[Reader-list] Fwdfyi: "What The Hack?" Call for presentations

[patrice at xs4all.nl]

The Big 'H' bash is coming! With the 2600 HOPE fests and the 4-yearly
Chaos Computer Club (Germany) Summer Camp, the 4-yearly 'H' events,
organised by what may be called the Dutch Hackers community (at large) are
surely the major international gathering of
politically/socially/culturally motivated geeks worldwide... Come One,
Come All!


--------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: "What The Hack?"  Call for presentations
From:    acde at xs4all.nl
Date:    Thu, March 31, 2005 11:48 am
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Please forward as appropiate, thank you.

"What The Hack?" (WTH) is a large hacker's festival been organized
(http://www.whatthehack.org). WTH is part of a interesting series of
events held every four years in The Netherlands. The events are known as a
great opportunity to meet others working on the same things. It started
with "The Galactic Hacker Party", also known as the "International
Conference on the Alternative use of Technology, Amsterdam". Since then
the festival moved outdoors, and the next three editions were held on a
large field. The last edition was visited by nearly 3000 people. Hackers
enjoy exploring the details and capabilities of tech-systems or engage
with technology on the basis of a do-it- yourself philosophy.  Contrary to
popular misconception hackers do not, by definition, break into systems.

The festival will be taking place between July 28th and 31th July, 2005 in
a camp near Den Bosch, The Netherlands. Common themes are freedom of
speech, government transparency, computer insecurity, privacy, open
software, open standards & software patents and community networking.

Call for presentations and workshops

Another focus has to do with independent media and networking in crisis
areas and so called developing countries, which goals and objectives are:

** Bringing together and building links between technical people of
different backgrounds and countries. Involve young professionals from
Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa in this broad
international event. Creating opportunities for hackers to think about how
they can help in the distribution of technology, support independent media
and so on.

** Show projects on the forefront of creative network development and use
of new media.

** Share practical knowledge, skills and experiences in wireless
technology, open spectrum, open technologies and free software.

** Make use of the power of a large group of technical people. One idea is
setting up a meshing experiment. Meshing is a way to self-organize
wireless networks. Up till now, nobody really knows how well it scales to
lots of users. A massive mesh experiment using thousands of laptops on the
camp can give some answers. If necessary, it's a challenge to try to
improve the Wifi protocol so that it will scale.

** Discuss global topics like Open Access/Content issues, freedom of
speech or Internet Governance.

Anne Sedee
program committee "What The Hack"
reply to: acde at xs4all.nl