Chaotic Congress

It's November again, and together with christmas, there is something else approaching: 22C3.» Along with it, the debate about the so-called "professionalisation" usually rises up as well. As far as I'm informed, this year's issue of that debate ended some while ago.

While I certainly do not want to stir all that mess up again, an interesting factor of it occured to me. It came as an offspring of a lively conversation with Astro» about myths related to the admission fee. In that conversation, we noticed that we have a stunningly different opinion about what the congress actually is.

These different opinions are probably illustrated best by extremising them. One of the extrema is a snobby high-class limited-visitors security conference. The other one is a community event along the lines of the EasterHegg. While not putting it to the ultimate, Astro was primarily seeing the Congress as a really good security conference. I, on the other hand, was emphasising the community aspect.

At first, those two views may sound like being a mile apart. I thought so at the beginning, but after a while I came to the conclusion that they actually aren't, and that this is a major difference between the hacking subculture and other academics-related subcultures. What I mean by that is probably represented best by comparing what's happening outside the speeches. Unlike on a conference about theoretical physics, you'll find some interesting stuff to see and to do outside the conference rooms, may it be WRT soldering, lockpicking or breaking stuff in contests.

Admittedly, each visitor will set his own priorities on what to attend. But we're still talking about a hacker conference, and I think this is the only thing keeping us from becoming a conference of mighty snobs. I also think this is the key to understanding the disputes arising around the "professionalisation" of the Congress. The only Congress I attended is 21C3, so I can only guess, but I'm assuming the balance of past Congresses was shifted much more to the other side. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Anyway, the conclusion I've drawn from this is much more straightforward: the Congress needs a manifesto. The thing is, from the fact that I myself misunderstood the purpose of the Congress quite a bit, I'm cheeky enough to assume that other people might fall for the same misunderstanding. And that, if true, definitely is not a good thing.

Ah, the price - I think for a good conference like the one I'm expecting the 22C3 to be, a price in the realms of high two-digit Euros is really, really worth it. And I'm definitely going to attend it. Keep up the good work, guys ;)