Build better ways to create,
work, and connect
I help people and small organizations build useful digital systems, publish their work, organize their knowledge, and make AI productive.
What we can do together
Technology should expand your choices. These are a few ways we can work toward that.
Build Strong Foundations
Organize and protect the technology underneath your life and work so it supports bigger ambitions.
- Setup Computers, phones, home offices, and shared tools
- Identity Accounts, passwords, subscriptions, and migrations
- Resilience Backups, security, recovery, and disaster planning
- Order Files, calendars, communication, and everyday systems
Create & Publish
Turn ideas, stories, and bodies of work into things people can find, use, and share.
- Publishing Websites, blogs, libraries, and personal media
- Archives Writing, art, images, and long-running web projects
- Connection Online presence, communities, and collaborative tools
- Workflow Repeatable ways to make, review, and publish
Work Smarter with AI
Use AI where it genuinely improves your thinking and output, with clear human judgment throughout.
- Thinking Research, exploration, outlines, and synthesis
- Making Writing, editing, images, presentations, and prototypes
- Knowledge Work with your own notes and documents
- Guardrails Privacy, review, citation, and approval habits
Computer setup, account organization, family tech support, migrations, and recovering from a security problem are all welcome. Solid foundations make creative work possible.
Selected previous work
Different people, different starting points—the common thread is using technology to create more possibility.
Preserving a writer's life's work
Organized decades of writing and artwork into a structured digital archive prepared for donation to a university library.
Making AI useful for real work
Helped professionals use AI for recurring paperwork, research, drafting, summarizing, and organizing their own material.
Building an independent digital identity
Consolidated key logins, account information, and subscriptions so a retiring professional could move beyond a decades-old work email account.
Connecting public presence with operations
Built practical systems including a public events calendar with an internal booking workflow and an online store connected to payments and fulfillment.
What clients say
Three five-star Google reviews from clients with very different needs.
“Kind and thoughtful… I left feeling empowered with new skills.”
Jefferson Fellows · Google review
“Justin is head and shoulders above the rest.”
Howard Rheingold · Google review
“Friendly, efficient and professional… very knowledgeable.”
Google reviewer · Family technology visit
Rates
Start with a free 15-minute conversation to see whether we're a good fit.
| Service | Rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| On-site consulting | $200/hr | Billed in 30-minute increments; 1-hour minimum charge. |
| On-site travel | Varies | On-site visits may include a travel charge depending on location. If so, I’ll confirm the amount with you before we meet. |
| Remote / phone consulting | $200/hr | Billed in 15-minute increments; no minimum charge. |
About
Hi, I'm Justin Hall. I've spent several decades exploring how technology can help people make things, share ideas, organize knowledge, and connect with one another. My background spans large online media archives, hands-on technical work, systems design, startups, and helping people make informed decisions about powerful tools. Supportive Tech brings those threads together in a collaborative consulting practice focused on expanding what you can do. Read more
My first job was selling software over the counter when I was 13 in 1988. Customers started asking me if I could come to their house and teach them to use the wares they'd just purchased. I ended up being a middle school computer consultant, installing networks, setting up printers, teaching business software. I could help people understand these powerful creative machines. I loved making these tools more accessible to people. I still love it.
Between when I started in tech support and now, I've been exploring tech culture. I published an early expansive personal web site and managed thousands of pages of writing, images, links, and community material. In 1994 I worked as an editorial assistant at Wired Magazine when we launched HotWired, the first commercial online magazine. I worked as a journalist covering technology. I traveled the world giving speeches about online life and media-making. I lived in Tokyo in 2001 when the world's first 3G phones launched with video chat. In 2007 I got an MFA in Interactive Media and Video Games from the USC Film School. I produced a massively-multiplayer online game in a Firefox toolbar. I produced a top eight grossing iPhone game about virtual cat ownership. I produced "overshare" - a documentary about the internet. In 2018 I co-founded a legal cannabis delivery business on bud.com, a domain I registered in 1994 when I was 19 years old.
I find our digital technology world so stimulating and fascinating; I can't stop experimenting. My hope is that these machines of connection can ultimately amplify our empathy and awareness; I'm not always so sure. I know I enjoy being creative with technology - making things. I've spent decades exploring these mind amplifiers and I love seeing what other people do with them. Let's see what I can help you do!
More specifics on my professional background are available at linkedin.com/in/justin.
Contact
Tell me what you're trying to make, improve, understand, or recover.
Remote collaboration nationwide.
On-site in Berkeley, California & and Northern California.
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