Pioneering Digital Equity.
The X-Lab maps, engineers, researches, analyzes, and evaluates. We are the first step for anyone working on state, regional, municipal, tribal, rural, or community technology deployments.
Broadband Mapping
X-Lab provides fast, accurate broadband mapping and GIS for broadband needs assessments, geospatial and infrastructure assessments, engineering and deployment planning, and funding and grant writing. Our tools overlay broadband speed and latency measurements with Census data, demonstrating geographic and demographic differentials in access and service.
Digital Privacy & Surveillance
Our team helped create the Open Technology Fund — the largest funder of open source circumvention technology on the planet. We engage in bipartisan work with Congress through the Civil Liberties Coalition and the Fourth Amendment Caucus to fight against AI surveillance and data-mining.
Democracy Initiatives
Our team has consulted extensively with U.S. and global leaders on election security and supported pro-democracy movements abroad with expertise in circumvention technologies. We were an early leader in internet and communications technologies for development.
Broadband Affordability
Our team developed the first Broadband Nutrition Label in 2009 to standardize consumer disclosures by ISPs. We partnered with Consumer Reports and dozens of public interest groups on the Broadband Together Initiative, identifying massive pricing discrepancies — including differentiated pricing of the same service in the same neighborhood by up to 40%.
Evaluating Digital Equity
We frequently serve as an evaluator on digital equity and connectivity projects. Our evaluation work has covered major cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, and New York City, across Indian Country, and internationally in Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, Dharamshala, South Africa, Ghana, and more.
Applied Technology
As an applied technology lab, X-Lab incubates a portfolio of projects to strengthen civil society and democratic infrastructure, working in partnership with expert development teams to bring them to life.
Civic Participation & Engagement Infrastructure
We build infrastructure to help people discover timely, verified, and geographically relevant opportunities for civic participation. Using agentic AI, these systems identify, synthesize, and validate local actions, events, and ways to engage across a wide range of civil society organizations, campaigns, and grassroots networks.
These tools allow individuals to find meaningful ways to participate in their own communities while also providing behind-the-scenes capabilities for verification, moderation, and ethical oversight. Our goals are to reduce barriers to participation, increase reach and coordination for organizers, and create durable civic infrastructure that can support engagement at scale.
Organizational Risk & Resilience Support
We develop AI-powered support systems to help civil society organizations assess risk, strengthen resilience, and adopt best-practice operational and privacy safeguards. Designed to address growing threats alongside limited internal capacity, these systems provide clear, step-by-step guidance for evaluating vulnerabilities and improving institutional practices.
By helping organizations build threat models, adopt secure tools and protocols, and develop customized policies—from data handling to secure communications—this work scales scarce expertise and lowers barriers to adoption. Delivered through accessible, conversational interfaces and informed by vetted expert guidance, these tools support organizations in protecting their people, data, and operations over time.
Legislative & Policy Intelligence Systems
We build automated systems that monitor, synthesize, and deliver timely information about legislative and regulatory activity across federal, state, and local governments. Designed to reduce the heavy lift required for ongoing policy tracking, these systems continuously identify new bills, amendments, committee actions, resolutions, regulatory actions, personnel changes, and related public communications.
By transforming complex legislative and institutional activity into clear, organized formats, we are able to support accountability, oversight, transparency, and transition planning efforts.
Public Discourse Analysis
We develop research and analysis systems that examine public discourse at scale to identify shared values, language, and areas of concern across ideological communities. By analyzing speeches, media, and other public communication, these tools surface both points of overlap and meaningful differences in how issues are framed and understood, and generates narrative and content to experimentally address the gaps.
These insights can meaningfully inform market research and message testing, as well as efforts to build a stronger public sphere.
Geospatial Infrastructure & Equity Analysis
We build AI-powered geospatial analysis tools that support broadband planning, deployment, and investment decisions. By integrating real-world performance data with demographic and geographic information, these systems produce detailed, location-specific insights into infrastructure access, service quality, and equity.
Designed for use by public officials, community organizations, tribal governments, researchers, and service providers, this work supports needs assessments, planning, engineering strategy, and funding development. The goal is to reduce technical barriers and enable more accurate, data-driven targeting of underserved communities.
Community Networking
Our team are pioneers in community broadband, building networks for twenty-five years across North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. We are past founders of Commotion Wireless — a decentralized mesh wireless 'internet-in-a-suitcase' project deployed in Detroit and Red Hook, NY, where it became critical in FEMA emergency response after Hurricane Sandy.
Our Methodology
At The X-Lab, we believe that technical solutions are only half the battle. Our projects combine deep field research, policy analysis, and custom-built technology to address systemic inequities.
Data-Driven Research
We collect and analyze raw network data to provide an accurate picture of the digital landscape. Our broadband mapping platforms are built on open-technology stacks and open access data — powerful enough for federal agencies yet intuitive enough for constituents to use at the household level.
Policy Advocacy
Our findings are translated into actionable policy recommendations for federal and local governments. Government agencies including the FCC, NTIA, state governments, and countless local entities leverage the platforms and methodologies pioneered by X-Lab.
Have a challenge for us?
We partner with universities, governments, and NGOs to solve complex digital infrastructure problems.
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