Long gone are the days of dial-up Internet and AOL messenger where internet speeds were universally slow for everyone. Now, we all get impatient if our Instagram feed doesn’t refresh in milliseconds or our videos on YouTube start to buffer. This is all made possible by something called net neutrality—open and fair Internet service.

In 2015, regulations were placed so that internet service providers (ISP) treated all online content the same—not showing favoritism to certain websites or penalizing others with slower speeds based on your ISP. Today, the FCC—headed by Trump-appointed chairman Ajit Pai—voted to repeal these rules, changing the way we use the Internet moving forward. Maryland is one of 18 states in a multi-state lawsuit challenging the net neutrality repeal. 

Deb Tillett, executive director of Emerging Technologies Center (ETC), an incubator for tech startups in Highlandtown, explained how the repeal of these regulations will drastically affect the small businesses and innovation in the city.

In layman’s terms, can you explain what net neutrality means?
It means that the internet should be an open marketplace, available to anyone, at any time, with total equality, regardless of who they are, without disclosing why they’re using it. So in the same way that you would use your telephone line and nobody stops you from making any calls that you care to, whether it’s offensive to anyone or not, you can pick up your phone and dial. The internet itself should be considered a basic utility, and it’s the foundation and fundamental nature of everything that we do. By doing away with net neutrality, you essentially put a gatekeeper in place.

Without net neutrality, I wouldn’t be able to sound as smart as I do about the topic because the articles I’ve read wouldn’t be openly available to me. [Laughs]

That’s a great point. Why do you think the net neutrality rules were established in the first place?
As we got more sophisticated and realized we could do more things with the internet, it became necessary to keep it the neutral, open marketplace that it had become. Monopolistic service providers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast are literally in charge of content. So the FCC put these rules in place—they had been trying to do it for years, but it wasn’t until 2015 that they were actually able to get the laws passed.

Why do you think that the FCC wants to repeal the rules now?
I think it’s greed. They would essentially be back in control, so if they had a preferred provider of content, they would favor that. Again, I think it goes back to bottom lines, that the three monopolistic service providers would have more ways to create more income.

What would that mean for small business and startups in Baltimore?
It’s extremely critical in a city like Baltimore, where the small businesses and innovation spaces are the foundation of our economy. This has the greatest impact on small businesses and startups because, if you have an idea for an app or you want to put up a website, you can’t afford to pay what a larger, fiercer competitor pays and it ultimately puts you out of business.

It’s stomping on the little guy because big guys can afford to pay more for content, pay more for faster speeds, pay more—you hear what I’m saying? It’s all about pay. Small businesses rely on the internet for their websites to attract customers. Using web advertising to push people into a store. The ability to block speech and prevent any kind of free speech is really disturbing to me.

Wow. What about regular consumers and local nonprofits?
It’s an absolute blow to minorities and underserved communities. People who have used this open internet to organize to get the word out about oppressions for them—to find like-minded people to come together and make a stand. Providers could potentially sensor that content if they don’t like what you’re saying.

It has the direst of consequences. The internet’s openness is what fosters job creation, competition among small businesses, and clearly innovation. 

Do you think that there’s anything that the Baltimore tech industry can do about the net neutrality rules being repealed?
The only possible solution is that we band together and do the best we can to have it overturned. We would have to—it would put tons of people out of business. It’s so crazy. I can see it being a real detriment to any kind of startup. Some of my mature companies can probably find a way, but some of the folks just starting out and developing apps and want to get the apps out there, absolutely, positively depend on this open marketplace.

Christopher Wink is uncomfortable. Shifting in his chair, the 31-year-old online media entrepreneur is fielding questions about Baltimore Innovation Week (BIW), but he keeps ducking and dodging, unwilling to take credit for the annual celebration of all things tech he cofounded in 2012. Partly, this is for practical reasons. As a cofounder of Technical.ly, a network of online news sites covering tech in the Mid-Atlantic, he says he is wary of blurring the lines between advocacy and journalism. In other words, he doesn’t want to appear too cozy with the community his organization covers. Furthermore, as a resident of Philadelphia, he recognizes that claiming a Baltimore event as his own opens him up to charges of carpetbagging.

But mostly, he’s reluctant to take credit because doing so would undermine what’s great about BIW—namely, its inclusivity. The point, he says, is that the event—running this year from September 29 through October 7—relies on participants from across the region to produce a week of lectures and roundtables, networking events, mentoring sessions, and demonstrations of the latest products. It includes game and app developers, educators, web designers, startup entrepreneurs, and academic, medical, and government organizations. 

The approximately 50 events planned for this BIW (hashtag #BIW17, obviously) run the gamut from a session on securing startup financing to a lecture by a veteran game developer titled “Grumpy Cat’s Guide to Game Design: The Beauty of No.” Maybe best of all, the events are sprinkled throughout the city, taking place in neighborhoods as disparate as West Baltimore and Federal Hill, Fells Point and Hampden, and Mt. Vernon and Highlandtown. There’s even one presentation—about a cultural exchange program between the tech communities of Maryland and the Netherlands—that requires driving all the way out to (gasp!) University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in Catonsville.

“There are many parts of the puzzle,” Wink says, as he surveys the industrial- chic interior of Emerging Technologies Centers (ETC), a sleek coworking and tech incubation space in Highlandtown that has signed on to act as BIW’s home base this year. “[Then] if one group fades, it’s not crippling. I don’t want there to be the story that this person or organization goes away and the community goes away.”

That seems in no danger of happening. This year, more than 50 organizations are participating, up from 10 or so in 2012.

“I want us to be working toward Baltimore Innovation Week as the most accessible access point for people to get into this conversation, into the community,” Wink emphasizes.

So, okay, duly noted: Christopher Wink and the Technical.ly gang are not solely responsible for the creation or continuation of Baltimore Innovation Week. It is a big tent. The more the merrier. Et cetera. But every story needs a starting point, and, arbitrary though it may be, Wink’s is as good as any.

In 2012, three years after starting Technical.ly in Philadelphia, Wink was lured to Baltimore by a cadre of local tech figures who felt Baltimore’s scene warranted more consistent and deeper coverage than it was receiving from traditional media outlets. They were sure that Wink and the Technical.ly team could provide it, and that it would yield great results.

Wink soon agreed. “I got obsessed with why don’t Baltimore and Philly see each other as peer cities?” he recalls. “There are so many times when I’m in a conversation, and I’m like, ‘This is the exact same conversation as in Philly or Baltimore,’ depending on which one I’m in.”

He quickly realized that there was a case to be made for viewing the Mid-Atlantic as a contiguous tech region, much the same way Silicon Valley has become the catch-all term for the hive of activity in and around the San Francisco Bay area. To that end, Technical.ly gradually expanded and now has outposts in Brooklyn, NY; Wilmington, Delaware; and Washington, D.C.; as well as Philly and Baltimore. Viewing the markets as one giant cluster allows them to compete on a national—and even international—level in a way they couldn’t on their own. This is why you’ll sometimes see Baltimore and/or Maryland pop up on lists of “hot tech scenes” in publications such as Business Insider and Fast Company.

“We think that people understand the idea that New York, Philly, Baltimore, and D.C.—we are stronger together,” Wink states.

But even as he stumped for greater regional coordination, Wink realized greater local collaboration was necessary, too. In 2011, he’d helped launch a tech week in Philly, and he and his Maryland cohorts believed a similar event would work in Baltimore, as well. From defense and cyber security firms to 21st-century education technology startups, there were so many pockets of thriving tech in Baltimore—all that was necessary was the connective thread.   

“Many of them knew each other but they hadn’t necessarily coordinated events on one calendar,” Wink recalls. “It was, ‘Can we do this together to convey that we are a single community and that we’re connected?’ That was, essentially, the idea.”

That first year, ETC signed on almost immediately, as did other tech stalwarts including TEDCO—which was created by the state legislature in 1998 to midwife academic and government innovations to the marketplace—and the University of Maryland BioPark.

There were so many pockets of thriving tech in Baltimore—all that was necessary was the connective thread. 

Wink remembers surveying the crowd at a kickoff event for the first BIW and feeling reassured by the mix of people in attendance. Deb Tillett, the president and executive director of ETC, was there, as was Rob Rosenbaum, who was then CEO at TEDCO. Also in the room were several startup entrepreneurs, Jane Shaab, the executive director of the University of Maryland BioPark, and Keimmie Booth, then the captain of the RoboDoves, Western High School’s robotics team. “It was all these people that in our first year of reporting were trying to shape this community, and that was resonant,” Wink says. “We felt like, ‘Yep, these are the kinds of people we’re supposed to bring together.’”

Others noticed the difference straightaway.

“When I first started my career as a programmer in Baltimore, it was relatively difficult to find out what was happening around town,” recalls Mike Subelsky, a computer programmer and entrepreneur at the center of Baltimore’s tech scene who also attended that first BIW kickoff event.  

“Innovation Week and Technical.ly have been instrumental in building community and identity; the main thing they bring is energy,” he adds.

Indeed, since that first year, BIW’s growth has mirrored the growth of Baltimore’s tech community. As the scene has expanded, so too has BIW’s calendar.

“If you look through the timeline, it is like a time capsule of what was active,” notes Wink. For instance, the first Innovation Week didn’t include tech/startup incubators and makerspaces such as City Garage, Impact Hub, Open Works, and Spark, simply because it couldn’t. They didn’t yet exist. Nor could that first BIW have included Innovation Village, the city’s first tech/innovation district, anchored in West Baltimore by Maryland Institute College of Art and Coppin State University. It, too, was years away.

Other now-major companies existed, but were in their infancies, and BIW—directly or indirectly—was able to help foster their growth. Todd Marks, the president and CEO of Mindgrub, a software development and digital marketing firm based in Locust Point, says the buzz Tecnhical.ly was creating in the city through Baltimore Innovation Week and other events influenced his decision to move his fledgling company from Catonsville to Locust Point in 2014. At the time of the relocation, Mindgrub had about 15 employees; it now has 96.  

“The spotlight they gave on city tech made me want to be closer to the epicenter of where it was all happening,” he says.

Best of all, BIW participants seem willing to pay it forward and help the next generation of pioneers blaze their own trails.

“In 2015 they did a ‘Fail Fest.’ I got to be the moderator, which is really fun,” recalls Deb Tillet, a petite powder keg of a woman, who has been running ETC since 2012 and working in various sectors of the tech industry since the 1980s. “There were maybe six entrepreneurs who told their ‘how I crashed and burned’ stories about how important it was to fail but get back up on your feet. [It] was compelling to hear . . . some of these people who are very, very successful now.

“Mike Subelsky, he was talking about how he wanted nothing more in the whole entire world than to be a Navy Seal and the training that he had to go through. And he made it and made it and made it—and then he didn’t make it. It just was really interesting. You’re looking at these successful people now and they’re telling their stories and you’re like, ‘Oh wow!’ And everybody’s got one. And I’ve got one, too.”

Tillett’s anecdote highlights a central irony about BIW—and maybe the tech scene in general: For all the excitement about technological innovation and the latest gadget or “disruptive” idea, it is the human connection that underpins it all. Because despite the “solitary genius” myth, creativity and innovation are often born through collaborations and intellectual conflict, where disparate ideas are allowed to spark and spin off each other, eventually morphing into something novel.

“There’s a difference between what we make and how we make it,” says Wink. “Yes, so many people involved in things like Baltimore Innovation Week and the Baltimore tech community are out to create disruptive technologies that . . . reduce the need for human interaction. But to get that work done, you almost always need trust, be it through teammates, investors, teachers, or mentors. And we build trust the same way we always have, which is through time together.”

On April 19, the Emerging Technology Centers (ETC) hosted a Shark Tank style event in which six startup companies pitched their ideas in hopes of receiving $100,000. Now in its sixth year, Accelerate Baltimore—a collaborative initiative of ETC and the Abell Foundation—awards startups $25,000 in seed funding to bring their innovative ideas to fruition.

“ETC was a very well known incubator and co-working space that was really at the top of its game in 2012,” said Deb Tillett, president of ETC. “We reached out to the Abell Foundation and said,  ‘We’ll do it if you come up with the funds,’ making the case that technology was trending. Sure enough, they agreed to help us.”

Last year was the first time the Abell Foundation awarded an additional $100,000 in funding because Tillett says she noticed a troubling trend. Instead of moving their businesses forward after the 13-week program, many startups spent most of their time seeking additional funding and investors.

Tillett teamed up with a Johns Hopkins University intern and pulled together an early-stage funding report, which found that money was required to run a successful tech company. With the modified program, Abell still awards six companies $25,000 each, but one special startup receives an additional $100,000. To date, the foundation has awarded nearly $925,000 in investor funding.

Not only do the winners receive funding, but they also get access to additional resources and mentors. Obtaining a spot in this intense program is no easy feat, as the ETC received 100 applications and ultimately narrows it down to six.

Tillett says the selection process begins with the company’s personalities and how they would use the funding. “It’s a lot about the team, it’s a lot about the founder, and it’s a lot about if there’s a large enough investable market,” she said. “And frankly, is $25,000 going to make a difference for you?”

This year, the companies were a distinct bunch: Barttron, a wearable tech company for pets; Gunbail, a company founded by a former inmate; Reciprocare, a startup run by a doctor who’s also a lawyer; Swaggle, an online consignment shop for men; Arbit, a company to connect celebrities with their fans; and The Wealth Factory, which developed a game to promote financial literacy.”

Each startup had just seven minutes to convince a panel of six judges that their company should be awarded the moneys from Abell.

“We want to take talented people with great ideas and make them into wonderful businesses,” said one of the judges, Abell CFO Eileen O’Rourke. “I think the ETC has done an excellent job in supporting and coaching these companies. They are a very polished group that made the decision hard.”

Ultimately, Barttron ended the night victorious with the creation of Chord—a smart collar that uses positive reinforcement to train pets. “I originally started by trying to create a better shock collar,” said Barttron president Jared Marmen. “But then my partner, Dr. Nina Cracknell, introduced me to punishment-free training.”

Cracknell, an animal behaviorist, performed a blind study comparing the effects of punishment versus reward with dog training. She found that dogs that were punished became more skittish, but dogs receiving rewards and positive reinforcements were more likely to comply.

“I can press a button and my dog will hear my voice and respond,” Marmen said. “The commands are given to the pet by vibrations in the collar and can train the pet to respond even when you’re not around.”

The adjustable Chord collar, for both dogs and cats, works in conjunction with the Chord app and contains the latest GPS and sensor technology that allows an owner to monitor and communicate with their pets.

Barttron, which had humble beginnings in Marmen’s garage, is currently in the beta-testing phase with hopes to manufacture 1,000 handmade collars by this summer and distribute to places like the Baltimore Humane Society. As a former robotics engineer, Marmen explained that it takes about 8-12 hours to make just one collar so the additional funding will help with manufacturing.

“We want to significantly improve the quality of life for pet owners and their pets,” Marmen said. “This whole experience has been unbelievable.”

The brothers, who actually took out some of the automation from the brew equipment to be even more hands on, say they are excited to go from a contract-brewing situation at Peabody Heights to now being able to have a bit more control.

“Peabody Heights was such a great environment to learn and experiment,” Matt said. “We’re going to be able to tweak what we’ve learned and produce more limited edition one-offs in the brewery.”

In fact, Monument City will be expanding its current core product line from two to four beers, with quarterly seasonal and more small-batch releases, and they’ll be moving from bottles to cans once the facility opens. The brewery’s team will be expanding from two to four employees, and will be focusing more on the brewhouse operations and sales.

The new brewery will also have a taproom, an area for live music, and the ability to host outdoor events with food trucks in its parking lot. Despite all the exciting changes, the Praay brothers insist they the backbone of their company and its beers—like the popular 51 Rye and newer Battle IPA—will remain the same.

“We are so proud and grateful to Baltimore that our model of staying local has worked,” Ken said. “At the heart of it, we’re a family brewery and we want to remain an integral part of the local community for as long as they will let us.”