There are a lot of hacker conferences. Almost as many as there are hackers. Watching my twitter feed I can see someone I know going to a new tech / hack conference almost every weekend. The world is a big place and there seems to just have to be a separate conference for every geographic region and sub culture around.
PHP devs need a conference just for PHP, Python devs need a conference just for Python, Debian needs a conference just for Debian, Yahoo needs a conference just for yahoo APIs, TechCrunch needs a conference just for TechCrunch, Apple needs a conference just for Apple devs, Google needs a conference just for Android devs, the list goes on ETERNAL.
So, on the eve of Summercon, and the beginning of the summer con schedule which will be headlined by The Next HOPE, Black Hat, Defcon, Maker Faire NYC, and Plumbercon, I have to ask myself… why do all these conferences suck?
Now before you start in with the rotting vegetable blitzkrieg let me explain what I mean. No one can recapture those magical times in the early days of Defcon, or the abject anarchy that was Rubicon. These days of old are gone. New days are ahead, with new generations of awesome, but the times have changed. Technology conferences aren’t a couple hundred technical guys getting together at a seedy hotel to party and discuss the latest and greatest anymore. Now it’s about money, politics, culture, and all these things that take away from the culture of hack. They dilute it, and they pervert it, and they market it as something it’s really not.
And that’s not to say I don’t enjoy these events. I do. But like most folks I don’t have a limitless supply of money and free time. I can’t go to more than a couple non local events a year in good conscience. I have other things I want to spend my time and money on. I have commitments to work, family, and actually hacking. So, when I do jump around I want to go to really special events.
HAR was pretty special. I have to say. The novelty of flying to the Netherlands and getting knee deep into the european hack scene was fun in its own right. But the event itself was utterly exceptional. There were amazing projects on display, from electric track cars, to DIY segways, and even open source uav quad copters just to name a very small number of amazing projects. There was a 10 gig fiber line ran to the camp. There was an open source GSM network in place. The dect network was rolled out. Power ran across the site, but the CCC brought their own generators just so they could throw the last party of the event after HAR brought down the camps power. This is an event that involved thousands and thousands of hours of peoples collective contributions. Hacker ran, hacker organized, and every part of it defined by people’s commitment to hacking. This was also, an incredibly fun time.
This year I am going to hit up burning man. Not a hacking conference, but a once in a life time experience I figure. We’ll see. I figure I have to do it once just to try it.
But, so many of the conferences I have been to have been focused around “talks”, “presentations”, and “vendors”. That’s not all bad, but it’s really not the point at all. Hacking, is about HACKING. The talks, the vendors, and the presentations are really just supporting stuff that’s on the periphery of hacking. And that’s where my disillusionment with these events comes into play.
I loved my first hackathon. It wasn’t much at all, just some food, some beverages, and a comfortable place to work. I didn’t complete my hack at my first hackathon. But, in spite of that, I enjoyed every second. Later hackathons I did complete projects, and that was still more rewarding. Getting an acknowledgment at techcrunch hackday was still more rewarding. But, what really was thrilling about these events was the actual hacking.
Mitch Altman has been hosting soldering classes, and hardware hacking villages at conferences across the planet for the past few years. He’s just this nice guy who looks a little bit like the San Francisco type that he is. And he just draws you into his hardware hacking just by showing you the stuff he’s built with all their captivating accents. Leds, tie dye colors, and mischievous but benign purpose. He makes you want to be a part of what he’s doing, and then right then he points you at a kit that you might love and says he’ll help you build it right then and there.
Mitch isn’t making money doing this, or if he is not very much. This is definitely a labor of love. And probably some of the most rewarding work on earth in terms of seeing immediate value in what you are doing. He gets people young and old to learn a new skill, and get excited about being a part of our world. And that’s pretty sweet.
Maker Faire’s do the same thing. Sure they expo a ton of amazing work, but the entire DIY community is built around telling people “you can do this too.” It’s a faire that shops skills around to the visitors. You can choose to just enjoy the fruits of other peoples labors, but you are barraged at every turn by the opportunity and encouragement to get your own hands dirty and be a part of the event in a way that isn’t just a spectator. That’s something I saw at HAR. That’s something I’ve seen at every hacking event that I’ve ever enjoyed. Defcon, and Rubicon in their own perverse way did the same. They reached out to you and said, hey… compete in this CTF, chill this beer, steal the punch clock from the employee lounge for the scavenger hunt ( okay maybe not the best advice on the planet ). Today they still do, but I still see them not quite getting the point.
The Next Hope to their credit is starting to get it. I think Mitch made an impression last hope. They’re setting aside a large part of the main floor to be an open hack area. Mitch, and hackerspaces will be present pushing out kits, and describing their spaces and projects. Just hackers sharing each others trade. But when I think about what I love about all these events, I think we’re just heading somewhere we started out but didn’t quite understand. We’re coming full circle, but this time we know what made the magic.
In that regard, I am looking forward to the hacker conference that like HAR, and toorcon’s desert debacle, that is as more of a group hack than it is an event. I want to see every person who shows up get drawn into the areas of expertise represented. I want to see the vendors, and the sponsors feeding a frenzy of people DOING stuff. Not people in chairs checking their email, or falling asleep. I want to see the presenters saying “hey and in two hours we’ll be building some more of these” or “and our api is available to you for the hackathon”. I want to see the CTFs taking center stage. I want to see the vendors saying “hey our product x would be perfect for your badge hack, here try it out.” I want to see people coming in expecting to work their asses off, expecting to succeed, and expecting to share their work with everyone else.
I love cool down parties, or pre-event parties. But, I don’t want to see vendor sponsored parties. I want to see a vendors team of engineers show up with their own homebrew, or just working the bbq, or maybe even making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. I want to see some folks champion some food / beverage hacking at these events. I want to see people rewarded for best contribution.
This is what I want to see. This is where I think we are headed. And when we get there, we’ll end up with small events that are like block parties in our geographic regions. But when we do major events, once a year or even once every three years… you’ll see PHP devs build a camp, Python Devs build a camp, Arduino Devs build a camp, and so on and so forth. And a major event will just be built by the people who are just plain there to build, destroy, and rebuild into something entirely different.
Anyways. I suppose I am just looking forward to the conferences this summer, but also dreading the inevitable let downs I’ll be hit with. But, there’s one thing I know. We’re learning. We’ll figure it out eventually.
