Aug 7-11, 2024 ✵ Camp Navarro, CA

Knapsack for Hope: Satellite Filecasting Around Censorship

Come experience the Knapsack for Hope Project led by Net Freedom Pioneers.  We'll lead an interactive demo of the satellite filecasting technology used in places like Iran to deliver daily data dumps to communities facing digital censorship. Though not using decentralized web technology today, Net Freedom Pioneers is looking for great ways to incorporate such tools where it can help disseminate censored material within countries like Iran.

In addition, we will learn about on-the-ground needs and brainstorm with Net Freedom Pioneers on using your technologies to increase access to knowledge around the world.

Mehdi Yahyanejad
Director, founder, NetFreedom Pioneers, Balatarin.com

Mehdi Yahyanejad is founder of Balatarin.com, the largest user-generated news website in Persian and a crucial information source in the 2009 pro-democracy protest movement in Iran. He is the co-founder and director of NetFreedom Pioneers, a nonprofit organization that delivers curated digital content via satellite to regions of the world with limited internet access. He is also a researcher at USC researching new anti-censorship technologies. 

Sarah Bowers
Outreach Coordinator, NetFreedom Pioneers

Sarah Bowers works as an Outreach Coordinator for NetFreedom Pioneers. With a background in international education and nonprofit work, Sarah’s passion lies in cross-cultural inquiry and analyzing the ethics and effectiveness of international development efforts. With these interests she has joined NFP in rethinking the social impact of technology. 

AliReza Firoozi
Technical Coordinator, NetFreedom Pioneers

Evan (AliReza) Firoozi is a former student activist and journalist who was imprisoned by the Iranian government for more than a year, six months of which he spent in solitary confinement. He has collaborated with several organizations and universities to translate to Farsi technical articles and applications related to internet security, privacy, and anti-censorship. While simultaneously pursuing his education in Computer Science, Evan currently works at NetFreedom Pioneers on the development and implementation of Toosheh/Knapsack, a service and application focused on the distribution of data through satellite connection.

Camelon Baker
Senior Engineer, NetFreedom Pioneers

Camelon Baker currently works as the Senior Engineer at NetFreedom Pioneers. He has been responsible for the development and implementation of NFP’s primary project: Toosheh, an offline technology that distributes content through satellite datacasting. Camelon has been a computer engineer for the past 20 years.