The 26th edition of the world's largest annual hacker conference, 26C3, took place in Berlin last week. With about 2,500 attendees, a combined total of 9,000 participants worldwide (via live streams), and an array of features that no other conference in the world can match, it was very much a milestone.
A bit on the word "hacker", as I know the term might be bothering some of you. I am not using it in the stereotypical way mainstream society often does, to refer to criminal and malicious activity. The hackers I am talking about go back to the origins of the word: one who tinkers, one who deconstructs out of a natural curiosity about how something works and how it could be made to do something it wasn't originally intended to do. Such abilities are akin to the skilled locksmith, and do not automatically make a hacker a criminal. Unfortunately for many who work in mainstream media, the word has been hijacked to be synonymous with "electronic evildoer". Yet, like many words that have been used to keep minority groups down, hackers are taking the label back.
Announcements such as the GSM encryption crack may have made international headlines last month, but something much more significant is clear: throughout the world, hackers have come out from their bunkers and opened up community spaces. They go by various names (co-working spaces, clubhouses, hideouts, space stations) and are a global-scale breakthrough for a community that for decades has not always been willing or able to go public. By opening up, they've not only gone public, but have also opened their doors to anyone curious or interested in the world of technology and how things work.
This phenomenon may be bigger than it has ever been, but in some corners of the world, it is not altogether new. Groups of German hackers have long organised themselves as officially recognised clubs and taken on challenges of a technical (or non-technical) nature. In North America, the movement has seen its greatest expansion in the past few years, with spaces such as NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, Pumping Station: One in Chicago and Noisebridge in San Francisco providing a creative space for a rapidly growing membership. The hacker space movement includes clubs in different parts of Latin America, as well as in South Africa, Israel, Iran, Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Australia. Every month, the list gets longer as more groups come forward and post their details online at hackerspaces.org, a central hub and wiki for all info about spaces, including how to start one.
Among the attendees at the 26C3 conference were the people behind wikileaks, the wiki clearinghouse for leaked documents. In its first few years wikileaks has come under attack by governments and other large institutions who fear its growing influence and has made international headlines on several occasions, including when it was ordered to shut down by a California court in 2008 after documents were leaked related to offshore bank activities. Presenting at this year's congress, their goal was to explain how this project could become an essential tool for journalists throughout the world who seek sources and secure methods to protect the identity of those with access to – and brave enough to leak – sensitive information.
Also present was Bre Pettis and his Makerbot Industries. The knob on your dishwasher broke off? Trying in vain to contact customer assistance and find some way to get a replacement part? Well Pettis had a better idea, and by using a 3D printer, produced his own replacement knob. His tinkering with 3D printing has resulted in the founding of his very own company, Makerbot, which has actual employees and its own manufacturing space in Brooklyn, shipping Makerbots all over the world. Pettis didn't tell us to buy his stuff, but talked about what other people have been building and how he envisages a future where people aren't just consumers: he dreams of a return of the tradition of people making things.
It is hard not to be in awe of what this group of hackers was able to build for a four-day conference: its GSM network, an internal Dect phone system, a radio station, its own all-volunteer first aid and emergency rescue team and an indescribably fast network with capacity that no conference or municipality in the world can compete with. It is no wonder spaces are popping up everywhere, as hackers come out of the cupboards and stand proudly as the talented explorers and critical thinkers that they are.