TL;DR: Please set up a congress everywhere near you, invite your neighbors and take part in C.H.A.O.S.!

Remember when we met in Berlin at the bcc? The 25C3 was when we first stuck those pesky signs on the door that read “Sold out, we’re sorry”. The building was already incredibly packed and we couldn’t let anyone in anymore. This inspired the concept of “congress everywhere” which debuted at the 26C3. The theme of that congress was “Here be Dragons”, so the idea to expand the fun of the congress beyond the bcc was called “Dragons everywhere”.

But what was this notion of “congress everywhere”? …

TL;DR: Please get to the CCH by 25th/26th with your assembly setup if possible

Beat the crowds and start building your assembly on the 25th! (Day -1). It makes loading so much easier for all of us and gives you time to make sure you have everything you need. Why get stuck in traffic around and inside the building? If you arrive early enough on the 25th, you may even be able to drive right into the unloading hall!

If you’re unloading a vehicle with equipment or other stuff you plan to use at the 30C3, put <a …

We of the “Chaoswelle“, the Amateur Radio operators of the Chaos Computer Club and our 30C3 assembly are bringing a very special piece of hardware: A Radome!  We plan to place it on the roof of the CCH. But we won’t tell you what’s hidden underneath.

The radome is about 4 Meters (13 ft.) in diameter and was formerly used by the US to listen to “hostile neighboring countries”. Today, it belongs to the Stakenburg Observatory who is graciously loaning it to us for the 30C3.

Dear Congress Visitors!

You’re tired of running around the Congress on the Schnitzeljagd (sounds like it’s fun!) or didn’t get a place? You’re like knocking your head on problems? Then we might offer something interesting for you!

Grab a few friends and join our capture the flag competition. These so called CTFs are hacking competitions in which participants solve various challenges – all based around gaining access to remote machines by exploiting vulnerable binaries, solving mathematical problems and completing various other tasks. This CTF will be run in “Jeopardy” style, i.e. challenges …

Angels are the voluntary auxiliary carbon compounds making the whole congress possible. They run everything: introduction of speakers, audio/video streams and recordings, data, electricity and phone networks, bars, and even emergency services.

What makes being an angel so special, you may wonder. Let us answer this with a question: Are you able to run an event with thousands of visitors, creative minds, eager to discuss, explore and most of all: create?

Join the angels and find out! Doing so, you will join a community as old as the Congress itself. Since the very first Congress in 1984, …

For the 30C3 we have designed a scavenger hunt for hackers and geeks. You will be challenged with puzzles and tasks including writing code, printing 3D objects, solving riddles and much, much more… The hunt will take place on the second day of the congress (28th of December) from 2pm to around 8pm and is made for about 10 teams competing with each other. A team should consist of 3 to 6 members. All you need is a computer, a twitter and email account and a blog of your choice (soup, tumblr, etc.) for documentation purposes.

If you like challenging riddles and games, write to info (at) …

German summary: Unbedingt Mehrfachsteckdosen mitbringen! Außerdem: Cat5-Kabel, Lampen für Eure Assembly, Telefone, Werkzeug, etc…

Distributing power on 30C3 requires a lot of planning and effort, and of course a truckload of equipment. This year the setup consists of 5 kilometers (km) of CEE compliant three-phase and 8km of 230V/16A power cabling, resulting in a total of 13km of cables needed to distribute power at the venue. To connect all the cables there are also about 100 three-phase distributors needed, 25 of them being “big” ones with 63 amperes. On top of this power backbone we will …

You have children and attend 30C3?

This year we plan to have a big area of the Congress as a Kidspace, to give children of three years of age and up the chance to age-appropriately participate in the Congress. We have enough space in two big foyers to allow for a quiet space on one hand, and a more playful area on the other. The quiet one allows for relaxing with your children and to refuel with a power-nap. The playful area invites to play around, build caves, listen to radioplays on the Audiobox and have hands-on experience in child-appropriate electronics- or tinkerworkshops. And of course …

To all those interested in participating at the Congress for the first time

You are interested in technology, computers or net politics? However, you doubt whether you would fit into the Chaos Communication Congress, since you are neither a programmer nor an experienced hacker? But yet, you would love to learn about hacking, soldering, encryption, lockpicking or robots? 

Then you are more than welcome at the Chaos Communication Congress! We are convinced that this is just the right place for you and would like to encourage you to attend 30C3. Therefore we founded the Chaos Mentors. Feel free …

An assembly is your place at 30C3, the /home of a group of people belonging together, hackers who like to work and hang out. At bcc we had such groups around projects, but last year we invented the concept of assemblies as an experiment, that worked out great!

(Picture of assembly: maltman23)

You find background on the idea of assemblies in last years blogpost on this topic. In sum it is like the villages in the camp: Bring your toys and tools, show your projects and work on them, and just have fun – and let others participate in what you’re doing! Write a nice wikipage on your assembly, give …

Symbolbild à la Bahn: Hacker auf dem Weg zum Congress

As in previous years, the German railway company …