Last week’s Chaos Communication Camp is kinda a big deal: 6,000 hackers all out in a field all need power, food, drink, networking, and of course, sewage in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, plus video services on multiple simultaneous stages, custom phone infrastructure, a postal service, and even a diesel train. How is that even possible to run with only volunteers? How do they even know how to run something this scale?
My wife asked me this question while we were driving up to Berlin, and the answer is of course the same as it is to “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” Practice.
But it’s not just practice. It’s also passing down the lessons learned to the next generation, making procedures that are not 100% dependent on the people doing the jobs, but can be passed on to the next volunteer willing to pick up the torch.
And then I was interviewing [Jens Ohlig] and [Mitch Altman] about the early days of the second wave hackerspaces in America for the podcast. (Some great interviews – go check it out!) The central story there is essentially the same: the critical missing ingredient that lead to the blossoming of US hackerspaces was simply a set of instructions and design principles – drawing on the experience of established hackerspaces.
Sharing information is a fundamental cornerstone of the hacker ethic, and it gives the next hacker a leg up. Contributes to the global hive mind. And it makes things possible that would otherwise seem impossible. Pushing the hacker state-of-the-art is what Hackaday is all about, and we’re used to thinking of it in terms of a particular microcontroller library, but seeing how the same sharing makes impossible logistics possible was inspirational. Don’t be afraid to start small and iterate – and take good notes.
Human nature includes people that want to have the power and glory in the recognition of others. Your essay shows the folly of putting oneself in a position that excludes cooperation. I would fall into such a trap if given that kind of authority. It is much more fulfilling (for me) to be part of a team that accomplishes far greater than what I can do buy myself.
/buy/by/s
My kingdom for an edit button!
> How Do They Do That?
> How is that even possible to run with only volunteers?
To answer the question this article asks but doesn’t answer at all, here are some links:
– Power https://media.ccc.de/v/Camp2019-10397-c3power_monitoring_cccamp_19 (German only, no subs)
– Telephone https://media.ccc.de/v/eh19-179-das-neue-eventphone-poc-telefonsystem (German only, no subs)
– https://media.ccc.de/search/?q=infrastructure+review (<- plenty of overviews of different events)
– CCC Video Operation Center https://c3voc.de/
– https://hackaday.com/2019/08/30/cccamp-5000-hackers-out-standing-in-their-field/#communication
– https://eventphone.de/blog/
– https://c3post.de/
– https://media.ccc.de/v/gpn21-45-solarversorgung-auf-open-air-chaos-events-und-macht-das-berhaupt-sinn-
Thank you!
2023 version of Network Operation Center describing how it’s done:
https://media.ccc.de/v/camp2023-teams-noc
> How Do They Do That?
> How is that even possible to run with only volunteers?
To answer the question this article asks but doesn’t answer at all, here are some links:
— well I’d like to post some links but it seems replies with them get eaten by spam protection or whatever WITHOUT ANY FEEDBACK to the poster, which is really annoying. —
They go through arbitrarily. Someone behind the curtain decides whether they like it.
Also, they sometimes go through the comments retroactively after a week or two and erase whole chains of messages to “sanitize” the discussion. Keeps the people happy not knowing they’re getting censored.
Internet has never been about permanence.
You obviously figured out how to make links work! (See above.)
Care to let us know what the problem / solution was? I’m sure many other folks are interested.
…Never had any problem posting a link on HAD (oh, uh, you do have to know the URL; that might be a small problem).
Here’s an example for you—
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-and-tesla-syndrome-explains-why-tech-is-making-us-miserable
Did you have any problems?
“sewage in the middle of nowhere” ….. YIKES !!!!! …. Surely they’d have it taken away rather than sprawling around all over the place?
Yes they take care of it :)
Germany, Cartman’s mom etc.
Also: ‘Berlin’ is right in TFA.
Berliners: (minimum two) 1. Pervert (NYC standards, not just Colorado Springs perv), 2. Drunk, 3. Drug addict, 4. Disco/EDM.
““sewage in the middle of nowhere” ….. YIKES !!!!!”
Our local septic pumpers (actually vacuumers) dump the load in farmer’s fields. The farmers request the additional “fertilizer”.
Well treated then dumped, and yes it can be rather fragrant.
Not quite how to run a camp, but the philosophy of how to hand down how-tos and maintain operational continuity through a changing roster of volunteers is similar to how to run a successful makerspace.
Dale Grover and Tom Groot have managed to keep the Ann Arbor Makerworks running for more than a decade, and have written an excellent book on how to manage an operation like that: The Intentional Makerspace: Operations Highly recommended. Available from the usual ubiquitous online bookseller.
A brief description:
https://www.maker-works.com/operations-book
Thanks Ren. Great link.
Dale and Tom and Josh (who runs the place) are a uniquely great bunch of guys. Ann Arbor is lucky to have them.
Y’all hear there’s going to be a Fyre Festival 2?