From 26C3 Public Wiki
Balance balancing
Let's talk about money. Even though the Congress was and is a project supported to an overwhelming degree by the tireless effort of many volunteers, we can't ignore the economic reality. Location, transportation and technical facilities need renting, insurances need paying, and damages need to be repaired.
For years, the financial risks of the Congresses have been softened by a CCC-own firm. Thanks to this firm, enough money was always left over for us to finance the next Congress or Camp. The good reputation of the CCC often enables us to hire services at prices way under the market price, as long as these deals stay confidential.
Countless volunteers and donations made it possible to carry these kind of events financially. The leftover costs are passed on to the visitors via the entry fees, thus keeping these at a fraction of what comparible commercial conferences ask. Still, in order to cope with rising prices and the fourth day of Congress we were forced to raise ticket prices.
Let's talk about your money. There's been a change in our society during the past few years, which has led to the unfortunate situation that for some CCC members and friends, attending the Congress has become too expensive. The financial gap has also widened in the hacker community: For some Congress has even become their highlight of the year, for which they have to save up for twelve months.
To sum it up, we're in a situation in which not everyone who would definitely add to the Crongress can take part.
At previous Congresses, a so-called Angel of Mercy listened to people under difficult circumstances and would decide each case unbureaucratically and seperately. But: We think that nobody should have to be given the impression of begging us for help. We understand completely that it's not a nice feeling, having to praise yourself and explain your problems to strangers. This is, for us and for you, a matter of dignity.
That's why we want to try an experiment this year: We'll reserve a certain amount of tickets for which every one of you can suggest hackers from your surrounding who you think wouldn't come if they had to pay the full price. After all, you can tell much better than us who is affected by this. All suggestions are, of course, handled confidentially. If we can relate to the situation, we'll contact the protégé and ask what amount of money would be in his financial reach. From these parameters we will have the difficult task of deciding how to best deal out the tickets.
This model has its limits: All in all, the Congress has to finance itself, so the amount of tickets and the sum of discounts is limited. Nevertheless, we hope to even out the worst injustices.
Dragons everywhere
But despite these concessions, coming to the Congress is out of question, because of the travel and lodging costs or because of private family reasons. Of course you can watch the streams at home and follow the talks via blogs, tweets or IRC channels. But this is just not the same as exchanging thoughts with similar-minded people, discussing technicalities or just drinking Tschunk together.
We have an idea for decentral possibilities of participation: Dragons everywhere! In order to follow all of the lectures, all you need is three screens, a small kitchen for a communal meal, a fridge for the drinks (Mate, of course), a boom box for music and, for a communal feeling, a handful of hackers. The most original hackcenter could even dwarf the BCC. It doesn't have to take place in Berlin, it doesn't even have to be in just one town, and it allows much more hackers a decentral participation in the international event 23C3.
All that's left for an authentic experience is for someone to switch the WLAN on and off at random intervals, an entry queue with a waiting time of half an hour, constantly full op toilets and some leisurely applied hackcenter scent "Eau de c3" (available in the FoeBuD shop).
Since we don't have the slightest idea how many people are interested in this idea (after all, you don't want to end up all alone in front of three screens), we've created a wiki page, in which hopefully some activity can be seen in the next three weeks.
The suggestions for the ticket price reductions in your community should reach us until December 1st.All tickets are sold out by December 13th at the latest. Please write to: 26c3-friends(at)cccv.de
