Reflections On My Presentation At HOPE XV
by AOGPoston on 07/19/24

I have a little secret to share. I have been researching North Korean Technology for the past 3 years. I've kept it to my self for some time for several reasons, but mostly because I didn't feel like I had much to contribute to the conversation. This summer, however, everything changed. I got in contact with several others who research North Korean Technology, and some of those conversations even turn into opportunities to pitch ideas and one conversation. That lead me to applying to give a talk at HOPE XV and my talk was approved.

Even after having applied for the talk, I still didn't feel like I had much worth sharing. I began talking more about North Korea with in my life and eventually came to accept that I actually had a large body of knowledge on the subject. Around June my confidence really shot up with a large organization gave me the opportunity to pitch an idea to them. We were in talks for several weeks but on the Monday of the talk at HOPE, they passed. It really deflated my ego and made finishing my presentation even harder. I pushed through the doubt and just focused on speaking about what I know, and it was such a success.

At Georgia State University, the school where I am completing my undergraduates degree, I practiced my speech with a business mentor, and she encouraged me to focus on what outcome I wanted. The outcome I wanted most was to have a bunch of engineers and technical individuals become aware of the dire situation in North Korea and to feel that they can contribute to the situation by using their technical knowledge, and, judging by the feedback I received, that goal was accomplished.

I rented a car and drove up to Queens, NYC, and just narrowly made it in time. I showed up at ~4pm, and my presentation was at 5pm. I had been up all night driving and was really in no place to get up and present information.. Luckily for me HOPE gave the speakers a free Club-mate. This was my first time having, or even hearing about, this drink. Its basically a European, carbonated, hyper sugary, hyper-caffeinated drink. It contains 96mg of caffeine, which is the amount of caffeine in 8 oz of coffee, and it tastes pretty decent. I must admit, Club-mate might be the reason I was able to drive 14 hours and hop on stage immediately.

Once on stage, things when pretty smoothly. I got a bit tongue tied when talking about forced prostitution which wasn't great, and I forgot the name full name of the Anti-reactionary Thought Law, but I kept it pushing. There were about 75 people in the crowd and around 50 on-line, I was told. And the audience was great. I started off with a joke about me being called Balloon Guy, and it got a laugh. I jumped in the talk and ran through till the end and did a Q and A. Challenging questions were asked and I answered to the best of my ability. Then after the talk a few of us walked outside and had a conversation about potential solutions to the problems I laid out. It really seamed like they had an interest in the topic. I got a few contacts, had lunch with one of the guys, and chopped it up for a while. After all that, I hopped back in the car and crashed. Though I couldn't sleep for too long cause I had to drive back asap.

Overall it was a great, experience. 2600 is a great community and I hope they will let me give a talk again once I advance my research. One tangible outcome of this talk is BOA27. It's my response to the questions, "why does a smart balloon cost so much" and "have you considered open-sourcing it". When researching the smart balloons used by South Korean activist groups, I found it odd that they paid $1000 per balloon, but didn't feel compelled to do anything about it until HOPE. Of all the things in my 40 minute speech, HOPE seemed most baffled by they $1000 smart balloons. This was a shock to me since I spoke on the internet and underground smartphone hacking. I think it would be foolish to not capitalize on that signal. So, I create this project to research and develop a cheaper smart balloon. This project is first and foremost for the South Korean activists but also for any one who needs this sort of device. I look forward to growing it and seeing it's fruits in the coming year. Likely my next talk at HOPE will be about this project.