Calyx is seeking a visionary Executive Director in the new phase of the organization

The Calyx Institute is searching for a visionary and collaborative Executive Director to lead its mission building privacy-respecting software, bridging the digital divide with affordable internet access, and sustaining our community through grantmaking, research, and education.

Calyx believes in a future where everyone has access to the resources and tools they need to stay securely connected. The last several years have seen rapid shifts in the digital world: runaway digital surveillance and personal data harvesting, abuse of AI products without necessary ethical checks, and direct and indirect exploitation of the open-source community by big tech companies. It is even more vital for us to keep and foster our commitment to privacy-respecting free and open-source software (FOSS) and keeping internet access affordable.

The new Executive Director will build on this vision, leading the organization in navigating this complex digital context in the U.S. and globally, and ensuring the organization can continue to build on its impact through the combined effort of our members, CalyxOS users, grantees, and partners.

At a glance:

• This role is flexible in location but must be U.S.-based and manages a nationally dispersed team of 15+ people.
• 10+ years of nonprofit leadership experience required and deep commitment to the Calyx mission and values.

Calyx Institute has retained DSG | Koya, the executive search firm that works exclusively with mission-driven clients, to lead this search. In partnership with Koya, we are now identifying and recruiting exceptional candidates.

You can view the position profile on the DSG | Koya website. Leaders who are interested in the opportunity are invited to fill out the interest form. We would also appreciate it if you would thoughtfully forward this along in your networks.

2026-02-25

Welcome to our new website!

We’re excited to welcome you to our updated Calyx website. We hope you enjoy our new look! We are continuing to make changes and updates, so we appreciate you bearing with us during this time. If you have any questions, need help finding information, or want to report an error, please email us at help[@]calyx[.]org.

2026-01-07

Insights: Networking hardware test results with the Calyx Sprout (BYOD) SIM cards

Since the launch of the new Calyx Sprout BYOD membership, we tested four popular devices requested by our members and community partners, especially the RV Mobile Internet Resource Center. In this article, we would like to share some insights from our test in the hope it will inform your decision in choosing the best devices for your unique cases.

To compare the real-world performance of the tested wireless access points that work with our BYOD SIMs, our team performed regular speed tests simultaneously in different locations and repeated the test several times across a span of days. Each speed test collected data using multiple distinct speed testing tools provided by OONI and the Measurement Lab (M-Lab), including the DASH Streaming Test that emulated a video streaming experience and NDT Speed Test that measured network speed and performance. We gave each tested device a score on user experience based on the following criteria:

• Easy to navigate: Is the navigation intuitive? How clear is the information architecture?
• Easy initial configuration: How deep is the learning curve to get onboard with the device for everyday users?
• Clarity: Is the visual design straightforward? Are there unnecessarily confusing or distracting commands and buttons?
• Visual consistency: Does the user interface use uniform colors, fonts, and styles?
• Functional consistency: Do similar actions yield similar results across the user interface?

Highlights and snapshot of our tests

Our tests demonstrated that all four devices work seamlessly with our BYOD SIMs. Specifically:

• All the devices we tested returned good performance
• Among tested devices, GL.iNET GL-X3000 Spitz AX (Spitz) was the best and most powerful in terms of user experience and speed performance
• From our limited location sampling, performance is consistent across devices

Please note, the above charts demonstrated the then-current data during our test. Subsequent results are subject to any change in the operations by T-Mobile, the upstream provider of the Calyx Internet Membership program. Besides, the area, terrain, network traffic, and weather of each specific device can also play a contributing factor. We cannot guarantee that our members will see the same results and speeds as we have seen in these initial tests. We share these results not to demonstrate that there is one best wireless access point for our BYOD SIMs, but instead to demonstrate that these SIMs will work with a wide variety of wireless access points – many more than we’ve been able to test so far. The best hardware setup for you is highly dependent on your specific use case, location, and other individual factors.

As always, we recommend that you use a reliable VPN and privacy-respecting browsers and tools—such as Tor Browser and DuckDuckGo search engine—to maximize the protection of your online privacy. With that in mind, we plan to do additional rounds of testing to evaluate the advanced features of these hotspots, including the native VPN support and other privacy-focused features. Stay tuned for our future test results.

A detailed breakdown of our conclusion by devices

2025-11-25