Last year, thanks to a felicitous intuition by @Nadia, a bunch of us decamped to Hamburg to participate in 31C3. 31C3 denotes the 31st issue of 3C, aka CCC, aka Chaos Communication Congress, the oldest and most revered hacker gathering in Europe. The friendly people at Chaos Computer Club, who every year make the effort to set up the event, have a cool institution called assemblies, a simple way to make yourself findable at the conference. So, last year we set up an Edgeryders assembly at 31C3, partnering up with the fabulous Food Hacking Base.
It was great fun, especially for newbies like myself who were at their first CCC (read my wide-eyed report if you need any proof). So, we are doing it again. As a gift to the community, we have reserved two bedrooms with five beds each at Generator Hostel Hamburg, check in on December 27th (the first day of 32C3) and check out on December 30th (the last day). Breakfast is included. You can have these beds free of charge. You will still have to travel to Hamburg, and get your own ticket, though!
If you want to reserve one of those beds, get in touch with me, I will be dealing with the hostel and take care of the rooming list. They come with no strings attached, but we might feel like doing something together, just for the hell of it and to give something back to the CCC community. We will re-use last year’s group as a coordination space. Can’t wait!
EDIT 26th November 2015 – free beds increased to 12, all claimed. More
Guess what one of the topics this year is? #failosophy
By now no one can have missed the fact that this year’s edition of our annual event is about failures. Would be great if people would write thier own invitation https://edgeryders.eu/en/lote5/task-5539
Look forward to joining you & up for creating in situ. As I’m new here  – I’m happy to give up my space if there’s a more longstanding Edgeryder who needs a bed
That’s very generous of you Kate. I’m not coming, so I wanted to welcome you ahead. Nice to meet you and thanks for your Tedx talk, I picked it up from your website and just watched it. If you want to connect with fellow artists on Edgeryders working at the intersection of disciplines, you might want to get in touch with Helen Kaplinsky or Kat Austen, both of whom we met at last year’s Edgeryders event in Italy, before ccc. Last I heard they were working in the UK too.
So, I’ve been thinking a bit about what we could do once we get there. Based on the experiences from last year, it seems to me that:
We should commit to "loose and fast". Since Edgeryders has an "in situ" culture, which simply clashes with the CCC way of planning sessions and workshops. On top of that, there might not even be a food-hacking base to latch onto. I propose that, instead of trying to force ourselves to pre-plan everything, we ask for an open space to run "in situ" stuff. Failing that, I would suggest we think of ways of organising activities in "unplanned" spaces. Think picnic in the hallway, mini-stage-performances/talks during the breaks, etc. Hacking the hackers, so to say. Yes, the Germans will probably flip their shit a bit, but if we're nice about it, we'll all survive, no?
Communicating "where we do what" is a challenge both in-group as towards the rest of 32c3, especially if we commit to doing "ad hoc" activities. I'm thinking having only one channel where we keep all communication could be beneficial, so we can point everyone to the one and only "true source of truth". Not sure what would serve this role best though. Digital/non-digital? Our own or 32c3 (wiki) tools?
Content-wise, I'm thinking of focusing on fun, process-oriented activities, rather than specific topics. I definitely had fun organising Agape meals and there's so much more like that. Joe Edelman (who ran one of the Agape tables) made a fantastic overview of ideas here:Â http://nxhx.org/societies/
I know at least half a dozen other things we could do. We could organise “guided tours” to specific talks, with before/after workshops, etc etc.
Overall, I think bringing a heavy dose of humanity, combined with expertise in “spontaneous organisation” would be best suitable for being present as Edgeryders. Obviously this is not something I can do by myself, so the question is: anyone out there willing to truly commit to this? I think running one activity per day per Edgeryder is more or less the baseline for having some consistency.
Wow, I’m impressed by how many people is joining 32c3. Last year my participation was a last-minute choice, that maybe is still developing its effects!
So… I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend this year’s edition, but what I can guarantee is to support 2 more places at the hostel.
Because I’m sure that whoever will participate will be able to return to the community all of the amazing stuff available at 32c3, and more!
Thanks @Nadia - will connect with the UK folk - server error prevents me from dong it currently, but will try again.Â
@Thomas_Goorden - Fun, process-oriented activities & spontaneous organisation - yes! Happy to commit energy to this. I’ve never been to the meeting before so it’s hard to know what’s needed. Will follow discussions online over next weeks & do some research. Want to make time to listen - I’m up for a useful flow between listening / learning / creatively responding.
Hi all, I am buying my train tickets to Hamburg. I am planning to take a train on December 26 in the evening and to arrive at destination the day after. Does anyone want to join me? Do you know if there are better options?
