Burt Lum is the State of Hawaii’s Strategy Officer for the Hawaii Broadband Initiative dedicated to ensuring that Hawaii establish robust, resilient connectivity to the global broadband network. His work also includes broadband policy work and community collaborations. He has more than 30 years in Hawaii's technology and communications sector and is a frequent speaker and panelist on the topic of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Burt is also the reviver of the Hawaii Chapter of the Internet Society which originally started in 1995.
At the City and County of Honolulu, he has worked with the City Council on their Digital Initiative including establishing Honolulu as a Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities. Past engagements include founding member of the Innovation Center at HMSA, Senior Product Manager at Hawaiian Telcom, CEO/President of Hawaii data center startup, and Sr.Marketing Manager at the Maui High Performance Computing Center.
His online activities include social media, community building, and citizen journalism. Burt was a technology columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser from 1998-2004. Since 2008 to the present, he produces and hosts a weekly science and technology show on Hawaii Public Radio (NPR Affiliate) called Bytemarks Cafe. He also co-hosts the Geek Beat on Hawaii News Now Sunrise. He also wrote a column for Civil Beat called Civil Geeks. For the last 10 years he has also organized an annual grassroots technology event called the Unconferenz. You can find Burt active on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Slack, and his various blogs.
Burt graduated from Iolani High School. He went to the University of Washington and Stanford University to receive a BSEE and MSEE, respectively.