There is a (German – we apologize) extensive and entertaining podcast on the 24C3’s conference program over at Chaosradio Express: CRE058 24C3 Preview.

The year is 1839. The British Empire seizes Hong Kong as a base, preparing to wage war against Qing China. The world’s first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation alongside the Great Western Railway line from Paddington station to West Drayton. And in Manchester, George Bradshaw, cartographer, printer and publisher, prepares a revolutionary publication on the recently established railways: the first ever timetable for public transportation, a cloth-bound book entitled Bradshaw’s Railway Time Tables and Assistant to Railway Travelling (the title being changed in 1840 to Bradshaw’s Railway Companion).

Bradshaw’s timetable changed the perception of technology: people suddenly realized that while a single train is extremely useful, the railways showed their full usefulness as a network of trains, interconnected as a radical new way of communication, potentially for everyone. With the first timetable, the steam age had its definitive listing of data protocol definitions and RFCs. Full steam ahead! Volldampf voraus!

168 years later, we publish our own timetable for 24C3, the 24th Chaos Communication Congress in 2007, December 27th to 30th in Berlin, Germany, Europe. May it be your useful assistant and companion to data travelling. May it whet your appetite for what we believe will be the best Congress ever.

Finally. You can there find lots of information about how to participate and what to expect. Head over to the 24C3 Website-Wiki and have a look.

As the website is a wiki you can add information and edit (most of) the text. At the last events – especially the Chaos Communication Camp – many people used the wiki to plan things, let other people know about it and find others with similar interests. Please go ahead!

Today was the last content meeting prior to the congress. All submissions are now decided and a lot already have been confirmed. We also prepared an initial schedule using our high-tech “paper on ground floor” method and will be tweaking it over the next days. Expect a preliminary schedule sometime soonish.

For journalistic coverage of 24th Chaos Communication Congress, members of the press – print media, photo, radio, TV, film and news agencies – should request accreditation. If you’d like to be included on the press list, please send your details including publication, site or station name and address, your editor’s name and details, and your circulation to 24c3-press at cccv.de. If you’re a freelancer, please provide a list and details of the publications/media you write for.

Since the law may treat bloggers as members of the press, we will do the same. Web media entities of all kinds can get press registration so long as they have a news component.

The deadline to submit an application for press accreditation is Dezember 22, 2007. We will be glad to answer your questions by e-mail.

The 24c3 press team is also maintaining a press room this year where you can contact press team members anytime. Yay!

The call for participation for the 24th Chaos Communication Congress will end in 3 days. This means you have to submit your lecture proposal for the upcoming 24C3 before October 12th, 2007 (Midnight UTC).

24C3 is a low-cost and volunteer-driven event and we have a tiny budget if you compare it to commercial conferences. In many cases, however, we can offer reimbursement for travel expenses. While we cannot sponsor you a free vacation in Berlin, as an accepted speaker you get free entry to the event and we’ll probably be able work out expenses for overseas travel. For further information and questions please feel free to contact 24c3-content@cccv.de

So, please take the time and submit your talks and workshops now. The earlier you submit, the better are your chances for getting accepted (of course, submitting something absolutely mind-blowing from the areas of hacking, making, science, culture, and community helps a lot, too).

Full steam ahead!

We didn’t want to keep this from you. A photo of the 24C3 kickoff meeting in the Mauerpark end of August. So idyllic. So much planning already going on, despite the fact that our CCCamp-tested tents were still hung over doors and tables at home for drying and despite the fact that some of us still got glazed looks of reminiscence whenever the Camp came up in the discussion on what to improve and how. Perhaps by now you can guess that we are all eager and looking forward to the 24C3 already…

Also, I want to use this posting to repeat, once again: This year’s Congress will have Steampunk woven into it all over. It may not have come out in the Call for Participation very well, but – We. Want. Steampunk. Bring cool stuff. Make it your ambition to give us spectacular headaches over fire prevention regulations, or over where to put your giant minutely-detailed drawing of Captain Nemo’s ship. Go on, challenge us!