Adam Bernstein Worker-Owner UNIX System Administrator Commissioner of Public Works, Systems Architect Adam most enjoys adapting EE services to meet changing needs, and building client relationships and partnerships with other providers.
Adam studied physics and astronomy at Oberlin College, graduated in 1992, and spent a few years as a “rocket scientist” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. He moved into independent IT consulting for nonprofits, co-founding the Tech Underground, and then moved into software and Internet services with the inception of EE. Adam lives in San Francisco after some years across the Bay in Oakland, and digs motorcycling, rock climbing, hot springs, Ashtanga yoga, fire art and Burning Man culture, and, of course, bacon.
	Benjamin Connelly Worker-Owner UNIX System Administrator Keeper of the Coals, First Responder Explaining Internet technologies in simple terms is one of Benjamin’s favorite challenges at EE. He also enjoys keeping the hardware happy and the systems secure!
Captivated by computers early in childhood, Benjamin studied Computer Engineering (Electrical Engineering plus Computer Science) at Tufts University. Before graduating in 1999 he spent one summer in San Francisco, which was all it took to fall in love with this place. He worked at Teradyne, engineering tests for electronics test equipment. Then he dabbled in teaching and video production, and stumbled into cooperative housing. Now he thrives working in the cooperative movement, bicycle camping, practicing archery, photography, euphonium, and celestial navigation.
	Brent Emerson Worker-Owner UNIX System Administrator First Responder, Minister of Equilibrium At EE, Brent especially enjoys talking with customers and keeping our operational and financial systems running smoothly.
Brent graduated from Brown University in 1998 with a dual concentration in Mathematics and Philosophy (Logic & Philosophy of Science). As the century turned, he honed his SMTP/DNS chops as lead messaging support engineer at network security firm Pilot Network Services. After Pilot disintegrated in the tech bust, Brent was drawn to providing technology support for the rich diversity of progressive non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he co-founded the Tech Underground, an informal collective of non-profit tech consultants. Brent resides in Portland, Oregon, but embraces the whole of Cascadia with a giddy enthusiasm. He delights in worker cooperatives, fermentation, Japanese/Korean bathing, music, language, and light.

History

Electric Embers’ roots go back to 2001: Brent was expanding his hobby Linux web server for friends and family into a small side business, just as Adam was customizing open-source software to provide his consulting clients quality communications tools for smaller budgets. When these two nonprofit technology consultants met and started founding the Tech Underground, it became clear that they shared a dilemma: they loved working with progressive nonprofit groups, but couldn’t find many opportunities to use their favorite UNIX-like operating systems and free/open-source software tools. Their small hosting businesses were a start, but they soon realized that they could accomplish much more by working together than they could on their own. And so on May Day in 2003, Electric Embers was born; Benjamin joined in early 2005 and we’ve been together ever since.

Since 2003, we have been doing work we love for people whose work we admire. We are presently only three, but we are not in this alone. We are very grateful to the developers of the open-source and free software we use, without which our task would be impossible: FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, OpenSSH, Postfix, Sympa, MailScanner, SpamAssassin, Clam AntiVirus, BIND, Roundcube, PHP, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, MHonArc.

We are hosted at MonkeyBrains and SpireTech.