[lit-ideas] a Hacker's Woodstock
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 05:44:00 EDT
_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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