Sascha is founder and director of the Washington based X-Lab, a technology policy and innovation institute, and founder of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) in 2008. OTI and X-Lab developed the Commotion Wireless Project, an ad hoc mesh wireless technology that enables communities to build their own local communications infrastructures. Sascha is also the co-founder and executive director of the CUWiN Foundation, a non-profit launched in 2000 that aims to develop community-owned networks. In 2007, Sascha founded the Open Source Wireless Coalition, a global partnership of researchers and implementors dedicated tot he development of open source, interoperable, low-cost wireless technologies.
In 2012, Sascha was elected an Ashoka Global Fellow for leading support for Internet freedom in the United States and around the globe, as well as named to Newsweek’s Digital Power Index Top 100 influencers. In 2013, the Time magazine named Meinrath to the “TIME Tech 40” – the Most Influential Minds in Tech – for his work to protect Internet freedom.
Sascha has previously worked with Free Press, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), the Acorn Active Media Foundation, the Ethos Group, the Champaign-Urbana Wireless Network Foundation, and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Foundation. He currently serves on the board of the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and a trustee of the DC chapter of the Awesome Foundation.