qarsan | قرصان
the truth, bit by bit
Download logo as a .png and fat file here.
problem
Freedom of the press promotes better governance, but as long as media is centralized, it is susceptible to takedown. Internet and media censorship inhibits freedom of speech and expression as many platforms are not fully anonymous.
description
Qarsan is a decentralized mobile app based off BitTorrent and Tor, allowing citizen reporting to a news portal that is hosted by everyone who installs the app. Thus, it is uncensorable, un-DDoS-able and will amplify the true voice of the population.
Link to pitch deck here.
name
Qarsan قرصان means "pirate” in Arabic; and this app is about creating a pirate news source for citizen journalists. It leverages the DHT primitive and BitTorrent to create a peer-to-peer network for authorship and validation of user-generated journalism.
presentation requirements
- mic
- mac (it's a keynote presentation)
- android phone to demo on?
- iphone to demo on
- adapters for ios- AND android-to-projector demo
stack
iOS
- native
- Objective-C
- Firebase
Android
- Javascript
- AngularJS
- Ionic Framework
- Phone Gap
- Firebase
team
| name | nationality | affiliation | github |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muhammad Zaman | Pakistani/American | LUMS | hambudi |
| Asyrique Thevendran | Malaysian | NYU Abu Dhabi | asyriqueat |
| Michael Weingert | Canadian | Stanford | mpweinge |
| Amn Rahman | Pakistani | MIT | amnrahman |
| Brooke Hopkins | American | NYU Abu Dhabi | bnhopkins |
| Ya-Chen Chang | Taiwanese | Masdar Institute of Science and Technology | changyc |
| Erin McMahon | American | Columbia University | emcmahon013 |
mentors
| name | nationality | affiliation | github |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seth Thompson | American | s3ththompson | |
| Aurelia Moser | American | CartoDB | auremoser |
| Rafael Harutyunyan | Armenian | Jeltee | rahar |