After A Decade of Growth, Measurement Lab Spins Out of New America to Join Code for Science & Society

Code for Science & Society and New America’s Open Technology Institute are excited to announce that Measurement Lab is joining the CS&S Sponsored Projects Program on March 1 after a decade of growth at New America. Measurement Lab (M-Lab) has been working in the public interest to measure internet performance around the world and share data openly since it was launched at New America in 2008, work that will continue and expand at its new institutional home. Read on for more about M-Lab’s history and future plans.

Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is the largest open internet measurement platform in the world, hosting internet-scale measurement experiments and releasing all data into the public domain. M-Lab advances network research and empowers the public with useful information about broadband and mobile connections, enhancing internet transparency, and helping to promote and sustain a healthy, innovative internet. Read more about the project at https://www.measurementlab.net.

Code for Science & Society, the new host of M-Lab’s operations, is a small nonprofit dedicated to advancing open technologies in the public interest. They work with partners across research, civic technologies, and new media to support the growth and sustainability of the public interest tech ecosystem.

M-Lab comes to Code for Science & Society after recently celebrating its tenth anniversary at New America’s Open Technology Institute. The M-Lab community and team are thankful for the supportive home that OTI has long provided, but are also excited to join the family of projects at Code for Science & Society, an organization purpose-built for hosting large open source public interest tech projects.

M-Lab’s work will continue to be supported by a consortium of research, industry, and public interest partners, including OTI, that is focused on fostering, collecting, and publishing open internet data. M-Lab will also continue to collaborate with organizations all over the world to build out the internet measurement platform, do research and data studies, and inform policy work by regulators, policymakers, and advocacy organizations.

“We at OTI are immensely proud to have hosted Measurement Lab over the past 10 years, as that project has rapidly grown into an irreplaceable global data resource in the public interest tech ecosystem,” said OTI Director Kevin Bankston. “Though we are sad to see our M-Lab colleagues go, we also feel like proud parents watching their child graduate and leave home: Measurement Lab has matured so much over the past decade that housing it at an organization like Code for Science & Society that specializes in hosting large software projects will best ensure its continued growth and success. However, OTI looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the M-Lab team, participate in the consortium that oversees its work, and leverage M-Lab data to advance policies that will best ensure high-speed broadband for all communities.”

“We are thrilled to work with Measurement Lab. Their 10 year history of critical work at the intersection of open data, internet measurement research, and internet freedom will bring a unique perspective and experience to our community of projects,” said Code for Science & Society Co-Executive Director Danielle Robinson. “We are looking forward to supporting M-Lab as they plan for to the next 10 years.”

Stay tuned for announcements and opportunities to be more involved with M-Lab as it evolves its governance, collaboration, and management structures in the next few months to best ensure M-Lab's continued growth and effectiveness over its next 10 years!

For questions, contact contact@measurementlab.net.