monoLOL: 28C3 - a Short and Very Subjective Review

Jan 2, 2012

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28C3 - a Short and Very Subjective Review

As you know I spent the last week at the 28C3, the annual Chaos Communication Congress organized by the Chaos Computer Club. Sadly, my impressions are mixed at the best. I’m only writing down my very personal point of view, so feel free to disagree.

It was my third Congress and I have the feeling some things have changed in a negative way.

First of all I was shocked by the attitude towards women. The last two years I felt accepted. This year I couldn’t help overhearing comments about “bimbos at the Congress” and “people buying tickets for their girlfriends while real hackers have to stay at home” when walking by. There also was an incident during the Lightning Talks, when one of the lecturers actually made a rape joke on stage:

Well, what’s to say about that?

The last two years I was on my way with a bunch of people, this year I mostly visited the Congress alone, only occasionally meeting friends. Maybe that’s the reason I noticed more insulting comments. But after talking with a bunch of people I think there is a growing tendency at the Congress to make resentful feelings against women public.

Another thing is the quality of the talks. I mostly watched the talks concerning the intersection between technology, society and politics, not the talks which were just about pure hacking, so I cannot judge the latter. However, I was rather disappointed by society and politics, some lectures were just absurd (like A Brief History of Plutocracy - such a promising subject, so many conspiracy theories and so few ambitious content), others just didn’t teach me anything new (like Politik hacken).

Of course there were highlights like Cory Doctorow’s The coming war on general computation or the always brilliant Martin Haase with „Die Koalition setzt sich aber aktiv und ernsthaft dafür ein“ (about language in politics), but on the whole I had the impression that the lectures’ quality visibly decreased.

After talking to several people on Twitter and in real life I would assume that there are two groups: one that wants the Congress to open up and to cover more political and social issues, that wants the CCC to establish itself as an influential consultant on the interplay between technology and politics. The other group would much rather go back to apolitical hacking. I my opinion there is a drift towards the second possibility (at least judging by the talks), making the Congress much less appealing to me.

Of course not everything was bad about the Congress, there were interesting lectures, I met a lot of nice people and had a good time in the Ball pit (which even made it to Spiegel Online). But still, I think I won’t be attending 29C3 if things stay the same.

So what do I want? I’d wish for more acceptance for women and more clear statements against sexism. And a decision on the Congress’ focus: Should it all be just about hacking or also about society, culture and politics? And if the decision is made for a broader focus, this should reflect on the quality of the lectures.

Tags: Nerd Stuff 28C3