Between xmas and new years eve I was in Berlin as usual attending the Chaos Communication Congress. This year it saw its 27th iteration under to motto: “We come in peace“. I am not really gonna talk about the different talks I attended, my suggestion for you would be to just download the topics you find interesting here. So let’s hit it:

Presale: While it sucked that not everybody wanting to attend could, I think the presale ideas was right. The building wasn’t as badly overpopulated as it was the year before and people like me who have to travel, get a hotel and stuff have a chance to be there. Of course the thing pissed some people off because they didn’t really see the presale coming and thought they could just buy a ticket at the event itself but I think that was a risk worth taking.

While it sucked that not everybody wanting to attend could, I think the presale ideas was right. The building wasn’t as badly overpopulated as it was the year before and people like me who have to travel, get a hotel and stuff have a chance to be there. Of course the thing pissed some people off because they didn’t really see the presale coming and thought they could just buy a ticket at the event itself but I think that was a risk worth taking. Focus: I talked to a few different people and while getting similar comments I see two strong opinions within the people attending: One group said that the 27c3 was too political which made the technical stuff suffer, the other group thought it still was too technical. While I personally think that it makes sense to mix those two areas in order to keep it interesting, I do see a little bit of a problem with these two groups. I think we need to find a way to show how they are connected in order for the tech people to not see the social topics as a disturbance and vice versa.

I talked to a few different people and while getting similar comments I see two strong opinions within the people attending: One group said that the 27c3 was too political which made the technical stuff suffer, the other group thought it still was too technical. While I personally think that it makes sense to mix those two areas in order to keep it interesting, I do see a little bit of a problem with these two groups. I think we need to find a way to show how they are connected in order for the tech people to not see the social topics as a disturbance and vice versa. Talk Quality: While I saw a few really great talks, the quality of the presentation wasn’t always on the same level of quality. I saw a bunch of talks where the topic was super interesting but the presentation really really sucked. Now we gotta see how that can be fixed, maybe we should offer people an area where they testrun their talk before they really do it would help, but I dunno. I just saw some people not only struggling with the English language (which can happen if it’s not your native tongue) but also suffering from really bad slides and structure. I tink some work needs to happen there.

While I saw a few really great talks, the quality of the presentation wasn’t always on the same level of quality. I saw a bunch of talks where the topic was super interesting but the presentation really really sucked. Now we gotta see how that can be fixed, maybe we should offer people an area where they testrun their talk before they really do it would help, but I dunno. I just saw some people not only struggling with the English language (which can happen if it’s not your native tongue) but also suffering from really bad slides and structure. I tink some work needs to happen there. Location: The BCC in Berlin is not a bad location but I think it’s time to change. The BCC cannot deal with the amount of people who want to come, we need something bigger.

The BCC in Berlin is not a bad location but I think it’s time to change. The BCC cannot deal with the amount of people who want to come, we need something bigger. Discussion: I am not from Berlin, I am not one of the famous Internet-people. For soemone like me it’s really hard to get discussions going at the 27c3. This is on the one hand due to the usual social games of tight friends hanging out together but also due to the lack of some sort of an open space encouraging discussion. There are areas where dedicated projects set up their table and co-work which is cool, but if you want to take some ideas you just got from a talk or have thoughts about a relevant topic, it’s really hard to get discussions going. Yes, you could put it on the wiki (when that and the net works), but it’s not an efficient way to deal with this problem. I think a stronger focus on enabling discussions would help the whole thing get better.

I am not from Berlin, I am not one of the famous Internet-people. For soemone like me it’s really hard to get discussions going at the 27c3. This is on the one hand due to the usual social games of tight friends hanging out together but also due to the lack of some sort of an open space encouraging discussion. There are areas where dedicated projects set up their table and co-work which is cool, but if you want to take some ideas you just got from a talk or have thoughts about a relevant topic, it’s really hard to get discussions going. Yes, you could put it on the wiki (when that and the net works), but it’s not an efficient way to deal with this problem. I think a stronger focus on enabling discussions would help the whole thing get better. Bias: While I was sitting in the talk about a “Critical Overview of Privacy enhancing technologies” (check it out, it’s brilliant!), I read via Twitter that in the “This year for the CCC” thingy, people talking about “post privacy” were called ridiculed and their opinions and input deemed worthless cause they all “want you to sell yourselves to Facebook”. Now you don’t hev to agree with everything, but if you say a few minutes later that you are going to talk to the Miniter of the Interior in Germany who does everything he can to limit civil liberties and privacy, that looks weird. I think we have some sort of self-supporting and self-validating social circle domiating the discussion here and that circle needs breaking.

While I was sitting in the talk about a “Critical Overview of Privacy enhancing technologies” (check it out, it’s brilliant!), I read via Twitter that in the “This year for the CCC” thingy, people talking about “post privacy” were called ridiculed and their opinions and input deemed worthless cause they all “want you to sell yourselves to Facebook”. Now you don’t hev to agree with everything, but if you say a few minutes later that you are going to talk to the Miniter of the Interior in Germany who does everything he can to limit civil liberties and privacy, that looks weird. I think we have some sort of self-supporting and self-validating social circle domiating the discussion here and that circle needs breaking. Recordings: The recordings started popping up really quickly and everybody involved in that should be getting a lot of applause. Great work in that area!

That’s basically it. I met a few new people there which was fun, I met other people I already knew, which was also a lot of fun, but the lack of discussion and the weird bias did somewhat leave a bad taste in my mouth. I’ll probably submit talks next year again (getting them rejected is kind of my end-of-the-year-ritual ;)) but I hope that a few of the things I pointed out here will get some attention.

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