34c3 on CCC Event Blog

#tuwat, make congress accessible for all creatures

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 22:19:37 +0000

Are you suffering from post-congress withdrawal? Do you want to watch congress talks but keep scrolling media.ccc.de, thinking “meh”?
#tuwat, watch talks and be a productive part of congress at the same time!
Our subtitling efforts continue between congresses, join us on c3subtitles.de and in our IRC channel #subtitles on hackint.org!

What’s there to do?

Creating subtitles comprises two phases: writing the transcript and mapping it to the video.
For the first phase you will need to correct an autogenerated transcript. If you would rather like to write a transcript from scratch, you are of course free to go ahead. When the transcript is finished, timestamps for the subtitles will be automatically generated. Then you watch the video with the subtitles playing along, adjust the timings where appropriate, and check the transcript in one single step.

Welcome to the team!

You need subtitles?

There is a talk which you would like to watch but can’t since it doesn’t have any subtitles yet?
Contact us! We will do our best to prioritise your preferred talk! Visit us in #subtitles on irc.hackint.org1 or send us a message via Twitter: @c3subtitles.

You’ll find the finished subtitles at

http://mirror.selfnet.de/c3subtitles/congress/34c3/.

Follow @c3srt_releases on Twitter to stay up to date!

[0] https://c3subtitles.de
1 https://webirc.hackint.org/#irc://hackint.org/#subtitles
2 https://wiki.c3subtitles.de/en:styleguide
3 https://wiki.c3subtitles.de/de:styleguide
[4] http://mirror.selfnet.de/c3subtitles/congress/

Translations at 34C3

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 21:58:35 +0000

TL;DR: Just like in previous years, a team of translation angels will be on hand to whisper simultaneous interpretations of all talks at 34C3 in your ear, starting right on day one. All German talks will be translated to English, and all English talks to German. There is a second translation stream in all four locations that we will use for various target languages – catch the heralds’ announcements for details. To listen to the translations, you will need a device with either a web browser, a generic audio stream player (such as VLC), or a Mumble client (“work in progress”). We cannot provide any transmission technology that is independent from the Internet this year, but we are working to make the IP-based technologies more immediate and reliable than in previous years. More details about receiving the translations are below. Bookmark https://streaming.c3lingo.org/ for all required pointers and updates. By the way, you can also join us.

Details:

With the continuing growth of the congress and the move to a new location, serving our translations via DECT is no longer feasible. We will have two distribution technologies this year – both new and hopefully accessible to everyone. Since this is the first year with the new system, there might still be some glitches, but we will do our best to make this transition as painless as possible.

You can listen to the translations at https://streaming.media.ccc.de/34c3_translated, kindly provided by the VOC. This is specifically optimised for listening in the lecture hall, minimising latency compared to the normal stream. You can listen directly in the browser or import the link to your VLC player on any device. Instructions for this will be made available on https://streaming.c3lingo.org/. Note that latency might be a tad higher due to technical constraints.
We are setting up a Mumble server. However this is “work in progress”. This server had very low latency in our tests. It can be found at mumble.c3lingo.org on the standard mumble port (64738). You can access this server on a mumble client of your choice, our recommended clients are listed at streaming.c3lingo.org. We have also set up a web client at https://mumble.c3lingo.org/ that allows you to use Mumble in your browser without specific Mumble software.
The Mumble channels are ordered according to hall name. We have two channels in each hall. The first channel is for the translation to English or German, the second channel is the optional translation to another language. The heralds will announce whether and which other language will be offered. We have configured the channels so that you will only be able to listen, not talk.

We will update https://streaming.c3lingo.org/ with recent information and pointers, so this is a good place for you to check at the beginning of each talk. As always, our translations are also available when streaming the talks off-site (at streaming.media.ccc.de) and when viewing the talks later (at media.ccc.de).

Since this is the first year we’re using Wi-Fi as our sole means of streaming our translations at the Congress site, please do let us know any issues, preferably via Twitter. (@c3lingo or hashtag #c3t) or via email to hello [at] c3lingo.org.

Assembly deliveries

Sun, 24 Dec 2017 20:48:50 +0000

Dear Assemblies,

the Congress is now right around the corner and you’re asking yourself how to best deliver your assembly equipment. Bringing things by car will be especially easy this year, as you can drive them right up to the gates of Hall 2.

This years procedure will look like this:

Use c3nav to find out where your assembly is located (search for the name and then click on “Details”) [currently c3nav is still WIP. If you can’t find your assembly right now, come back later. In urgent cases ask the assembly team.]
Look for the gate in hall 2 closest to your assembly.
Use the entrance “Tor 1 Süd” to enter the Messe grounds. Then you need to go all around the buildings to your gate for hall 2. (You have to drive past halls 1, 3, 5, over the bridge, then past hall 4 and to your gate in hall 2).
Once you’re at your gate please unload your stuff onto a pallet or cart (will be provided at the gates) as fast as possible and bring it to your assembly. Please relocate your car off the grounds once you’re done unloading.

Important: Starting on the 27th we’ll need the license plate number of every car that wants to enter. Otherwise the gatekeepers at the entrance won’t let you pass.

If you are bringing a car with a trailer, please consider that parking a trailer on the parking spots costs money. We are working on a solution, but we can’t promise anything right now. Please contact us, if you need a parking spot for your trailer so we can get an estimate on the numbers.

You can reach us by mail at 34c3@c3loc.de.

We are looking forward to seeing you all!

Your LOC

tu wat – GSM and UMTS will be ready

Sat, 23 Dec 2017 19:10:52 +0000

Good news everybody: There will be GSM at 34c3! We even have 5000 plain
white SIM cards available which will be distributed by the POC again,
for a small fee of 2€ per card. SIM cards from previous events will work
as well.

The GSM network will work on 1800 MHz (DCS-1800), so it should work with
all European and quad band phones.

Additionally to the GSM network, there will also be a UMTS (3G) network
on 850 MHz (Band 5). These frequencies are very common in US phones and
should also work a lot of modern high-end LTE (4G) phones. If you want
to be sure, please look it up for your specific device.

GSM is expected to be much more stable than UMTS, so if you want to be
reachable by voice/SMS you should set up your phone to prefer GSM
instead of UMTS.

This should be ready at day 1, probably earlier.

Phone infrastructure at 34C3

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 16:38:28 +0000

Needless to say, we will provide to you a phone infrastructure at Leipzig. Please do not forget to bring your DECT and mobile phone with you (and the correct charger, maybe even a headset if you have one). The congress is hosted in Leipzig for the first time, really the biggest congress location ever and maybe we have some unknown constraints. We are prepared for this big event with up to four system components (in Hamburg we had one) and up to 60 antennas (in Hamburg we had 45). We try our best to provide a comprehensive DECT network, but can’t promise because of the unknown building. If you want a fallback, register a SIP extension and use a SIP Client e.g. with your smartphone.

We apologize for the very long waiting times to register your DECT phone. Technically it is not possible to speed up or process in parallel, but we will try a new solution called PoC-Q. You can push a button and get a queue ticket. Via a website you can check your position in queue and the estimated waiting time. Hence you can use your valuable time with whatever you want instead of waiting in PoC Help-/ Registration desk line in the glass hall. If you want to find out if your DECT device is compatible with the POC-PBX, have a look on the DECT Phone Compatibility List in the Eventphone Wiki or send us a tweet (@eventphone).

What about mobile phone network (GSM/UMTS)? You can assume that there will be a GSM/UMTS Network but very experimental. The GSM team give everything to setup the mobile network, but we cannot estimate how big and which frequencies. At the PoC we will install a dashboard with the current network status and we push the important news via twitter. 5000 blank, unlabeled SIM Cards will be available and we sell them at the PoC (CCL Level 0) from 26.12.2017, 11:00 a.m. Update: You can reuse SIM-Cards from past chaos events.

DECT, SIP and GSM/UMTS extensions can be registered in the Generic User Registration Utility (Guru).

Call for Interpreters: Translate 34C3!

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 17:46:58 +0000

If you are multilingual and fluent in German and English, please consider joining the translation team.

We interpret ALL talks in the four main halls live. German talks are interpreted into English, and vice versa. Our work is transmitted live in the lecture halls, streamed to the Internet, and recordings are published on CCC sites and YouTube. Also, like last year, we will be having a second translation channel in the two largest halls (Saal A & B) transmitted the same way.

That is a lot of stuff to translate, and for that we need YOU. At Saal A & B, you have the chance to contribute in an even more special way if you can interpret into another interesting language (from English or German). So far, we focused on adding French language translations, but if your interest is elsewhere just let us know – especially if you can bring a few interpreters for the same target language along.

Don’t be shy. If you are uncertain whether you’re good enough, chances are that you’ll do just fine. If we believe you might be struggling, we will talk it over, no harm done.

Simply send an email to “translate-subscribe(at)lists.ccc.de” and write a quick intro to the mailing list after you’ve completed subscribing. Also sign up as a translation angel at the Engelsystem. Most importantly, come to one of our meetings.

So please, take this chance and help us bring C3 to an even wider international audience.

For more information, you can contact us on Twitter at @c3lingo and #c3t, or via mail to translate(at)lists.ccc.de (after subscribing).

See (and possibly hear) you at 34C3!

Self-organized Sessions forms are opening on WED DEC 20th, 9 PM CET

Mon, 18 Dec 2017 22:18:29 +0000

Many of you have been patiently asking for this: Finally we’ll have the wiki forms ready for you to enter your self-organized sessions on Wednesday, 9 PM CET. That way you’ll wide up the topics and the program of 34C3 and contribute your bit to a divers and versatile congress!

With the move to Leipzig come some changes: The CCL has fewer rooms than the CCH so we needed something new. Thus we created the concept of “clusters” with stages. This year there are a number of clusters, each one committed to one or two topics. Each cluster has at least one stage, some have more. They often have their own Call-for-Papers to fill their stage with sessions related to their topic, but their stages are also open for you. Please check the corresponding assembly-pages for this and check with them before you enter your session on their stage.

As in the last years, the self-organized sessions offer a chance to tell what you have to say besides the official program in the main halls. Self-organized Sessions offer you a chance to present a topic that is dear to you with a less strict time limit than the lightning talks. They also offer more freedom in the form in which you present, be it a classic talk, a hands on workshop or a show of your new creation. We wrote about this in an earlier blog post in detail.

We’re looking forward to your sessions!

BUILD-UP

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 08:32:34 +0000

Dear Angels,

Below are some important details for the 34C3 Buildup.
Please read them carefully.

Buildup Angel

Similar to the 34C3 it self, buildup and teardown only work thanks to the heroic effort and participation of countless volunteers. Warm thanks to everyone who helps to bring Congress to Leipzig, we very much appreciate every bit of help.
Even though buildup nominally starts on the 16.12. true parallelization does not take hold until the 18.12.. Before that we need some time to boot and warm up ourselves. For this reason our suggestion (especially to non-local volunteers) is to have a relaxed weekend partying in leipzig or get some (probably much needed) sleep in advance, there will be more than enough work to do from the 18. to 26..

Times for the buildup:
8:00 to 24:00

Closed footwear (preferably hard-toed / German “S1 Sicherheitsschuh”)
Working gloves. (You don’t _need_ to bring them, but they’re nice to have)
Warm clothing. Empty exhibition halls tend to be cold.

NOTE: We will not be able to provide you with a ticket and/or sleeping place. It is also not possible to sleep in the exhibition hall.

Assemblybuildup

If you plan to bring, or construct big things for your assembly, please be aware that this needs to happen before the 26th and that you have to have to run it past the assembly team. The usual Assembly buildup will start on Dec. 26th. If possible please arrange deliveries for the 26th onwards only. More information on Assembly buildup will follow in a separate post soon.

We’re looking forward to have an awesome 34C3 with you.

Your Logistic Team

Be a part of 34C3: Become an Angel in our System!

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 22:24:29 +0000

If you asked yourself: How can a chaotic hacker event like the Chaos Communication Congress run so smoothly for so many years when nobody gets paid for anything? We would like to explain and also ask for your help.

We call all our volunteers „Angels“. They normally carry a badge, and they are the backbone of everything. They are cleaning, filling the stomachs, providing high quality videos, and answering your questions all day long.

Last year more than 2.500 Angels helped to run the Congress with 12.500 visitors. The number of participants who register as Angels has grown over the years. And we would like to keep it that way. We don’t know yet, due to still shifting requirements, how many Angels we will need. But be sure to register if you want to find out.

This year’s Congress will take place in a new location in Leipzig and will have even more visitors. This means: We cannot know yet all possible new tasks that a new building and location will generate. But at the same time, we want to keep our way in organizing the event which is run entirely by volunteers. This can only work, if you consider being an active part in it.

Being an Angel does not only mean work, it is also an unique way to get to know the inner workings of the Congress, to meet hilarious and interesting like-minded people and to feel really as a part of the crowd. And you will go to „Heaven“ as we call the epicenter of coordination for all Angels. Heaven will always find a task and a co-angel to work with for you.

Really, #tuwat!

Picture: kambor-wiesenberg, CC BY 2.0.

Assemblies – it’s about time!

Sat, 04 Nov 2017 05:02:23 +0000

tl;dr register your assembly asap

We’ll have a huge chunk of an exhibition hall for the Assemblies with nearly three times the space as there was in Hamburg. To transform a faceless and boring exhibition hall into a cosy, hacky, welcoming and inspirational place, we need you!

Over the last years the concept of Assemblies was constantly evolving and changing. With our move to Leipzig, there are new challenges and opportunities. In this huge space, Assemblies, people and groups will gather around different subjects, interests and competences. These will be represented by “Chaos Competence Centers.”

A Chaos Competence Center is a structure very much like a village at Chaos Communication Camps: The usual Chaos where Assemblies blend into each other and everyone cares.

Chaos Competence Centers can provide stages, workshop spaces, shared areas and cosy places to talk, discuss or chill, and much more – only your imagination is the limit! For a start, some bigger groups went ahead to form Chaos Competence Centers. They evolve around a subject, but are by no means limited to it:
“The Hive” will gather machines that fabricate anything out of digital bits and real materials; “Chaos West” will gather all objects that move over the floor, they even have a huge test track for your motorized couch; Freifunk will be bigger than ever – expect many more Chaos Competence Centers!

If your assembly covers similar topics and interests as one of the existing Chaos Competence Centers, please attach and join! Also, please feel free to create your own Chaos Competence Center and let gravity do its work to catch more assemblies, we’re curious!

Besides these Chaos Competence Centers, there will be a lot of space for your very own ideas and projects; have fun and let others participate in what you’re doing!

Certainly we’ll provide some tables and chairs “as usual” for all Assemblies who don’t want or can’t build big infrastructures and focus more on meet-up and work together on projects.

Due to the fact that this year all the assemblies will be sharing one big hall, there will be some challenges: light and noise. So if you plan to bring very bright or very noisy stuff, please keep in mind that there will be a couple of thousand people in the same room with you!

Leave the floodlights and Disco PAs at home, think about low ambient light design or table-spot-lights for hardware-hacking and be creative about noise pollution – you might also try concepts such as “silent disco”, DECT, rad1o or FM transmitted talks/workshops. Be prepared not to run your loud machines while your neighbors wanna run a workshop or host a talk. Dampening noise and blocking light pollution can also be accomplished by creating walls – from fabric or other materials; be creative! Transforming this huge hall into a maze of cozy corners is our quest for this year’s congress!

**We can’t wait to see the huge space busy and full – also we’re curious to see your living room, workshop and hackspace on this empty field.

So now it’s up to you: Register your Assembly now, tell us what you want to bring, build and do!

34C3 Tickets: Status and Open Sale

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 09:24:27 +0000

Since August, the first tickets for 34C3 can be bought using a voucher. This voucher phase will continue until October, 15th 2017 or until the ticket quota assigned for this phase is empty. At this point, all issued vouchers will be invalid with the exception of Angel vouchers which are valid until November, 15th 2017.

After the end of the first phase, we will open the ticket shop to everyone interested. To distribute chances to buy a ticket more fairly, we will distribute the remaining tickets into three quotas on three dates:

Thursday, 2017-10-19 20:00 CEST,
Sunday, 2017-10-29 15:00 CET (attention: end of daylight saving time!),
Tuesday, 2017-11-21 11:00 CET.

The ticket prices are available at https://tickets.events.ccc.de/34c3/. Our FAQ at https://tickets.events.ccc.de/34c3/page/faq/ should answer most questions.

We will put all available tickets on sale on those three dates. Therefore, there will be no ticket sale on site, provided that the presale tickets will be sold out.

The whole process of the presale is explained in more detail at https://tickets.events.ccc.de/34c3/docs/.
The ticket team is happy to answer any questions not answered by the FAQ at 34c3-tickets@cccv.de.

34C3 Presale

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 18:36:51 +0000

It’s that time of the year again – we’re opening the presale for this year’s Chaos Communication Congress!

Again, there will be two phases, with the first one starting today.
During the first phase, we’d like to invite the core of our community to participate in the presale.
It will end as soon as no more tickets are left in the pool for this phase, but by 2017-10-15 at the latest.

During the second phase we’ll open the presale to everybody on a number of pre-announced time slots. We’ll announce these open presale dates at least two weeks ahead of time on this site.

We’ll offer all tickets for presale. Im case they don’t sell out, we’ll offer the rest on-site in Leipzig. We’ll tell you until 2017-12-20 whether this is going to be the case or not.

Planning an event of this scale at a new location comes with many uncertainties. As best as we could, we have calculated the average price necessary to make 34C3 pay for itself – you’ll find details and a chart plotting the average ticket price of currently sold tickets at tickets.events.ccc.de/.
If you are able to support us, please do!

You can find a more detailed explanation of the presale phases and the voucher system at tickets.events.ccc.de/34c3/docs/. If you have any questions, please refer to the FAQ at tickets.events.ccc.de/34c3/page/faq or contact us at 34c3-tickets@cccv.de.

See you in December!
The 34C3 presale team

Chaos Communication Congress moves to Leipzig

Sat, 13 May 2017 13:29:22 +0000

The 34th iteration of the annual Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) will again take place in December, but at a new location: the congress and convention center in Leipzig. Congress had to find a new home because its former venue, the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH), will be undergoing a general makeover. The new venue in Leipzig will provide participants much more space to tinker with.

The CCH was home to the Congress since 2012. Over the years, we developed a strong friendship with the team on site, so we’re sad we have to leave.

Finding a new location was not easy. The large number of participants combined with special demands regarding technology, lecture halls, workshop spaces – as well as areas to party and hang out – pose a challenge to any convention center in Germany. Even the CCH would not have been able to accommodate any more than last year’s 12.000 participants. „We’re not trying to grow at all costs, but expanding our cultural reach is very important to us. It’s always painful to be forced to reject more and more interested people at the door each year,“ explained Dirk Engling, CCC spokesperson.

With access not only to the main Congress Center Leipzig, but also to parts of the neighbouring convention halls, the CCC is confident to find the balance between a potential for moderate growth and a chance to maintain the event’s unique atmosphere. „Everything is on track for smooth cooperation, Dirk Engling said about the team in Leipzig. „After all, that city can look back on over 850 years of tradition hosting trade fairs.

As usual, the gates will be open for participants on December 27th. Despite the challenges of moving to a new location, our goal is to keep ticket prices stable. And of course, we’ll continue to resist commercialization. On one hand, the new location offers more space for some more participants. On the other, we’re going to need to depend more than ever on the solidarity of our community: By purchasing supporter tickets, one can directly enable others to attend at affordable rates. Just as last year, we’re aiming for a large black zero in profit. The start of presale is going to be announced at CCC’s events blog at https://events.ccc.de/.

Planning content for the 34C3 has already begun, and there will be a launch of the call for participation soon. „Hacker assemblies in the ‚Hackcenter‘ will be organized this year mainly around themes and interests rather by region. This should encourage even more interregional and international exchange between the communities, Dirk Engling explained. „And of couse, we’ll make every effort to tame the convention hall’s atmosphere and make it as cosy as our participants have come to expect over 33 years of congress history.“