Building a Library from Space

At NDI, we believe that free access to information is a human right. The Internet has dramatically enhanced our ability to exercise this right, but unfortunately most humans cannot access the Internet. Today, over 4.3 billion people cannot connect to the Internet at all and another roughly 1 billion people have their Internet connections censored or monitored. Equitable access to information can be a powerful democratizing force, but when only 20% of humans have truly free access to digital information, that potential is diminished.

That is why our team supports the creation of Humanity’s Public Library, an initiative by Outernet. Outernet broadcasts a data signal from satellites that is free to receive anywhere on Earth. While this is not an Internet connection, it is a free stream of critical information. What information is considered “critical?” You decide.

Outernet and Creative Commons are co-hosting the first edit-a-thon for Humanity’s Public Library on July 18-19 2015 to decide what is included in this library. Anyone on Earth is encouraged to participate - details on how to have your voice heard in this process can be found at http://editathon.outernet.is.

We want to encourage our friends and readers to submit their own content and content from their organizations that is licensed for redistribution. One such work is this very blog post. Copy these words and post them on your own blog and let’s all gather together and build a #LibraryFromSpace.

This blog post is licensed under CC0 and is free to be distributed and edited without restriction.