37C3: Unlocked (2023) on CCC Event Blog

37C3: lost+found

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The 37th Chaos Communication Congress is all torn down and tidied up. Are you missing anything?

If you lost something at the 37C3, send us an email to 37c3@c3lf.de, preferably with a picture of what you have lost and a description.
Our friendly cloakroom team takes care of the lost+found items and will be happy to help with your request.

Image CC BY-SA Martin Müller

37C3: Art & Beauty Exhibition ANIMAL()CITY: Unleashed!

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

ANIMAL()CITY: Unleashed! presents the positions of the seven participating international artists as physical exhibits in the CCH entrance area exhibition space, each corresponding with their virtual counterparts in augmented reality.

The selected Art & Beauty work is more difficult than the other sections of the conference program. The artists have articulated themselves through their visual positions, as opposed to lectures or presentations. We sometimes succeed in making art – and beauty! – accessible in the form of the somewhat infamous performance lecture, but the art usually falls by the wayside when speaking about it.

That’s why the Art & Beauty team is attempting to facilitate the direct experience of art at the congress. This doesn’t always work, fortunately the other Art & Beauty related initiatives and projects support our cause.

For 37C3, we are very proud to transplant ANIMAL()CITY: Unleashed!, an exciting group exhibition by panke.gallery, from Berlin to Hamburg. The original ANIMAL()CITY exhibition in Berlin ran from October 12 to 28, 2023.

Based on an intimate experience – a fox crossing the path of panke.gallery curator Sakrowski early in the morning – the idea was born to thematize the various economic, ecological, political and personal layers that overlay the urban landscape of the exhibition.

ANIMAL()CITY: Unleashed! examines how augmented reality can influence, disrupt, supplement or completely superimpose different levels of perception and reality. The exhibition presents a surreal bestiary of animals that have transcended their natural form and taken on unreal shapes in the process. They are thus detached from the biodiversity of actual urban niches, and open up metaphorical spaces of possibility and engagement for us, the viewers and participants.

The artists have interpreted this creative and aesthetic interplay between the physical and the digital AR objects »let off the leash« very individually:

Joachim Blank has removed his The restless lion/ess sculpture from its pedestal, which welcomes the congress participants at Dammtor station.
exonemo by Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa releases dogs and cats that roam freely through the CCH and the neighboring Planten un Blomen park via their Metaverse Petshop
Eva Davidova realized HorseWoman Appearing Normal as an AR version especially for the exhibition – an example from her HorseWoman series of works with which she reflects on the present time.
Meredith Drum (Vulture Veneration) has long used AR as her artistic medium, in which she addresses questions of ecology.
The performer Ingeborg Wie Henderson has animated herself as Cat Grey for this exhibition, to explore what feline qualities she currently embodies.
Sahej Rahal presents The Walker, a mythical creature that comes from a world of his own creation and merges with its surroundings.
In Search of Ideas (2021-2022) Jonas Lund wanders as his avatar through a world he has created, in search of the animals that inhabit it. For ANIMAL()CITY: Unleashed! he has detached a penguin and placed it in the building.

More information about the works on display at panke.gallery.

The augmented reality exhibits are best viewed by Safari on iOS devices and by Chrome on Android devices. In order to detect the virtual objects on the map geolocation has to be activated on your devices.

Some documentation and necessary security information at the 37C3 Public Wiki page.

Corresponding talk: ANIMAL()CITY.

Image by panke.gallery

37C3 Congress Everywhere

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For all those who are not attending the Congress, there is of course the opportunity to meet up in the Hackerspace, stream lectures together, hack, party, etc. During these days, the Congress is everywhere where it is lived. There is also the opportunity to visit each other.

The following spaces have signed up:

Location	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Link to Space
Basel	from 13:00	from 13:00	from 13:00	from 13:00	ccc-basel.ch
Bielefeld	from 16:00	from 16:00	from 16:00	from 16:00	space.bi
Essen	–	ab 10:00	from 10:00	–	chaospott.de
Erfurt	tba	tba	tba	tba	bytespeicher.org
Heilbronn	15-22:00	15-22:00	15-22:00	15-22:00	codeforheilbronn.de
Leipzig	from 15:00	from 15:00	from 15:00	from 15:00	dezentrale.space
Munich	-	-	from 15:00	from 15:00	muc.ccc.de
Stuttgart	from 15:00	from 15:00	from 15:00	from 15:00	shackspace.de
Tuebingen	-	15-22:00	15-22:00	15-22:00	ki-maker.space
Uppsala	-	from 15:00	-	from 15:00	www.dfupdate.se
Wülfrath	from 11:00	from 11:00	from 11:00	from 11:00	IdeenWerk & Registration

In addition to the spaces, there is also a matching matrix channel: 37C3 - Everywhere.

Header graphic by betalars

Get Ready for 37C3

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

It is the 24th December, day -2 of 37C3, and just before many of you start their journey to the Congress Center Hamburg, we have a few useful bits of information and reminders for you.

TL;DR

Your starting point for all 37C3 information and content is the 37C3 Start Page.
Remember the usual packing checklists, and especially the current measures to protect against infectious diseases.
Assemblies: Please read the instructions for Assembly arrival and deliveries (your drop-off location depends on the location of your assembly!).

Finding information and staying up-to-date

Congress offers a lot to discover and create. To help you stay on top of it all, we have set up the 37C3 Start Page with links to all important online resources.

In particular, we are continuously maintaining and extending the info pages. Here is where you will find all official information (which you might have seen in the “Static” section of the wiki at previous Congresses). This new structure may already be familiar to you from this year’s Chaos Communication Camp, but of course the content itself is specific to 37C3.

The info pages are frequently updated to reflect current changes; they’re worth keeping an eye on every now and then. Some of the content is also being translated to German already.

If any of your questions remain unanswered by the info pages, the Infodesk is happy to help: at CCH in front of Hall X (on the first floor at the railing overlooking the entrance hall), via DECT at 1111 and public telephony at +49 40 57308301111, and already before the start of the event via email and Matrix.

Many teams that are essential to running Congress also maintain Mastodon accounts that keep you informed with current announcements. You will find all their contact details on the Facilities info page.

Arriving and staying

For you journey to Hamburg, we have collected the most important information under the title Getting there. There is also a ridesharing list on the wiki where you might find someone to travel with.

For the particularly spontaneous among you, there might still be options available at the ticket exchange — but always be vigilant whom you’re entrusting with your money.

It is now finally certain that we can offer a sports hall as an affordable sleeping option. Alternatively, you can also share sleeping accomodations with others on the wiki.

Arriving with your Assembly

This year, over 300 assemblies — groups of participants united by a multitude of different topics or regional collaboration — have signed up to be part of 37C3.

To ensure that you can all get your projects set up in the cosy (but also convoluted) halls of the CCH with as little stress as possible, we have parallelized the arrival and unloading of assembly equipment as far as possible. We ask that you familiarize yourself with the instructions for Assembly arrival and deliveries before making your way to CCH. This info page contains everything you’ll need to know about when, where, and how to unload and set up your equipment.

Participating and helping out

Like everything we do, 37C3 only works if we make it happen together. If you want to help out at 37C3, become an Angel. It’s really that easy!

You’ve probably already read the Call for Angels, but it doesn’t hurt to have another look.
Build-up is currently in full swing, and as usual spontaneous help is very welcome there!

While you’re packing, check if you’ve grabbed your lanyard (they tend to hide in drawers somewhere) — and if you have plenty of them laying around anyway, we’re happy to distribute them to angels that might have forgotten to bring one. Just like that, you’re helping in avoiding unnecessary waste. This year’s angel badges are in the same business card format you’re used to (85×55 mm, “portrait” orientation). You can wear them directly on your lanyard, or bring a plastic sleeve from a previous event.

Explore and experience

37C3 offers a large and diverse range of talks. The “Fahrplan” (schedule) of all talks with all latest updates can always be found at fahrplan.events.ccc.de. You can easily access it on your mobile device, e.g. via the schedule app for Android or schedule app for iOS. Find more apps including F-Droid links at the app overview on the wiki.

Many talks will be translated live by the c3lingo team (from German to English or English to German, and into more languages subject to availability of interpreters). You can listen directly from your web browser and check the talks info page for more details on c3lingo.

The Congress comes to life in particular through the various assemblies and their projects. Browse the list of all assemblies and use the continuously updated digital map by c3nav.

If there is any digital content that you would like to share with Congress participants, you can create it yourself or find it in the wiki. The wiki is one of many features of the “Hub”, which has been created during rC3 and developed and expanded since then. Features including the personalized schedule, an album for digital badges and a pinboard for spontaneous ideas and offers, and others are again available for this Congress.

For young Congress participants, the Kidspace is an exciting environments that is optimised for children, you are welcome to swing by!

Protect your health and the community

By participating at 37C3 you are about to attend an event with many thousands of participants. Help us live by our mantra: All Creatures Welcome.

Congress is a place for open and respectful exchange between all tolerant creatures.
To ensure your safety, there are teams that help you in crises and emergency situations.

Please stay vigilant about protecting yourself and your fellow participants against infectious diseases. At 37C3, there will be Covid tests and protective face masks available on site.
And though it is an inconvenience – if you feel sick, have symptoms of infection or even proof that you have been infected, it goes without saying that you are should not visit the event for everyone’s protection.

In cases of medical emergencies on site, do not hesitate to contact the Chaos Emergency Response Team (CERT) using the DECT number 112. This number is not available on the event GSM network; if necessary, ask someone with a DECT phone to call this number for you. 112 is the number for emergency services in the outside world as well, so make sure you are calling it on the internal network if you want to reach CERT.

37C3 in −2, −1, …

Packed all your gear? Checked all your backups? Read all the info pages?
You’re ready, and we’re looking forward to seeing you in Hamburg!

Image by Yves Sorge CC BY-SA 2.0

37C3: Dressed to hack

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It is the shibboleth among European nerds on campsites, at the Mate wholesale market and in lecture halls. It often divides the community, has often led to long queues in the past and for many hackers it’s the reliable source of clothing: The Congress Merch.

The wildest hot takes on merch in the run-up to the event usually start with “Why don’t they just …” and the answers to this are rarely obvious without having rocked such a production yourself. That’s why we want to provide a little insight into the motivations, constraints and experiences and grant a peek through the keyhole at out calculations.

First of all, here are the bare figures for 37C3 to illustrate the order of magnitude: We sent 11,392 textiles to print (including angel shirts). The delivery arrived on 19 EUR-pallet and our trusted print shop was busy putting our order through its presses for around two weeks (in the middle of the pre-Christmas period). Sell all the items will allow the orga™ to subsidize more amazing projects at congress.

However, drawing up such a calculation is a complex piece of art: we’re not in the business of squeezing the maximum profit out of you folks, but rather want to provide us all with mementos of what for some participants was the most meaningful event of their lives. Of course, the products should be of a quality that (a glance in the wardrobe confirms this) will still allow us to look back fondly on previous conventions in twenty years’ time. We also value fairly produced raw materials and go for a local printing company that treats its employees correctly.

As already indicated above, the Congress shirts are one of the ways for people with a little more financial leeway to cross-finance the organisation of the event for all those who are not so flush with money: as the Congress is traditionally run close to the green zero, every euro from merch sales actually helps to reduce the risk in the overall calculation.

As you’ve probably noticed at events in recent years, the merchandise ran out at some point. So you formed rather impressive queues in front of the Congress shirt counter to avoid ending up in front of empty shelves. Now, capitalist logic would suggest a simple approach here: simply produce more and cushion the risk with a surcharge. Or even commission one of the big T-shirt printers to sell post-produced merchandise somewhere in the dodgy web shops between Congresses.

The problem here is, on the one hand, that we don’t want to produce stockpiles and destroy textiles later. A Congress shirt is also a Congress shirt and not fan merchandise that can be ordered by Joe Fandude at leisure or which would also mean to hand over your private data to third parties. On the other hand, we do not have any angel shifts to allocate between the Congresses and would still have to store all unsold shirt somewhere. Our logistics team is only moderately enthusiastic about having to store several EUR-pallets full of clothes, which would then also have to be freely accessible for stocktaking (which usually takes place in a freezing warehouse in winter). Considering all this, we regularly optimise merch towards selling the whole stock.

At the events, you probably encountered our friendly heroes of the Fashion Operation Centre - c3foc - who on average have to hand out four textiles per minute during the seventy hours of 37C3. Of course, this also includes picking out the right piece in the correct size, sorting and stocktaking, handling cash or beeping out your receipts, adjusting the stock at c3foc.net, waiting for you to try on, dealing with exchange requests and playing style advisor. And while everyone at the merch desk are big fans of a large, diverse and colourful product matrix, every new colour or design usually means two product types (fitted and straight), each with a dozen new product type sizes ranging from XXS to 5XL with the greatest sales risk at the edges of the bell curve.

Which brings us right to the next problem: In the past, determining the size distribution table for our order, affectionately known as the “paunch curve”, was a difficult task to calculate: Having sold out all the textiles at the events, we never learnt the actual demand for any of the sizes or products. Even a secret peak at the shirt orders from the angel system and the list we got from pre-sale introduced for Camp 2023 only helped a little: even though angels regularly make up around 15% of the participants, certain biases for a textile size cannot be ruled out there either, and even in the pre-sale, the probability is not low that people with sizes at the extremes of the range will pre-order more often than participants with average bodies - which makes extrapolation even more difficult.

In addition to the obvious advantages for you - such as more free cash on the premises, guaranteed availability of your size and more peace of mind when collecting - and advantages for us - such as money already in our account when purchasing ordering raw materials, less cash handling and better estimates which motifs, textiles and sizes are most in demand - the new pre-sale also brought a whole load of problems: In the eyes of the Distance Contract Act (Fernabsatzgesetz), an online purchase with self-collection is a very unusual case, and suddenly goods ordered from the print shop but not delivered no longer just result in a “sold out - sorry”, but entail cancellation and refund processes. And, of course, the c3foc angels also have to pre-sort the pre-ordered goods, a complexity that we had to painfully learn at the camp. All in all, however, pre-sales are a win-win situation and we will continue to improve the processes.

Time permitting, we occasionally produce extra swag in addition to the classics, such as the beautifully designed hitchhiker-themed sports towels at the camp, as even if they had proved to be shelf warmers, they only come in one size and quickly disappear into a single box. (We will be offering the last few for sale at 37C3.) For 25C3, we also produced dresses in the Congress design, in other years we had caps and rain jackets on offer, and in the future we want to make additional offers to all those who have little use for shirts with slogans, prefer to wear polo shirts rather than hoodies or need even more unusual sizes that we simply cannot keep in stock every year. We are also happy to provide the print data on request - as long as it is not used to run competitor shops. And of course we’ll keep our ears open for further ideas from the community. Just write to 37c3-design@cccv.de.

So, if you’re involved with the c3foc at 37C3, perhaps you’ll remember this text and the complex problems caused by the Congress’ sheer size dealt with by only a handful of volunteers: give a smile back and, in the event of delays in operations, assume that nobody is trying to rip you off or take advantage of you. And still be happy when you look in your wardrobe in twenty years’ time!

Image by Thorsten Schröder CC BY-SA 2.0

Meet the 37C3 "Sustainability & Climate Justice" track team

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For several years now, the topics of climate breakdown and (un)sustainability have been addressed by the CCC, because there is no hacking on a dead planet. For example, the CCC was a core member of the first Bits & Bäume conference in 2018, and one year later in 2019 the motto of the 36C3 was ambiguously but spot on “Resource Exhaustion” with the new content track “Resilience and Sustainability” providing for relevant talks and discussions.

This paved the way for this year’s Chaos Communication Congress, one of the biggest gatherings in the hacker world, to continue pursuing the topics of “Sustainability & Climate Justice” with a dedicated track and therefore creating a dedicated space for one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Together we want to discuss what sustainable technology might look like, what digital solutions exist to preserve the environment, how technology and technological thinking need to change to protect our common livelihood, and how we can create a just world that respects all people and the planet. Our track therefore links society, technology, hacker attitudes and sustainability on stage, and we are proud and more than happy to share our 14 great talk selections with you!

To be able to compile an exciting track, we broadly advertised the 37C3-CfP far beyond the hacker and tech bubble, combed through the HaveYourSay, encouraged numerous people to submit and answered countless questions. In effect, we received 55 submissions and would sincerely like to thank every single person who submitted a talk, because we know how much heart, brain and bravery can go into even an abstract. Then our thorough and exhaustive curation process started for all talks and all submitters. This includes getting familiar with their work, their organisations, their expertise, their agendas (political, commercial etc.) and even their previous talks at conferences. Eventually, we spend hours researching, even more hours doing looong meetings and in the end making very tough decisions.

In order to tackle this broad and complex interdisciplinary topic, our track team also had to consist of people with very diverse professional backgrounds. From Free Software advocates, tech wizards and activists for free network infrastructure to environmental experts, sustainability researchers and global political activists. What brings us together is our love for technology, the goal to protect our environment, and our commitment to sharing knowledge for a good and fair future for all.

The track teams from previous congresses warmly welcomed us in the content team for the 37C3 and we are very excited to contribute to this year’s amazing C3! We hope the selections inspire all within and outside the Chaos Family to rethink and then build the future of humanity on our spaceship earth.

37C3: Self-organized Sessions

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

We categorize workshops, group meetings, short presentations, etc. as Self-organized Sessions.
Starting now, you can create self-organized sessions and book rooms for them.
An overview of all self-organized sessions can be found in the Hub.
The registration of a self-organized session takes place in the Backoffice of the Hub.

The magic word is self-organization

You want to arrange a meeting of a group or a discussion about a specific topic? Give a workshop? Host a competition or a game? Organize something outside the building? Want to give a short talk or show a movie? Start a follow-up discussion to one of the big talks? Or plan something else that needs a place at the Congress?

Instead of listing all these things individually or creating categories for them, we introduced the term self-organized session a few years ago. Self-organized sessions are, as the name suggests, organized by all of you.

To create a session, click the plus in the top right-hand corner of the Hub homepage and then go to “Self-organized Session”. You will be redirected to the Backoffice. If you don’t yet have an account in the Hub, you should create one beforehand. When the session will take place, how long it will last, what you will do there and where it takes place is up to you. For example, you can meet at a bar or in an assembly (please check with those assemblies beforehand!). If you need a room for more people, you can also book rooms for this purpose as of today. When saving the session, a check is made to see whether the selected room is still available at the selected time, otherwise an error message is displayed. Once you have filled in this information and saved the session, it will appear in the Overview, where other participants can find it. If you have selected one of the specified rooms, it will also appear in the timetable later.

The following rooms are available for self-organized sessions:

Hall D
Hall E

Both rooms are free bookable via the hub. Room E will also host the Lightning Talks. Room E is equipped with a streaming/recording setup.

In addition, two self-managed stages are available:

Stage H
Stage X

Further self-organized rooms can be found on the overview page in the hub.

Please note that this system runs on a first come, first served basis. Therefore, check the calendar before you create a session to see which rooms are still available at which times.

37C3 Lightning Talks

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

There will be two Lightning Talk sessions
See https://pretalx.c3voc.de/37c3-lightningtalks/ for submission and schedule
Further information at https://c3lt.de/

Lightning Talks?

Did you think that the thrill of sharing your ideas in front of a huge audience at a C3 was something you’d never experience? Do you work on a cool project and want to get the word out? Was your talk one of the hundreds that got rejected? Did you come up with an awesome hack that you need to share? Go ahead and enter your Lightning Talk now!

The 37C3 Lightning Talks consist of two fast paced sessions which are perfect for pitching new software or hardware projects, exploits, creative pranks or strange ideas you need to get out to a global audience. Even if you don’t have an awesome idea or project to share, a Lightning Talk is perfect for pitching your Assembly, your workshop or even a longer talk you’ll give as a self-organized session. Your five minutes of fame!

Register a Lightning Talk

Registration is theoretically open until the the day before the last session (Dec 28). However, we only have a limited number of time slots and assign these on a first-come-first-serve basis. So don’t hesitate – submit your Lightning Talk at https://pretalx.c3voc.de/37c3-lightningtalks/.

Further information

Everything you need can be found at https://c3lt.de/. News and announcements are posted to Mastodon at https://chaos.social/@C3_LightningTLK.

Image CC BY-SA 2.0 Florian Kleiner_

37C3: Hackertours

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: We have exiting tours to interesting locations in Hamburg. All details over at Hackertours!

The Hamburg team has sought out interesting locations in the city that will take you away from the catacombs of the Congress Center for a few hours, letting you experience exiting new things.

The Tours

Cap San Diego

Cap San Diego is a general cargo ship built in 1961 that still is seaworthy and offers excursions. On our tour we will see the bridge as well as the engine room. An exhibition takes us back in time to worldwide shipping before the introduction of containers. All details

Old Elbe Tunnel

Look behind the curtain: the St. Pauli Elbtunnel connects the St. Pauli neighborhood with Steinwerder island. It was built between 1907 and 1911, and was one of the first road tunnels in the world. On this tour, Thomas Heidborn takes you to the cupola of the head building on the St. Pauli side and mentally back to the time where it all began. All details

Train Museum Loco Shed Aumühle

At the Train Museum Loco Shed Aumühle the Verein Verkehrsamateure und Museumsbahn e. V. has collected and restored trains from 150 years of railroad history, among them multiple generations of Hamburg rapid transit trains. Using the Field Train, we take a tour around the grounds of the museum at its exhibits. Competent volunteer members explain the history of the moving stock, the signal tours and safety equipment, track construction and many other aspects. Where possible, everything is in operation and can be touched! All details

Electrum

The electrum is Hamburgs Museum of Electricity and Technology. Nothing works without electricity—for 130 years, electricity is part of our daily lives. You’ll find around one thousands technical devices from all ages in electrum, Hamburgs museum of electricity in Harburgs inner harbour. Alle Details

U-Boat Museum Hamburg U-434

A technical adventure awaits you, where you can descend into one of the largest non-nuclear hunting and espionage submarines of its time. Our guides will not only give you a tour of the submarine with great background information, but also an exclusive tour of the command center. All details

Booking your tour

Please head over to our Ticket Shop!

How will the tours be organized? Head over to our Hackertours FAQ for answers to all your questions! And be sure to follow @hackertours@chaos.social for up to the minute updates.

37C3 pre-sale is dead, long live pre-sale!

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: In preparation for the upcoming 37C3 you have the opportunity to buy your favourite merch right now without having to wait in line later. The goods MUST be collected at the event in the CCH by 28 December 22:00, so only go shopping if you already have a ticket for 37C3! The pre-sale ends on 20 December.

Our 37C3 ticket pre-sale is over and we are speechless and happy about the solidarity in our community! An overwhelming amount of attendees grabbed supporter and business tickets and pushed the average price to currently well over 190 € and right into our congress piggy bank. Thanks to this buffer, we can now approve the “Friends” requests with a much lighter heart and have room for more chic installations, decorations and cassettes for punk-rock späti.

To make sure you will bring home as many great memories from the event, we want to get our amazing Congress merch into as many of your hands as possible. And to make this as painless as possible, you can already shop around for clothes exactly your size and desired colour in this year’s merch pre-sale and then pick them up at your leisure at 37C3. You have until 22:00 on day 2 (2023-12-28T22:00:00+01:00) to do so. In legal terms, this is called a “Termingeschäft”. After that, the clothes go back on sale for everyone and we can only issue your goods subject to availability.

Merch will of course be sold at the Congress as usual, but you may have to queue and your favourite cut, the right size or colour may be sold out. We will try to re-order sold-out merchandise, but cannot guarantee that everything will still be available in all sizes at 37C3.

The not so fine print

In order to be able to process all payments, the pre-sale closes on 20 December 2023 just before midnight and the payment deadline is 22 December 2023. This is a hard deadline that we cannot negotiate because the bank simply does not process payments over the holidays. Please refrain from trying to do this somehow - our pre-sale angels would have to painstakingly return late payments one by one.

37C3: Call for Angels

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings, galactic life form,

there is not much time left until the 37th Chaos Communication Congress starts. Like everything we do, 37C3 only works if we make it happen together. If you want to help out at 37C3, become an Angel.

Volunteering as an Angel makes it easy to take some peeks behind the scenes and to become friends with other life forms. You don’t need to decide to volunteer right now. It’s possible to start volunteering anytime.

All you have to do to become an Angel is register in the Engelsystem and then come and get your badge from Heaven at the event. In the Engelsystem you’ll find open tasks and you can sign up to shifts on your own. Additional information will appear bit by bit on the info pages until 37C3 starts. There also is an Angel Guide again that contains all relevant information in condensed form.

For build-up and especially the tear-down we’ll also need your volunteering power. If you’re able to show up earlier or stay longer, we’ll be grateful for your help. Especially for tear-down help is urgently needed, also and in particular from life forms who have not yet exhausted themselves during the build-up and the event itself. The build-up probably will start on December 20th and from that day on until congress starts, there will be lots of different tasks every day, primarily distribution of couches and distribution and build-up of chairs and tables. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide accommodation for people helping during build-up and tear-down.

If you want to help, just come by! Access to the CCH during build-up probably will be via the back side (Tiergartenstraße), either via the porter entrance or the entrance to Hall H. The situation can also change dynamically during the build-up from day to day. As soon as we know more, we will publish the relevant information in the Engelsystem and on Mastodon (see below).

If you are fluently bilingual, please consider joining the translation team. Not every person interested in the content at 37C3 is able to understand German and/or English. Our mission is to remove that language barrier and make Congress available to an international audience. For more information, become a member of our mailing list (write to translate-subscribte(at)lists.ccc.de, respond to the double-opt-in mail and await confirmation) and then write to us via translate(at)lists.ccc.de. You can also reach us on Mastodon at @c3lingo@chaos.social.

Our speaker-desk team also needs energetic helpers with fundamental Chaos Events experience. In the interests of diversity and providing the best possible support for all our speakers, we would be particularly pleased to have more people who do not self-identify as male.

Follow us on Mastodon at @c3himmel@chaos.social and have a look at the Engelsystem news from time to time to stay updated.

If you still have questions, you can ask them in the Engelsystem or at ticket(at)c3heaven.de.

Regards, an Angel.

I remember doing the halfnarp!

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The 37C3 content teams have been sorting, discussing, ranking, shuffling, haggling and hustling for more stage-hours and are proud to present you a preliminary look at the first 104 confirmed of around 125 accepted lectures and performances at this year’s Congress.

It’s been an exhausting process with 600 submissions in six tracks and a handful of invited presentations meaning that some tracks had to chose 1 lecture from 10 others not making it into the final Fahrplan. If you are among the ones getting a sad email, rest assured that you are in excellent company and encourage you to reach out to our teams managing the self organised sessions and workshops or invite yourself to one of the many Assemblies and share your knowledge there.

Still, we are really thrilled about the quality of this year’s submissions and want to allow everyone a first glimps on our Fahrplan in exchange for you helping us out with the precise schedule which is due to be planned next weekend: As seen in previous years and years, we also need your support for 37C3 telling us which lectures you want to attend. By mapping your anonymous list of lectures to these of your peers, we can create a conflict map as seen in the video below, that helps us reduce the amount of conflicts between multiple lectures you may want to attend.

/media/fullnarp_35C3.mp4

So hop over to the halfnarp now and let the community magic do its work!

Image CC0 by Stefan Kühn

Chaosmentors at the 37C3

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Chaosmentors will be at the 37C3! Interested Mentors and Mentees please registers HERE before the 8th of December at 23:59 o’clock.

It’s that time again - the Chaos Communication Congress is just around the corner! After a three-year break, we are back in Hamburg and, as always, we expect many new people to consider attending the Congress for the first time. Are you among them? Maybe you could use a little support to get off to a good start.

Who are the Chaosmentors for?

Are you a hacker or a member of another underrepresented group and are unsure whether you will feel comfortable at Congress? Do you have specific needs that make it difficult for you to participate? Are you interested in topics such as data protection, security, hardware hacking or net politics, but have little or no connection to the community? Are you attending the congress but have the impression that you are not one of these “hackers” and feel like you don’t really fit in?

Then the Chaosmentors would like to welcome you to the Congress and make it easier for you to get started!

You’ve come to the right place and we want to help you have an exciting and enjoyable stay. As a “Chaos Mentee”, you will be assigned a mentor and a group of similar-minded mentees. The mentors are there to answer your questions in advance, welcome you on your first day and explore the site with you. Together we will find out where there are interesting workshops and talks for you and will be there for you as a point of contact. We will also be there to answer your questions, concerns, needs and wishes in the run-up to the event. We also have a meeting point during the congress where you can make yourself comfortable and get to know other Chaos Mentees.

How does this work?

Register before the 8th of December by signing up HERE with a few details about yourself. Please register as early as possible, as we will start creating the groups before the 8th of December. Tell us a bit about yourself - for example, what brings you to the Congress, why you are contacting the Chaosmentors, what you are interested in and whether you have any specific needs. This way, we can find a suitable mentor for you and put together a group with similar interested mentes. Your Chaosmentor will contact you and your group before the Congress so that you can get to know each other. At the congress itself, you will be able to explore together.

Why are we doing this?

We ourselves have always had a great time at the Congress for 1, 2, 10 or 30 years. However, we know from our own experience how difficult the first step can be. Thoughts like “A big hacker congress, do I even fit in there?” are not unfamiliar to us - many Chaosmentors were once Chaos Mentees themselves. But don’t worry - once you’ve taken the first step, excellent people are waiting for you - and the opportunity to learn an incredible amount. But exchange is not a one-way street: the community at the Congress can also learn a lot from you and thrives on the diversity of the participants. That’s why we want to use the Chaosmentors to encourage people who wouldn’t have dared to come on their own. We are therefore particularly targeting people who do not belong to the strongly represented cis, male, white group. Of course, we do not exclude anyone.

For mentors

Of course, we are looking for active support from friendly, experienced and reliable mentors again this year. If you would like to take a group of newcomers under your wings and look after them, please register with us. Tell us something about yourself and your interests so that we can find suitable mentes for you. Thank you very much for your support.

Please note

In order to help this year’s Chaosmentors succeed, please follow the following requests:

Registration by December 8th: Register by the 8th of December, we will not be able to consider registrations received after this date.
No guided tours: Please refrain from spontaneously referring people to us. We do not offer guided tours (persistent fake news!) and the programme is for those who have registered in advance. If you meet people who are looking for orientation and connection, first think about how you can support them yourself. Any hacker can also spontaneously become a chaosmentor!
For people on their own: Please don’t send people who are already connected to the congress environment and don’t belong to a minority group to the Chaosmentors just because they are attending the congress for the first time. Become a Chaosmentor yourself and rediscover the congress together!
No tickets: We cannot provide tickets. Please only become a Chaosmentor or mentee if you also have a Congress ticket
Arrival: Please let us know when you plan to arrive to the Congress so that your Chaosmentor can already be present at this time.
Registration: You can register here

Looking forward to an amazing event!

the Chaosmentors

Designrelease: 37C3 looking great!

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Attention all web banner artists, flag printers, board designers and assembly decorators out there: the 37C3 design team has delivered and it’s turned out great! Browse through the design guide and breathe in the anticipation or try to figure out the rules of the design game yourself and let your notebooks, flashing lights and matte bottle holders shine in the official 37C3 design.

For 37C3, Robokid // Luis F. Masallera and Euler Void have thrown themselves into the fray and played and fiddled with the motto 37C3: Unlocked, giving us not only a beautiful logo and a visual space that invites you to play, but also a generator for your own images in the design of the event.

You can find the design guide here and the image generator here. If you need the font “Gabriella” by Argentinian designer Fernanda Cozzi for your own signs and documents, you can ask for it at our designer’s list. There’s also a fun set of pre-generated emojis and pictograms available.

And now over to you: Go, install the wallpaper, play and tinker and make our 37C3 colourful and beautiful.

Accessibility at 37C3

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

To answer questions regarding Accessibility at Congress:

In short:

Our venue, CCH, is accessible
simply bring your assistants to the entrance
Hidden Disabilities Badges and quiet hacking at QuietQube
Silent Room access and more Accessibility info at Helpdesk
Please: wear a mask, get tested, don’t come while infectious.

CCH recently got renovated. Therefore it has good barrier-free access. For instance: a tactile guide system, captions in braille, induction loops and modern toilets. All places will be wheelchair-accessible. Including stages.

More info on accessibility at the CCH website

Tickets and Assistants

If you need an assistant, they can get into the venue for free. Simply bring them and your ticket to the entrance. Please bring an official disabled ID card.

Ask 37c3-tickets@cccv.de if you need to bring an assistant but can’t provide an ID. Also, please inform us if you have multiple assistants taking turns.

If the ticket shop is not accessible to you, please reach out, too.

Important Places

QuietQube
The QuietQube is a quiet social place for everyone. It is meant for socialising, hacking and chilling. There are couches, desks and cozy seating. A Code of Conduct will help in case of conflicts.
Helpdesk
The Helpdesk at QuietQube will provide accessibility info. You can also get a Hidden Disabilities Badge.
Silent Room
The Silent Room is a place to rest. Helpdesk will guide you to it.
Infopages and Infodesk
Infodesk and Infopages can answer many questions about accessibility.

Awareness

The Awareness Team will support you if you have bad experiences at Congress.

Preventing Diseases

We expect all visitors to take care of each other. So we ask you to help us out:

If possible, please wear a mask.
Please get tested before joining the event.
If you have a cough, sniffle or diarrhoea, please stay at home.

Unfortunately, some people will not respect this. This is a risk you need to be aware of.

We currently don’t know if there will be free tests or masks.