Tech NY, and New America's Resilient Communities Program, Greta creates meaningful broadband access and community-centered, locally-governed technology initiatives.

Community Wireless & Resilience

Her research and on-the-ground work with communities in NY, Detroit, Appalachian Tennessee, and elsewhere emphasize co-designing wireless tools and networks to build local power, rather than relying solely on corporate or state-controlled infrastructure.

Digital Governance & Risk

Greta has authored reports on digital risk assessment and policy recommendations, exploring how new technologies impact marginalized communities in contexts like the U.S. Census and online safety under the Digital Equity Act, as well as AI guidance and policy.

Steering and Governing Ethical AI

Her most recent Present Moment pedagogy and workshop model offers affected communities a voice in AI’s evolution and governance to affirm humanity and create, protect, and sustain the worlds we wish to live within.

Résumé

Internet Master Plan - Building Meaningful Adoption Models
for Underconnected NYC Residents: An Analysis of Broadband Needs, Valuation, and Ability to Pay

The City of New York, 2019

Greta Byrum

Selected publications

Unproven Vape Detection Tech Expands Surveillance in Schools, Threatening Privacy

Amid Threats, Global Gathering Seeks to Reseed Digital Rights Ecosystem

Texas Digital Opportunity Hub

North Carolina Tech Resource Finder

Building Safety into Digital Inclusion Efforts

Lessons Learned from the Pandemic

Digital Opportunities Compass

Opening the Broadband Access Paradox

The Future of the Final Mile

Disrupting the Gospel of Tech Solutionism to Build Tech Justice

To Build Lasting Digital Equity, Look to Communities

Addressing the Social Cost of Digital Transition: A New Decennial Census for 2020

Preparing For the Digital Decennial Census: A Manual for Libraries, CBOs, and Community Advocates

Internet Master Plan - Building Meaningful Adoption Models
for Underconnected NYC Residents: An Analysis of Broadband Needs, Valuation, and Ability to Pay

Building the People's Internet

Take It or Leave It: How NYC Residents are Forced to Sacrifice Online Privacy for Internet Service

Building Resilience with Community Technology

Tech for Good (Interview)

What’s the Greatest Risk Cities Face? Broadband Deserts

Community Networks for Resilience (Interview)

It Takes a Village: The Rise of Community-Driven Infrastructure

OTI and EveryoneOn: Working together to evaluate the impact of broadband adoption efforts

Building Broadband Commons: Tools for Planners and Communities

What Are Community Networks For?

Wireless Organizing in Detroit: Churches as networked sites in under-resourced urban areas

Defining and Measuring Meaningful Broadband Adoption