Episode: 2681
Title: HPR2681: DerbyCon Interview - Hackers for Charity
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2681/hpr2681.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 07:25:57

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This is HPR Episode 2681 entitled,
Arbicon Internew, Hacken for Charity,
and in part of the series, Internew.
It is hosted by Note and in about five minutes long
and currently in a clean flag.
The summary is,
Note Internew's the amazing hacken for charity people.
Today's show is licensed under a CC Hero License.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
Support Universal Access to All Knowledge
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Hi, this is Zoke for Hack Public Radio.
I'm here with the I Hack Charities people,
and I'm pretty much going to let him talk about
how awesome they are and what a great job they do.
So if you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do.
Sure.
So I'm Jason Ken.
I'm one of the volunteers at Hackers for Charity.
I've also been a participant in quite a few of the projects
that we've had over the last several years.
Hackers for Charity is an organization that helps technology
function in places where that's not easy to do.
So it started in Africa where Johnny Long
or founder really was supported by the hacker community
for eight years on site in Africa,
keeping charities that are there's equipment functioning.
If you think about a bright eyed and bushy tailed 24-year-old grad student
drops into a village in remote Africa and their Mac don't boot.
It's hard to run whatever program it is that you're trying to run.
And so we provide technology support and enablement for those things
as well as lately, lately during the hurricane that went through Puerto Rico,
we stood up a bunch of local security kits inside of pelican cases,
radios, communication gear, lights, and we deployed them across Puerto Rico
for people to keep their neighborhoods safe.
They have kind of a neighborhood watch program running for at night
so there wasn't looting and that kind of stuff.
So we keep the technology functioning even in places where
you don't expect it to stop.
And so we've spent the last several years at DerbyCon.
In fact, founded through primarily through DerbyCon,
we have had Johnny on the ground in Africa.
He's back in the States now, but the programs continue.
In fact, the very first program he ever ran was to help a gentleman that was his gardener
at the compound that he stayed at in Africa the first time he went.
He had a dream of being a plumber.
And eight years later, I was watching a YouTube video about building a methane biodeigester.
And I thought, this is appropriate technology for Africa.
It's just an education thing.
And so I brought the concept of the drag-in IVC
methane biodeigester there.
And when I was there, I said, you know what, I really need as a plumber
as somebody that can put pipes together.
That's what a lot of this is, gas pressure and stuff.
And the guy said, oh, I've got a perfect guy for you.
His guy's name's Dennis.
And Johnny and I were sitting at dinner the other night.
We never realized that, you know, through this connection,
this guy on the ground in Africa, this plumber,
that, you know, we both know him.
He started him and I've given him the next level of skills.
And he's often runnin'.
So keeping those kinds of programs functioning
and being able to bring education in places where
education's not easily had has been really the focus.
But obviously keeping the technology functioning is one of the things.
So if you go to hackersforcharity.org,
you can find our IHAC charities and swag and stuff.
But there's also plenty of information about how you can help.
How people can pitch in.
We have a red team now.
So we have charities of protests that say,
we don't know anything about security and we need help.
And we've spun up a little red team of people that can go out
and do engagements with charities.
Take those skills that we use every day that are, you know, kind of mindless for us to use
and apply them in reality and actually help people.
During DerbyCon, I don't know when this is going to go out,
but during DerbyCon, all of our gear that we have on the site has free shipping.
So if you want to get it, it's just like you're here.
And it makes it a little easier for people to stomach.
You know, I'm not carrying another t-shirt home.
As you can order it and have it shipped to your house or hoodie or whatever.
I do actually have a, I hack charities t-shirt and I do get some strange looks.
People, you hack and you're telling us about, like, no, it's a charity.
It's a, um, and you are five or one C three.
So it's all, you know, it's, it's tax deductible if you're in the US.
And yeah, but I do get a lot of looks and questions about the t-shirt.
And so I always try and explain it.
That's hackersforcharity.org.
And I highly recommend everyone go either donate money, donate their time,
or help out January.
Thank you very much.
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