[NCUC-DISCUSS] notes from the Chaos Communication Congress

[Milan, Stefania]

Dear NCUCers,


happy new year!


As the last act of 2013, I attended the Chaos Communication Congress (CCC). As I believe this is a relevant venue for NCUC, this mail is to share a few impressions/reflections that you might find interesting.


The CCC (or 30C3, given this is edition number 30), is probably the biggest hacker festival/gathering in the world. It takes place annually in Germany (historically in Berlin, nowadays in Hamburg), towards the end of the year (December 27-30).

Imagine some >9500 hackers in one place, engaged in a sort of around-the-clock marathon of talks, hacking and partying. Interestingly, there is not only politics there (not necessarily a given in this environment), but there are also quite some internet governance debates. Now, we have to understand internet governance in its broadest sense, one that includes the current hot issue (surveillance) and a variety of public policy issues concering data privacy, transparency, retention etc.
There were debates on SOPA/PIPA (nothing new here), on the EU policies concerning privacy and data retention, on net neutrality... and the rooms were very, very full.


I believe the NCUC should make sure to have a presence at CCC as well, and more generally liaise with hacker community(ies). You might remember that I am very new to this ICANN business, but particularly concerned with inclusion and participation of those communities which are excluded (or, best said, typically self-excluded) from these processes - yet, they are relevant communities and have much to say, with a legitimacy which is derived from serving very real communities, and from a hands-on approach that is informed, very concrete and problem-solving-oriented (while being rooted on hacker ethics). The challenge is to think about ways in which this wonderful container of ideas, values and knowledge can be involved in what we do and care about.

If you are curious, check out the (messy) event blog: events.ccc.de - and do drop me an email if you are interesting in exchanging ideas or have any suggestion in this regard.


Happy new year!
Stefania


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Stefania Milan, PhD
http://stefaniamilan.net/

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