Credit: Wakoma
Eric Nitschke
Founder
Eric Nitschke is a social entrepreneur building open hardware, software, and educational resources needed to build a more resilient and inclusive Internet. Nitschke is currently working on distributed and localized production of connectivity infrastructure for disaster preparedness and response.
Nitschke & his team at Wakoma won the 2021 IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Challenge for their work on the nimble, an open source DIY rapidly deployable mesh network that operates without access to the internet. In 2018 Nitschke co-founded what has become the largest community network in South Africa. Previously, Nitschke helped design and implement mobile, web, geospatial, and IoT tools and trainings in the WASH sector, primarily in Eastern and Southern Africa and Latin America.
Residing near Prague, Czech Republic, Nitschke is a member of Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a member of the IEEE CTU Selection Committee, and technical advisor to several startups and NGOs.
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ericnitschke.bsky.social
Matrix: @eric:wakoma.net
Mastodon: @eric@wakoma.co
https://github.com/Wakoma