Hackers on Planet Earth, HOPE, is a bi-yearly, very non-corporate conference that can't really be summed up. You kinda just have to attend it to understand what it is. I was privileged to attend HOPE XV this year (2024), and will do my best to attend the rest of them. What follows is an orderless recount of just some of my experiences at HOPE XV. Maybe it will inspire you to consider attending.
- I assembled a super fun, interactive badge that we were given as part of our registration.
- I met some EFF reps IRL that I otherwise have only received membership e-mails from. It was great to put faces to names!
- I had a meaningful conversation about the fediverse, and had the opportunity to pitch how its interop minimizes lock-in for communities looking to migrate off other platforms. People knew what I was talking about. It was wonderful.
- CryptoHarlem talked about hacktivism and introduced me up to tools and services that can keep me safe when demonstrating.
- Multiple talks about AI explored what the technology could mean for the future. Spoiler alert: there are many realities in the post-AI multiverse. Let's be loud about the directions we want to take it so it doesn't take us!
- An impressively passionate artist/engineer, Ed Bear, led us through a night-time workshop of reinvigorating the Griffin iTrip, an iPod Nano accessory, from 2005. We took a tour through the myriad of human experiences that led to the iTrip's existence - the slave labor that mined some of the material fundamental to the components, the care and dedication of assembly, the design decisions made to minimize the manufacturing costs. The whole story behind why, by chance, this OEM-locked device can be reflashed and unlocked to give it a new life and avoid the dumpster.
- A performance artist inspired me to tell make my own story; that maybe that story, if I tell it enough, can effect change.
- Jason Scott told me, profoundly, to make the effort to show up. And if he didn't say it wearing a top hat, it might not have meant so much.
- All conference long, there was a lock pick village. Anyone, at any time, could grab an open seat and pick one of the many locks on the table. I picked one. It was awesome!
- And if the experience wasn't enough already, Cory Doctorow gave the keynote speech on enshittification. It was extraordinary, delivered with passion, charisma, and apparently effortless clarity.
HOPE was a place where technology and the internet felt new again. The future felt unwritten, and like it might actually be ours to decide (and not the property of the tech bros). The 2600 community today has the same vibe I found in print when I picked up my first copy in 2002. I waited too long to attend my first HOPE, but better late than never. I am on the edge of my seat for the next one in 2026.