The Volunteer Emergency Radio Network project (VERN) is part of the Harmless Little Project (HLP) from the nonprofit CryptoRights Foundation, Inc (CRF).
With the VERN project, CRF is inviting the world to join in using the early work done at the CAVERN community organizing website (see below), using the constructive user feedback from the CAVERN volunteers, to build VERN into an online Toolkit We want to include community safety radio documentation, organizing tools, web templates, online services like mailing lists and hosted pages and even eventually downloadable hardware specs for the Radio Mesh Network we’re developing.
CryptoRights
A nonprofit human rights security research & development organization public benefit CryptoRights Foundation (CRF) hiding in plain sight since 1998 (also known as ‘Cryptographers Without Borders’ during its ‘muddy boots’ years in war crimes investigations).
CA VERN
CAVERN was a 2018-2021 local network for the Area around the town of Cobb and Cobb Mountain (thus “CAVERN“, the Cobb Area VERN).
CRF used community organizing, nonprofit project administration, outreach, seminars, training docs, weekly live-on-the-airwaves radio check-ins, and spent thousands of dollars in project support funds to glean research data and constructive feedback from locals to create a knowlegebase of information for a generic Volunteer Emergency Radio Network website.
VERN.org is now where that generic version is being taken further to become a free resource that any group or community can use to build it’s own VERN (eventually including downloadable free and open source software).
Once a VERN exists, everyone within range in the community will be able to continue communicating during emergencies that suddenly knock out other communications infrastructure (e.g. cellphone towers, internet, electric power grids, etc).
In support of the VERN research and development into public use of public airwaves for public safety, CRF plans to offer project merchandise, crowdfunding opportunities and commercial licenses. Any proceeds will benefit the contributors to this important public benefit work. Please send small tax-deductible donations (ideally stapled to really large ones) using this R&D donation portal and support this volunteer-driven nonprofit digital human rights R&D. Thank You!
Our R&D work will also eventually be released free to the Public so people anywhere at risk of communications failures from natural/manmade disasters will have an option not dependent on for-profit corporations.
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The Small Print: this is a public benefit website maintained by volunteers at a nonprofit human rights technology organization now in its third decade of protecting online privacy and human rights. Your support is critical to accomplishing the goals of the VERN project, and there are many ways to contribute besides making tax-deductible financial donations.
Please get in touch !