[lit-ideas] a Hacker's Woodstock

_http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/29/what.the.hack.ap/index.html_ 
(http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/29/what.the.hack.ap/index.html) 

The  hippies are gone and the new subculture is the geeks......."public image 
of  hackers as asocial, anarchistic and vaguely  menacing.".



<<Geeks gather at 'What The Hack'

Computer security conference aims to erase stereotypes
LIEMPDE,  Netherlands (AP) -- There are hundreds of tents on the hot and 
soggy campground,  but this isn't your ordinary summertime outing, considering 
that it includes  workshops with such titles as "Politics of Psychedelic 
Research" or "Fun and  Mayhem with RFID."
This is the three-day "What The Hack" convention, a  self-styled 
computer-security conference dealing with such issues as digital  passports, 
biometrics 
and cryptography.
Borrowing heavily from Woodstock and  the more professionalized Def Con 
conference that begins Friday in Las Vegas,  the event held every four years in 
the 
Netherlands draws an international array  of experts and geeks. About 3,000 
gathered Thursday for the opening.
Unlike  better-known and better-funded industry meetings, "What the Hack" had 
to fight  for its right to exist.
The mayor of the southern Dutch town of Boxtel, who  oversees the village of 
Liempde where the convention is held, initially tried to  stop the event from 
pitching its hundreds of tents outside his town -- a  reluctance stemming from 
the lingering public image of hackers as asocial,  anarchistic and vaguely 
menacing.
The mayor withdrew his objections after  meetings with organizers.
Some of the scheduled lectures and workshops might  reinforce the 
convention's shady reputation, such as the talk about mayhem with  RFID, which 
stands for 
radio frequency identification tags.
But other  seminars appeared wholesome enough, such as the workshop on how to 
make homes  more energy efficient or how activists can lobby governments more 
 effectively.
Even the local police officers assigned to monitor "What the  Hack" are being 
included in the event. Officers are holding daily workshops to  educate the 
public about how they go about securing events like these. Such  cooperation 
with authorities would have raised eyebrows in previous  years.
Befitting the age of terrorism, the conference is taking up such  security 
issues as biometrics and new passport technology.
But in line with  its anarchic reputation, organizers have made a parody of 
their own security  arrangements, asking attendees to screen their own 
belongings at an unmanned  baggage scanner. Rubber gloves for a "do-it-yourself 
body 
cavity search" are  provided free of charge.
Overall, the atmosphere resembles that of a music  festival, with orderly 
people waiting in line to buy Jolt colas and vegetarian  meals. Children and 
hammocks are as prevalent as ponytails and laptops, and a  curiously popular 
hangout is the Slacker Salon, a computer-free zone where  frenetic Web surfing 
is 
taboo.
The relaxed setting is a conscious choice,  according to Internet 
entrepreneur Rop Gonggrijp, who in 1989 helped organize  the seminal Galactic 
Hacker 
Party, an open-air convention that formed the  template for What The Hack.
"The idea was to break the stereotype" of hackers  as sun-averse malcontents 
bent on vandalism, he said. "They've never been part  of this community. And 
now there's fortunately space in the media for more than  one kind of hacker."
Rutgers University anthropologist Biella Coleman said  events like these 
serve a critical function for the many communities of people  who are 
acquainted 
online, but rarely get the chance to meet in the real  world.
"Virtuality needs sociality," she said.
Klaartje Bruyn, for  example, is a sign-maker by day, but came to What the 
Hack for social, rather  than professional reasons. Electronically arranging 
meetings with friends both  real and virtual from the comfort of her hammock, 
she 
lauded how the festival  could bring together so many far-flung yet 
like-minded people.
"It's like a  blind date with 3,000 people," she said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.  All rights reserved.This material may 
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or  redistributed.>>







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