Hello everyone,
My name is Thane and I lead content and business development at Outernet. Some of you may be aware of us but I suspect most are not. I am writing this email to introduce Outernet to AMSAT.
Outernet broadcasts a DVB-S signal https://wiki.outernet.is/wiki/Coverage_and_transponder_settings from six different satellites covering 99% of humans on Earth. We created this information service to reach the 4.3 billion people who do not have Internet access and designed it to overcome the problems the Internet presents, namely download speed and recurring cost. Our datacast is completely free to receive, our bitrate is 90 Kbps (~1 GB/day of content), and you can even build your own receiver with a Raspberry Pi http://store.outernet.is/.
Right now, the content we send is curated by us and a group of editors but we are working on a Reddit/Wikipedia/YouTube mashup where the contents of our broadcast can be decided publicly. Currently, we broadcast Wikipedia, 30,000+ ebooks, PLOS One journal articles, Khan Academy, CK12 textbooks, music from SoundCloud, and more.
I want to invite this community to be involved in Outernet and help us build this project. Our current focus is on developing channels to get devices into schools and generally into countries/areas where Internet penetration is very low.
Our forum http://discuss.outernet.is is very active with users and Outernet staff. Please stop by!
Avidly, Thane