30C3 Call for Participation

30C3 is the 2013 edition of the Chaos Communication Congress, the Chaos Computer Club’s international conference and hacker party.

During the four days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, thousands of technology enthusiasts, tinkerers, artists, utopians and from Europe and all over the world come together at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH) to exchange ideas, learn and party together. Participants engage with topics covering information technology, computer security, the make-and-break scene, critically constructive ways of dealing with technology and its effects on our societies.

The lecture programme review and selection process will be put on a new basis this year. Submitted talk proposals will be selected by content teams in charge of one of the following tracks:

• Art & Beauty

• Ethics, Society & Politics

• Hardware & Making

• Security & Safety

• Science & Engineering.

Computers can be used to create art and beauty. This track is for all those lectures and installations dealing with creative approaches to culture, music and art.

This track is about all those tools designed to turn the digital into the physical. Included in this track is everything from trendy CAN bus hacks and software defined radio hardware to obscure hardware reverse engineering. We are looking forward to any submissions by those who, when they speak of cloud hacking, actually mean making it rain, who see e-bikes as a transport layer, and who happily forward viruses from their inbox to their dna sequencer. If you design or abuse circuit boards and firmware, mod your 3D printer to reliably barf out non-plastics, and aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty, this is your track.

This track is about ethics, society and politics in the digital age. This includes submissions dealing with the dangers of technology in politics and society as well as the threats that politics pose for the digital society. At the same time, aside from fear and danger, we are interested in examples of happiness and hope for a better world through the interaction of  technology and politics.

This track is for all those who don’t think Knuth was a cute polar bear at the Berlin zoo. Submissions containing exoskeletons and “bleeding edge” research – anything cool that comes out of universities – as well as DIY experiments that aren’t about typical making belong in this track. You’ve solved the halting problem? Submit!

This track gathers people and groups who wish to describe or discuss technical computer related safety and security. We are interested in everything suitable to develop or bypass security mechanisms. This is not limited to software systems,  this year the committee is especially interested in hardware topics. Technical weaknesses, tools, techniques and allied research all belong in this track.

Assemblies are  places where communities of interest can meet in the core of the congress. They are comparable to villages at the various hacker camps. We will have lots of space again, so larger installations will be possible. The assemblies will be organized in the public Wiki.

The CCC runs the congress with the help of self-organized volunteer teams and on its own funds. We are proud of this and we are looking forward to once again being able to put together a congress with no external influences and no need for self-censorship. We regard this event as one of the few places where a global exchange using the creative-critical approach to technology and society is possible without censorship.

We are not providing a stage to secret services or other state organisations. However, based on our concept and on the fact that work is done on a voluntary basis, a thorough advance screening of participants and speakers is not possible.

It goes without saying that everyone attending the conference should be treated with respect and consideration. A significant proportion of delegates and speakers value their privacy, the integrity of their own data and their photographic likenesses. Those who attach less importance to personal agency in these matters are in a stronger position. We therefore ask them to respect the feelings and wishes of others.

Please send us a description of your suggested talk that is as complete as possible. The description is of particularly importance to the selection, so please ensure it is as clear as possible. Quality takes precedence over quantity. Due to the non-commercial nature of the Congress, presentations which aim to market or promote commercial products or entities will not be entertained.

As it  is likely that  that there will be multiple submissions about the same topic, please show us exactly why your talk should be part of the conference. Please write something about yourself, your environment and your motivation. It does not matter if the talk has been held at another conference, All it has to be is up to date.

Talks should be no longer than 45 minutes plus 15 minutes for question and answers. Longer slots are possible in principle. There are 20-minute slots as well. Please tell us the proposed length of your talk at the time of submission. In addition, there are 5-minute short talks (so-called Lightning Talks) for small ideas, projects or rants. These will only be organised during the event.

A formal submission is not required. Once again there will be a Wiki where needs for space and other resources will be collected. Simply start considering now what you would like to make, bring or show, before that Wiki goes online. We have a lot of space and we are open for crazy and surprising stuff.

Although 30C3 is an international conference and a lot of content is being presented in English, this year there will again be a translation team which will simultaneously translate most German talks into English. So if you are not completely comfortable with presenting in English, please feel free to present your lecture in German. Please also use the language of your presentation for its title, so as not to confuse any visitors.

Audio and video recordings of the lectures will be published online in various formats under the license CC Attribution 3.0 Germany (CC BY 3.0 DE). This license allows commercial use of excerpts by media institutions as part of their reporting. If you do not wish material of your lecture to be published or streamed, please let us know in your submission. Note: As German law and therefore the license might differ from the law of your country please let us know if you should have any issues or questions regarding the exact implications. Unfortunately we can’t provide a bullet-proof translation.

Travel, costs & visa

Chaos Communication Congress is a non-commercial event, where neither the organisers nor the speakers are being paid. If necessary, we are however able to provide some support regarding travel costs and accommodation.

If you need help applying for a visa,  such as an official invitation to present at the German embassy, please let the content team know well in advance. Please be aware that the visa application procedure may take up to six weeks.

• September 15, 2013 (23:59 UTC): Deadline for submissions
• November 15, 2013: Notification of acceptance
• December 27–30, 2013: Chaos Communication Congress

All submissions of lectures and workshops have to be entered into our conference planning system, which is located at the following URL: https://frab.cccv.de/cfp/30C3.

Please follow the instructions there. If you have any questions regarding the submission, you are welcome to contact us via email at 30c3-content(at)cccv.de.