Hacking In Progress

HIP is a place for hackers, artists, activists and many, many others to network themselves, both in the social and electronic sense of the word. HIP is a do-it-yourself event. We, the organizers, will provide the infrastructure, such as large tents, showers, toilets and large amounts of reliable electrical power and network connectivity. We'll also arrange for a basic set of workshops and lectures, mainly dealing with the social and political aspects of information technology, security, Internet, access to technology, new developments, cryptography and other 'hacker-related' topics that come to mind. We are open to suggestions for other fields of interest.

At this moment we are working on discussions and workshops about smartcard security, Tempest attacks, the SPAM threat, Windows 95 security, "practical" PGP attacks, "legal" hacking, virtual communities, cryptography and the law (Trusted Third Parties and Key Recovery), a tele-presence experiment, activism on the Net, and much more.

HIP will take place on the Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of August 1997 at campsite Kotterbos, Aakweg, Almere in The Netherlands. The campsite is about a 30 minutes drive from Amsterdam.

Remember 'Hacking at the End of the Universe' (HEU) in 1993? The people that published Hack-Tic, a computer underground magazine in The Netherlands, organized it. Hundreds of hackers, phone phreaks, programmers, computer haters, data travellers, electro-wizards, networkers, hardwarefreaks, techno-anarchists, communications junkies, cyber- and cypherpunks, system managers, stupid users, paranoid androids, Unix gurus, whizz kids and warez dudes spent three days building their own network between their tents in the middle of nowhere, located in the Flevopolder in The Netherlands.

HIP will be the sequel to HEU. A campsite full of PCs, laptops, and Unix machines, all connected via an intertent Ethernet that is connected to the Internet. People from all over The Netherlands and other countries will come together to learn and discuss the benefits, as well as the risks of new technologies. They'll listen to lectures, join workshops, enjoy special presentations and, last but not least, party, all of this in a friendly open-air environment of a very wired campsite far away from the civilized world.

HIP will happen on the same days as Beyond HOPE, a hacker convention in New York, organized by the people of 2600 Magazine. There will be audio and video links between both events, and we're working on cool gadgets to further enhance your sense of 'grassroots telepresence'. This will be a twin-event in the true sense of the word.

A do-it-yourself event?

We will absolutely need your help setting up everything once we're there. HIPcamp will open on August 5th, three days before HIP starts. If you decide to join in that early expect some pretty primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, or think that's the best part, you can help build HIPnet and all other facilities.

We also urgently need you to think now about what it is you would like to see and do at HIP. Just like Hacking at the End of the Universe in 1993, we need lots of people that have ideas for organizing their own small part of HIP and the organizational talent to do this without too much help from us.

One of the proven recipes for fun:

GET a group of friends together in an early stage; arrange how you're going to get there if you're far away.

THINK: Is there something you and your friends would like to show others, discuss or do there?

If so: TELL us about it, so we can coordinate, help or announce things.

BRING lots of computers and other electronics, maybe your own army surplus tent.

HOOK it all up once you get there.

Check out what others have been doing and MEET nice people, hang out, have fun!

Of course you can also come alone and have lots of fun, and there will be a huge exhibition tent to set up computers in. In another big tent there will be near to a thousand chairs where you can listen to and participate with panel discussions.

This event will be big, and as said, in this stage we're looking for people to organize their own chaotic little part of it. So don't mail us saying "put me on the list, I want to be a volunteer" when you could say "I'm xxx and I'd like to do yyy." Tell us what you need us to do. We could put your workshop or whatever it is you'd like to do in one of our announcements and on the website, so people can communicate with you beforehand. We could make sure there is enough room if your project requires a lot of space. You name it.

We dream of an event with thousands of creators and no audience.

You can use the newsgroup alt.hacking.in.progress to find people to work with at HIP. Or you can use the notice board at the website to search for someone to travel with to HIP. Use it to ask for help or offer some.

This isn't going to be passive entertainment, we all work together to make it work. Also: HIP is not the event to buy a computer or get advice on buying one, and there're not going to be any beginner courses on using the Internet. If you're not into networking of some sort, you'll think it's boring.

But if you're very technically inclined, part of some remote community on the edge of the net, or if the politics surrounding information technology are just your thing, HIP is definitely made for you (and by you, we hope).

Who is organizing HIP?

Once there was a little magazine in The Netherlands called 'Hack-Tic', and it published wild ways to play tricks on the information infrastructure of the world. The magazine doesn't exist anymore, but most of the people that wrote articles for the magazine or helped organize Hacking at the End of the Universe (1993) and even some of the people that helped put up the Galactic Hacker Party (1989) are still in touch with each other. The every-four-year-itch has gotten to us again...

HIPcamp and HIPnet

There'll be no hotel rooms or anything like that so you'll have to bring at least a tent and a sleeping bag to HIP, even if this means you can't bring the paper-tape unit that came with your VAX 11/780. We'll supply a campground, toilets, showers, good food and electrical power (as close to 220V/50Hz as possible) and we'll do our best to supply everyone who wants it with an Ethernet connection. You will probably be able to trade wiring, extra outlets, Ethernet cards, and the use of modular crimping tools for almost anything.

HIPcamp will open on August 5th, three days before HIP starts. If you decide to join in that early expect pretty primitive circumstances. If you don't care about that, or think that's the best part, you can help build HIPnet and all other facilities.

No audience?

We'll try to offer different ways for the Internet population to truly interact with the events at HIP. Please get in touch if you'll have some friends at your house and you want to have CU-SeeMe or other connections to us. We'll also be broadcasting live and buffered feeds of audio and video on the net. Mass-media coverage will be provided for the interactively challenged.

Press

All press is welcome to visit HIP, but there will be a few strict rules. All members of the press will pay the entrance fee, no discussion about this. There will be a part of the campsite that is off-limits to all press. No filming, photographing or recording is to take place there. Some people like to have a press-free moment, some have employment-related reason for shunning media attention.

What else?

Many more things could be said but it is still a bit early. The main networking tent and the bar will be open 24 hours a day and we'll have a depository to stash your laptops, backpacks and other valuables. We haven't figures out the exact entrance fee, but, just like HEU, HIP is going to be a non-profit event. And if you haven't guessed it yet: all workshops and plenary events will take place in English.

I want to be HIP too!

Don't worry: you can be! Subscribe to the announcement mailing list. It's spam-free and will only carry HIP announcements written by us. You can also participate in the ongoing, yet slightly messy debate in the newsgroup alt.hacking.in.progress. If you can't find the newsgroup don't contact us. Refresh the grouplist in your newsreader or ask your access provider to check their newsfeed.

Wikipedia - Advanced Encryption Standard process

On January 2, 1997, NIST announced that they wished to choose a successor to DES to be known as AES. Like DES, this was to be "an unclassified, publicly disclosed encryption algorithm capable of protecting sensitive government information well into the next century." However, rather than simply publishing a successor, NIST asked for input from interested parties on how the successor should be chosen. Interest from the open cryptographic community was immediately intense, and NIST received a great many submissions during the three-month comment period.