This event series has a great long history in Europe. It all started with "The Galactic Hacker Party" in 1989, followed by "Hacking at the End of the Universe" in 1993, "Hacking In Progress" in 1997 and later "Hackers At Large" in 2001, and "What the Hack" in 2005 - the previous one was called Hacking At Random and was held in 2009.
They are all held in The Netherlands - with four years in between each event. They usually get a three letter abbreviation (GHP, HEU, HIP, HAL, WTH, HAR).
There is a related event held in Germany, also every fourth year - but amusingly two years apart from the event in The Netherlands by the Chaos Computing Club.
If you're an North American and this seems interesting - I'd recommend that you check with "Hackers on a Plane" and see if they'll arrange a trip - like they've done previously from The States over to Europe.
It would also be good to point out that they owe a ton to Rop Gonggrijp, co-founder of the dutch ISP xs4all (one of the first ISPs in the world) and his publication hack-tic.
There is a related event held in Germany, also every fourth year - but amusingly two years apart from the event in The Netherlands by the Chaos Computing Club.
I can say it's like UEFA European Championship and FIFA World Cup for Football (Soccer) :D
Actually, for many years in between the Dutch and German hacker camps, meaning every 2 years, there is Eth0 in the north of the Netherlands. http://eth0.nl/
They have a yearly 'winterlan' weekend as well.
"Can I buy a budget ticket?
The budget ticket is an experiment, calling on common-sense of all potential attendees. The goal is a more fair distribution of discounted tickets, instead of the arbitrary distribution based on the moment a ticket is sold. There are no income-checks, instead the experiment relies on the fairness of the individual. Those considering the budget option should really consider carefully: "Can I really not afford the normal ticket, or am I taking the chance for some of my fellow hackers for attending by just being cheap?". A tough call, but do remember: there is only a set percentage and each budget ticket sold means there is one less in the overall pool."
Seriously considering going (with a normal ticket :)).
I'm speaking at this one, doing an extended remix of the "does it make any sense to run Free Software on hardware produced by Chinese prison labour?" (paraphrase) talk I did at the Athens Hackerspace in Greece.
They are all held in The Netherlands - with four years in between each event. They usually get a three letter abbreviation (GHP, HEU, HIP, HAL, WTH, HAR).
There is a related event held in Germany, also every fourth year - but amusingly two years apart from the event in The Netherlands by the Chaos Computing Club.
If you're an North American and this seems interesting - I'd recommend that you check with "Hackers on a Plane" and see if they'll arrange a trip - like they've done previously from The States over to Europe.