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I recently gave a talk on disseminating information into North Korea titled They're Still Using Balloons. The goal was to make tech professional aware of the lack of tech in the human rights space, especially in regards to North Korea. The talk briefly covered the smart balloons being used by South Korean activists, but during the QnA I was asked if I had considered open sourcing the designs of a smart balloon so that anyone could help.

So, here is the repo. I sincerely hope you guys considers helping out so that we can get more needed resources to North Koreans all the while developing a balloon cheap enough that activits can build to support thier own causes.


Apologies if I've misunderstood, but this repo appears to just be a README, and a TODO to translate the README. Has a balloon been designed, or are you intending to add designs to this repo over time?


Yeah. I'm intending to to build this project, in public, over time.


That's great, but an announcement of a new, empty, open source repository isn't exactly a good fit for HN. I recommend making some progress on the project and then submitting a "Show HN" post.


I'm looking forward to seeing this project develop and for the opportunity to one day contribute.


Thank you for your interest. I encourage and look forward to your contributions. This is important work, and I'd love to have you apart of it.


From the linked Reuters article I understand smart balloons are already being build. It makes sense to start with (one of) those designs instead of from scratch?


The group remains anonymous. Im going to try to reach out but I'm not optimistic I will be able to find them.


alias: aogposton

interests: North Korea people, Authoritarian governments, productivity, catholicism, poetry, art, music, robotics, politics, exercise

languages: English (native), Korean (advanced), c, c++, javascript/typscript, php, python

link: https://apply.opentech.fund

contact info: https://x.com/aogposton


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