JoshLambert.xyz

Self-hosted on the independent internet.

Hi, I’m Josh Lambert.

I build things that aren’t supposed to still exist. Small businesses, independent infrastructure, and the open web.

I live and work in Centreville, Alabama, a town of about 6,000 people most of the internet has forgotten. I moved here on purpose.

I’m a Christian shaped by writers like C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, and Gary North. I take seriously the idea that heaven and earth are meant to meet, and that part of the work of being human is connecting people and building things that last in the actual places we live. Most of what I do is some version of that. Sometimes it looks like running fiber to a farmhouse. Sometimes it looks like rebuilding a B2B company’s go-to-market. Sometimes it looks like maintaining open source tools for people building their own networks. Sometimes it looks like writing an essay nobody asked for.

What I believe about building things

Stay where you are. The interesting work is in the places everyone else left. Centreville isn’t a constraint, it’s a position.

Build durable, not viral. A small business that lasts thirty years is worth more than a startup that lasts three. Most of what’s celebrated online is the second thing pretending to be the first.

Ship the work, don’t just advise on it. Strategy without execution is a deck nobody reads. The companies I run all do both, on purpose.

Small over big, almost always. Small businesses, independent infrastructure, the open web, local economies. The consolidation isn’t inevitable, it’s just convenient for the people doing the consolidating.

That’s the short version. The longer version is here if you want it.

What I’m working on now

Right now I’m deep in SEO, GEO, and LLM optimization, learning how to help good businesses get found by the people who actually need them. Not by flooding the internet with ads or gaming the algorithm, but by saying true things clearly and keeping the promises the listing makes. Most of what I’m writing this year traces back to that question: how does honest work get discovered in a world where the search layer is being rewritten?

What I run

Centreville Tech is a fractional CMO and a delivery team for B2B companies. We run the marketing function, build the website and app, and ship the campaigns. One engagement, not three vendors.

The Edge Mile is private networks, LTE and 5G consulting, and Nokia hardware for people building the next layer of independent connectivity.

Alabama Lightwave is internet, circuits, managed IT, and DIA for businesses the big carriers don’t serve well.

Open source

Rapid5GS is a one-command toolkit for deploying production Open5GS mobile core networks. It exists because setting up an EPC shouldn’t require a PhD or a six-figure software license.

Detour is a free WordPress plugin that catches 404s and routes lost visitors somewhere useful. We forked it from an older plugin that had drifted into bundling ad code and backlink injection in customer emails, tore that out, and put it back out under the same GPL license that let us start. No telemetry. No upsells. No Pro tier.

I also chair TiDev, Inc., the 501(c)(3) foundation that stewards the Titanium open source mobile framework from right here in Bibb County.

What I write and speak about

Rural broadband. AI search and what it’s doing to small businesses. The open web. Theology, sometimes. What it takes to build durable things from a small town. I’m available for podcasts, panels, and the occasional in-person talk.

You can follow along by RSS or by email.

If you got here from one of my essays, welcome. If you got here looking to hire me, click the company above that fits the work.

Recent writing

People I’m following

… the ones who actually have websites to link to.