Topic 495:  Creativity and Hackers...
# 22: Robert David Steele (steeler)      Wed, Aug 11, '93  (04:58)      83 lines

 
 Here is a brief report:
 
 Roughly 150 people endured the rigors of camping out in a damp
 environment with no showers and minimal toilet facilities.  The
 food provided and cooked by volunteers was wholesome but plain
 (lots of rice and beans).  The Hack-tic organizers did a great
 job of setting up a main tent and two smaller workshop tents,
 as well as a full local net (which may not have hooked up
 to INTERNET as intended).  Some sexy products and literature,
 but on the whole it was a mind-link event.  (I had bronchitis
 and stayed in a local hotel on advice of doctor, so I missed
 most of the late night workshops.
 
 Here are a few highlights, mostly an outline of what took
 place with some follow-up contacts and one or two editorial
 comments:
 
 "Networking for the Masses".  Main tent, 75 or so in audience.
 Talked about obstacles to free flow of information, main
 being that "the masses" aren't even close to understanding
 the technologies and the obscure mediocre user interfaces
 and complex unintegratable applications.  For more info:
 ted@nluug.nl (Ted Lindgreen, Manager of nlnet)
 peter@hacktic.nl (Peter von der Pouw Kraan, involved in
 squat movement newsletters Blurf and NN)
 maja@agenda.hacktic.nl (Maja van der Velden, Agenda
 Foundation)
 nonsenso@utopia.hacktic.nl (Felipe Rodriguez from Hack-Tic
 Network which spun out of Dutch computer underground)
 zabkar@roana.hacktic.nl (Andre Blum, expert in wireless
 communications).
 A few others
 
 "Phreaking the Phone"  I missed this one, which was surely
 very interesting.  Emmanuel can comment.  For more info:
 bill@tech.hacktic.nl (Billsf, one of the world's best...
 
 "Hacking and the Law"  Very important discussion of
 whether the laws are out-dated or retarded (to which I
 would also add my standard comment that law is not a
 good substitute for engineering oversights).  More info:
 fridge@cri.hacktic.nl (Harry Onderwater, technical EDP
 auditor at Dutch National Criminal Intelligence Service)
 herschbe@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl (Professor Bob Herschberg,
 lectures on computer insucurity and unprivacy)
 rgb@tracer.hacktic.nl (Ronald RGB O., the only Dutch
 hacker arrested both before and after new law in effect,
 self-taught writer and author for Hack-tic Magazine)
 andy@cccbln.ccc.de (andy Mueller-Maguhn, from German
 Chaos Computer Club)
 emmanuel@eff.org (our own)
 kaplan@bpa.arizona.edu (Ray Kaplan, computer security
 consultants, hosts "meet the enemy" sessions"
 rop@hacktic.nl (Rop Gonggrijp, was involved in some
 of the first computer break-ins om 80's, editor of
 Hacktic Magazine, and a VERY hard worker and leader
 of the team that put this conference together.  I
 have guaranteed his expenses and am hosting his
 participation, and emmanuels, in my symposium in
 November whose secret title is "hacking the
 intelligence community".
 
 A number of technical workshops, modest participation.
 
 The most impressive workshop, which drew a lot of
 people and had continuuous spin-off conversations
 the next day, was led by David Chaum of DigiCash,
 address Kruislaan 419, 1098 VA Amsterdam, The
 Netherlands, phone +31 20 665-2611 fax +31 20 668-5486
 email david@digicash.nl.  This guy, either English or
 England trained, is a heavy duty dude who appears
 to be on the bleeding edge (actually he's holding
 the knife) in the areas of smart cash, undeniable
 signatures, untraceable electronic mail, zero-
 knowledge signatures and zero information circuits,
 privacy protected payments, and so on.  I was
 very impressed.--not my thing, but a class act.
 
 My next (separate response) contains my outline
 for the workshop, "Hacking the Intelligence
 Community: Increasing Citizens' Access to
 Intelligence in the Age of Information Warfare".
.