Runs on open source. Srsly.

There’s very little hiding from participants at the 25C3. They’re even working hard to shed much needed light and openness on something most of us use every day—our mobile phones!

There’s a lot of activity surrounding GSM—the Global System for Mobile communications at the 25C3. While GSM is a well documented standard used by most of the world’s mobile phones, the hardware and software it runs on are largely hidden from public view.

“Nonetheless, in recent years there are a number of different projects working on driving a wedge of openness into this …

It’s time to glam up your lecture-descriptions!

Starting this year, every lecture’s long description will be printed in the Congress’ Proceedings. This was decided in the very last days.
So please try to enhance the abstract and description of your lecture in the particular Pentabarf-Record until:

 Tomorrow, Sunday, 17:23:42 UTC

 (9am PST; 12pm EST; 20pm MSK // 1am CNST; 3am AEST)

The long-description may even be one or two pages long, especially if you don’t submit a paper. Even your short-bio and, if given, a public photo will be printed.

If you are about to make a lightning-talk about your …

Oh look! Cupcakes!

the Paris Hilton of mobile phones” in a recent market study: all buzz, no value. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that it also makes quite a challenge for hackers: maybe it’s not the Holy Grail, but definitely some Candy Mountain to conquer. Why hack it? Because it’s there! And because Apple doesn’t exactly make it easy to use that device in ways you as a hacker may want to use it, e.g. installing stuff that doesn’t come out of their application store or using it with a phone provider other than whoever is the monopolist in …

“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly – in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances – the internet, and cryptography – the risks of …

“Everyone needs to be prepared. The speakers, the moderators and even the audience. The speakers must know what they really want to say, the moderators must ensure a quick change between speakers and they need to set everything up so there’s no pause … the audience must be willing to listen and to forgive possible errors.”

Do you have something to say at the 25C3? Can you say it in 5 minutes or less? Give a lightning talk! These speaker-driven, self organizing collections of short presentations are a great way to get a quick taste of a lot of wonderful topics usually hidden from mainstream …

Christian Heller aka plomlompom self-identifies as an identity and meme machine currently living the future in Berlin so you don’t have to.

His talk Embracing Post-Privacy: Optimism towards a future where there is “Nothing to hide” ponders opportunities of a world we might live in all too soon. The loss of privacy we decry now may very well transform into something very utopian: A society where the borders of “public” and “private” life are blurring and human identity itself must be redefined.

Born and raised in East Berlin, Christian’s life as a media person started early when he became a …

_“Once upon a time, there were two young hackers attending HAL. They brought along their phone switch. As occupants of neighboring tents realized they could participate in yet another means of communication, the phone network expanded rapidly.

Whoever thought hackers were socially isolated nerds would have been contradicted instantly at this point. From here on, numerous European hacker gatherings have benefited from a reliable phone network, both for fun and event organization.”

How can you stay in contact with your friends at the 25C3? Get in touch with a project or workshop? Call back …

The congress is a truly interactive event. You don’t attend the congress, you experience it. Everyone who attends can do something to make it an incredible experience. You can host a workshop, help volunteer, trade knowledge in the Hackcenter or jump into an insanely cool conversation in the Hideout Lounge. Even though we’re still a few weeks out, there are lots of ways you can participate before the congress to make it truly epic!

The 25C3 is expected to have an unprecedented number of attendees who have never been to Berlin, Germany or even Europe! Berliners and congress veterans, we need …

“The first time I found my father’s porn I was trying to read his back issues of Mother Earth News. One day I did this while my mother was doing laundry…I was eight or nine years old.”

Rose White wants to find your porn stash. She is trying to unearth how we collect, store, organize (and hide) our collections, asking what these troves say about us.

“I think I was born a little socially miswired. I never quite understood why there should be anything wrong with talking about sex. In fourth grade I got in trouble at school for explaining to the other kids how human reproduction worked. I read it …

Looking at the schedule, you can see the 25C3 has an incredible lineup of talks on a wide range of topics from wearable computing to preserving fictional former Soviet Republics. (Yes, there’s even a talk on pornography.)

Yet talks are hardly the only thing going on at the 25C3. In addition to wonderful displays of Art & Beauty, there’s going to be lots of making going on! At the 25C3, everyone from soldering masters to hardware hacking virgins will be able to build projects of all shapes, sizes and complexity.

Even if you’ve never touched a soldering iron, you can drop by the Hardware …

There is yet another update on the conference talks schedule. Check it out.

Do you really have nothing to hide? Prove it.

CCC Sputnik, SocioPatterns.org, and the OpenAMD project from 2600‘s The Last Hope are teaming up to provide a real mass surveillance experience at the 25C3. What are the problems and possibilities behind these panopticon dreams of certain politicians? For only 10 EUR you can find out!

Using RFID technology, congress attendees can elect to participate in a massive human tracking network. Building on the success of previous efforts with Sputnik at 24c3, and at the 2007 CCC camp, this year’s project will use advanced visualization to allow you to see …