cdn.media.ccc.de/.../36c3-10875-eng-Hack_Curio.mp4

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Herald: Two speakers, that are on stage
today are both anthropologists and they

are both experts on hacking culture. Today
also, they launched a website HackCur.io.

And which is also the name of the talk
'hack_curio, decoding the Cultures of

Hacking'. One video at a time. I welcome
Gabriella, a.k.a. Biella Coleman and

Paula Bialski.

Applause

Paula Belsky : Hello. Hello. Yes, good
evening. CCC is so lovely to be here. We

are super excited to stand before you here
today and present a project we've been

working on for the past year or so.

Biella: Would not have been
finished if it were not for

this talk. Paula: Exactly. Biella: So thank you.

Paula: Exactly.
Thanks for forcing us to stand before you

and get away from our desks. Here's a
drink, some wine, have some 11:30 PM

discussion with you and there's no
better place to launch the project that

we're gonna show you then at the CCC. So
we're super excited to be here. Let's

start with the very basics. What is
hack_curio? What is it that you guys are

gonna see in the next hour or so?
Hack_curio is a web shot site featuring

short video clips all related to computer
hackers. Now a bit a bit of background. My

name is Paula Bialski and I am a
sociologist. I'm an ethnographer of hacker

cultures. I study corporate hacker
developers. And for those of you who don't

know Biella Coleman.
Biella: I'm an anthropologist.

I also study computer hackers. And we,
along with Chris Kelty, have helped to put

this Website together.
Paula: Exactly. And in

the past year, we've decided to come
together and bring all sorts of clips from

public talks, from documentaries, from
Hollywood films, mems, advertising, all

sorts of sources. We've brought together
these videos that also come together

short descriptions by authors, by
scholars, by journalists, by people who

know something about hacker cultures. And
we brought that together all in one place.

So call it a museum, call it a compendium,
call it a web site. And it's a place for

you to really pay homage to you guys,
because hackers come in all shapes and

sizes. What it means to hack, might mean
something to you, but might mean something

very different to you. And we decided as
anthropologists, we think it's very

important to represent a certain culture
in a certain way. We're not just hackers

in hoodies. It's a really diverse culture.
So we're going to talk about that today.

Biella: All right. So like, how did this project
come into being? Like, why are we here?

Why did we spend the last year doing this?
Well, you know, first of all, it wasn't

created. I didn't create it because I had
this idea in mind. It was created because

I started to collect videos for a reason.
I'm a professor and I twice a week stand

in front of students who are on the
Internet, on Facebook, maybe buying shoes.

And it's really hard to get their
attention. And you know, what I found

using videos in class was an amazing way
to get them off Facebook and paying

attention to what to me. Right. So over
the years, I just collected a lot of

videos. Right. Video after video after
video after video. And in certain

point. I was like, you know, I have this
private collection, semi private

collection they use in class. Why don't I
transform it into a public resource and

more so as someone who studied hackers for
many years, why don't I kind of make it

into a collaborative project? Why don't I
tap into the kind of expertise that exists

among hackers and journalists and
researchers and academics and draw them

in? And so I decided to do that right.
Until about a year and a half ago, I

brought together a couple of other people
like Paula, Chris Kelty, who's another

curator. And I said, like, let's get this
going. So when we were kind of fashioning

the project, we were also thinking like,
what are we trying to do with this project?

Right. You're not my students. I don't see
you twice a week. And so we came up with

some goals and we don't know if we're
gonna achieve these goals. The site

literally is going live like right now.
But this is what we're trying to do with a

project. We're trying to chip away at
simplistic conceptions and stereotypes of

hackers. We know these exist. Can we chip
away at them? Right. We want to offer new

perspectives on what hackers have actually
done and what they do. A really important

thing which Paula has already kind of
mentioned is showcase the diversity of

hacking. Right. People who do block chain
and free software and security. And

there's there's similarities, but there's
also differences like let's try to show

this. And while this is not an archive,
this is not the Internet Archive. We are

trying to kind of preserve bits and bytes
of hacker history. So these are the four

goals. And we do feel that video. Right,
is a nice medium, a mechanism to achieve

these four goals. It's persuasive, it's
compelling, it's memorable. It's fun. Like

we like to waste time at work on video.
Right. So we're like, hey, let's add a

little persuasive punch to Tex. And this
is why we decided to do it this way.

Paula: Exactly. So what happens when you click on
the site today and how is it organized? We

want to show you a little bit of of the
actual architecture of the site itself. So

we got. When you click on the Web site,
you see as... you see certain categories,

we've grouped the videos in two different
categories because as you say, there's a

huge diversity. So you can see here,
Biella is lovely here, pointing out the

beautiful categories. We've got anti
security hackers, block chain hackers.

We've got free and open the software,
we've got phreaking, we've got hacker

depictions. You can look at all sorts of
sort of different categories. You go onto

a category, website site and then you have
a blurb about what this subculture of

hacking is all about or what this what the
aim is, exactly what the theme is. And

then you have all sorts of little videos
that last maybe 30 seconds, maybe a few

minutes. And under these videos, you would
look at the video and then you would have

a little bit of a blurb. It's not an
essay. It's not a book. It's not some

boring academic text. It's supposed to be
funny. It's supposed to be for your

grandmother's to read. It's supposed to be
actually accessible and understandable.

Right. So you have the video and the
actual text itself. Right. So this is how

it looks like. And this is maybe some
sample of our content itself. What do we

have? We've got 42 entries at the moment
which we've collected from, as I said,

various different academics with different
authors. And by the end of 2020, we would

love to have around 100, 100 entries and
we'd try to publish around 50 or 20

entries. Biella: after that. Because it's really
brutally hard to edit academics. Paula: Exactly.

Exactly. And so we've got what you'll
find. These are just some examples. We'll

get into some really of the videos in just
a moment. But for example, you would look

at hackers and engineers humming at the
Internet Engineering Task Force, or you

look at an entry that's about the
programing legend, of course, Grace Hopper

being interviewed by a clue, David
Letterman. Maybe you guys have seen this

video, a block chain ad that people see it
or you'd say you'd ask, is this real? It's

kind of wacky ad or is it parody? And when
you watch you, you have to know that this

is actually real. The actor Robert Redford
showing off his mad social engineering

skills with the help of cakes and balloons
or how to make sense of why algerien hacker

Hamza Bender Lodge dressed by U.S.
government smiles and how many people from

Algeria understand his grin. So this kind
of various diversity of really what

hacking is really all about. Biella: But but
we're here to get the video party started.

Paula: Exact right.
From audience: Exactly!

Finaly. Fine. Let's get started. Yeah.
Biella: with a little Background. Paula: Exactly. Exactly.

Ok. So which I'm going to start
with the day. You start. You start. Biella: All

right. So we thought it would be a good
idea to start with phone phreaking,

because phone phreaking really developed
at the same time. If not kind of before

computer hacking. And we're going to show
Joy Bubbles. Joe Ingrassia, who is, you

know, often considered to be the
grandfather of phone phreaking. So let's

go to a video.
Text from Video Speaker1: In the

days when calls went through, the
operators phreaking wasn't possible. But as

humans switchboards were replaced by
mechanical systems, different noises were

used to trigger the switches.

Whistling

If you'd had
perfect pitch like blind phone free Joe

Ingrassia, you could whistle calls through
the network. Joe: Let's see if I make it this time. This is really hard

to do, it sounded like all the tones were present,
so the phone should be ringing a bell. Now. Okay.

I get the phone, it just take a little while...
Speaker1: He even showed

off his skills at the local media. Speaker2: From his one
phone to a town in Illinois and back

to his other phone, a thousand miles phone
call by whistling. Joe Ingrassia....

Biella: right? Very cool, right? So Joe Ingrassia

is featured. And Joan Donovan, who is like
a mad researcher at Harvard University,

wrote a really awesome entry about that.
No, of course, she emphasizes things like,

you know, while hacking is often tied to
computers, it's often tied to any system

that you could understand, improve, fix,
undermine. And the phreakers really showed

that. Right. And of course, the history of
phone phreaking is about blind kids. Not

everyone who is a freak was blind, but
many of them were. They met each other in

camp and kind of exchanged information.
And that was one of the ways in which

phone phreaking grew. Phone phreaking
really grew as well. When a big article in

1971 was published by Roone Rosin Bomb in
Esquire magazine, who has read that

article? Is anyone? It's incredible. We
mentioned it, I think, in a piece. Check

it out. Phreaking freaking exploded after
that article. The spelling phreaking

changed from Capital F Freak to Ph.
Because of that article, phreaking also

grew when blue boxes were created. Right.
This is also something that Joan writes

about in her entry. One of the cool things
that Joan writes about and then I'm going

to turn it over to Paula again is that
some phreaks train birds, OK, to freaking

phreak. Let's just leave it at that,
because that's pretty cool. All right.

Paula: OK. Are you guys ready now to
cringe? There we need a little bit of a

cringing moment as well. So without
further ado, this is Steve Ballmer that

would like to do some dancing. Biella:
From Microsoft. You just don't know.

Music

Paula: OK. Yeah, that's right. Biella:
I just want to say one little

thing. Paula: Yeah, of course there's a remix of
this with goats screaming like, look it

up. It's awesome. Paula: Exactly. But why do we show
Steve Ballmer the sort of like Godfather?

Exactly. Kind of an anti hacker of
sorts. I myself am a staff who've worked

among a corporate culture of software
developers. Aren't hackers per se? But if

you think of a figure like Steve Ballmer,
a lot of you guys who perhaps identify

yourself as hackers, you have day jobs,
you go to work and you have to make some

money in order to live and do work on your
own projects. And you often have to face

sort of mini Steve Ballmers at work. And
this is a quote that I have my own entry

that I did right next to this video. Steve
Ballmer, even Ballmers unbridled display

of exuberance is exceptional. Many
software developers will have to deal with

Mini Steve Ballmers every day. Biella:
We are sorry that you do. But If you do - you do.

Paula: Exactly. And so this but this exuberance is

all about these sort of slogans of win
big, save the world while building

technology, be awesome, be true, whatever
it is your corporate slogan is. And

there is, I think, the way in which the
software developer and sort of the hackers

that work in their day jobs challenge this
sort of really intense exuberance of

wearing your corporate T-shirt and smiling
every day in a way in which you hack your

daily projects, you work on your own
private projects on the side. You actually

do have many acts of resistance in a way
to this kind of loud, massive exuberance.

And I talk about these sort of side line
mini hacks that happen on an everyday

corporate culture.
Biella: Check out your entry. It's really

funny. All right. So now we're going to
hacktivists. So who here has heard of

Phineas Fisher? All right. Awesome. Just
in case, for those who are watching the

video now or later, I'm going to give a
little bit of background. But I love this

video about Phineas Fisher because he's
explained what he or the group has done,

but he also does kind of a very clever
media hack. So for those that don't know

who Phineas Fisher, is he or the group is a
hacktivists that claims to be inspired by

Anonymous, says Jeremy Hammond. He's
hacked into various corporations from

FinFisher to hacking team. And what he did
was take documents, take e-mail and then

publish them. And these were important in
ways that I'll talk about in a moment.

He's donated, I think, stolen bitcoins to
rush over government. In this fall.

He published a manifesto kind of calling
for public interest hacking and claims he

would give one hundred thousand dollars to
anyone who does this. So now I'm going to

show the first and I believe only
interview that he has done. And he did

this with Vise News a couple of years ago.
Video starts

Let's do this. These are the exact words
from our live text exchange, voiced by one

of my colleagues.
Colleage: So why did you hack hacking

team?
Cermet: Well, I just for the citizen lab

reports on FinFisher and hacking team and
thought, that's fucked up. And I hacked

them.
Colleage: What was the goal on hacking the

hacking team data? Were you tried to stop them?
Cermet: For the locals. I don't really

expect leaking data to stop a company, but
hopefully can at least set them back a bit

and give some breathing room to the people
being targeted with their software.

Video ends
Biella: OK, so this does not yet exist on

Hack_Curio. I have to write the
entry, but because I was so busy getting

the other site in preparation, I haven't
done it, but it will happen in the next

few weeks. But what I love about this
video is, first of all, he's like hacking

media representations. Right? I mean, even
when awesome journalists like Motherboard

publish on hackers or other kind of
entities, they still kind of use a masked

hacker even once they published about
FinFisher and they put like a mask on him.

And it's like hackers have heat, like they
don't need a mask. Right. And there is

this this sense where there's always a
kind of demonic, masked figure. And he was

like, OK, I'll do this interview, but you
have to represent me as like a lovable

Muppet like figure. Right? So he's there
hacking the media. But what's also really

interesting in it. And you watch the full
video, it's kind of amazing. Is that, you

know, he kind of claims, oh, I didn't have
much of in fact, I don't think he could do

anything, but in fact, first of all, the
information that was released really

reaffirms what people suspected. For
example, and in the case of hacking team

who was selling problematic exploit
spyware to dictatorial regimes. We really

got a confirmation that this was
happening. And in fact, eventually hacking

team even lost her license. Right. This
was like a direct effect from what

FinFischer did. So really, it's it's a
kind of amazing video that showcases what

he was doing, his reasoning, and then was
a performance, literally, a puppet that

hacked the media. OK, so now we're going
to rewind a little bit and go back in

time. So a lot of hackers care about
cryptography. Right? And ever since the

cipher punks. And since that period, there
have been projects from TOR to Signal that

have enabled cryptography. That has been
really important for human rights

activists and others. But one of the
great, great kind of encryption projects

came from this fellow, Tim Jenkins, who
here in the room has heard of Tim Jenkins.

OK. This is amazing. This is why we're
doing kind of hack_curio. So Tim Jenkins is

from South Africa. And beginning in 1988,
secret messages were sent and received

regularly across South Africa borders
using an encrypted telematics system

assembling assemble during the final years
of the South African liberation struggle

and Tim Jenkins, along with Ronnie
Press, who has since passed away, created

the system. And Tim Jenkins was kind of
like a phone phreak. And that was one of

the reasons, like he was good at working
with phones. And what was amazing about

this system, which was part of Operation
Vula, was that allowed people in South

Africa to communicate with leaders in
exile - in London. Right? And Tim Jenkin

created this system. I'm going to show a
video about it in a moment. And Sophie

Dupin has written a terrific entry. The
reason why we have him with the key there

was that like, you know, the South African
apartheid government did not really like

Tim Jenkins, so they threw him in jail.
Well, a lot of hackers lock pick. He

actually created 10 wooden keys secretly
in the wooden shop and broke out of jail.

I mean, talk about like taking lock
picking to like another sort of level. All

right. So let's listen and see the video
about this incredible program.

Video starts
Tim Jenkin: After we sent in the first

computer. We expect things to start
immediately, but it actually took a couple

of weeks. And then suddenly one day I was
sitting at my desk and the telephone

answering machine suddenly started
roaring and I thought, this must be the

wrong number or something. But then, sure
enough, I heard the distinctive tone of

the messages and I could hear this thing
coming through the tape. Modem 14.5k

sound Word, and word, and word. And
then it stopped and I loaded the message

onto my computer. In fact, it was a report
from Matt. And sure enough, there was our

first message. Absolutely perfect. sound of a

printer working
Video ends

Biella: Ah, fax machine. OK. So this is from the
entry by Sophie Dupin, who is writing a

dissertation on this topic. The
international hacker community has since

taken notice of Tim Jenkins and the Vula
encrypted communication system that

embodies so many qualities often
associated with exceptional, with an

exceptional hack. Elegant, clever, usable
and pragmatic. Right? Jenkins has been

invited to speak at the Berlin Logan
Symposium in 2016 and to lock picking

communities in the Netherlands and the
United States. In 2018 the RSA Security

Conference gave Jenkin the first award for
excellence in humanitarian service. So

just like one last thing, this is a good
reminder that histories of computer

hacking are often skewed. They often
actually start with the United States.

When, for example, in Europe with the CCC,
that story's been told in bits and pieces,

but deserves a much longer or much larger
showcase. And actually this example also

shows that, for example, the history of
encryption when it comes to communication

didn't even necessarily start in the
United States. Right? And so it's really,

really important to kind of showcase these
histories that haven't been told

elsewhere.
Paula: So maybe by now you're kind of

getting at the fact that we see hacking as
a diverse practice. Hackers as a diverse

group of people who do different things.
And at the moment we're going I want to

come back to the ways in which hackers
challenge power through challenging really

the very stereotype of what gender means
and challenging, really gender politics.

And it will start to turn to this topic by
looking at an entry that a woman named

Christina Dunbar Hester has done on a
woman named Naomi Cedar. And some of you

probably know Naomi Cedar. This is part of
her entry. And she wrote, Naomi Cedar is a

programmer and core participant in the
Python programing language community. As a

trans identified person, Cedar grappled
with whether she would have to give up

everything in order to transition and
whether the community would accept her for

doing so. So let's watch a clip of the
video and let's see how Naomi Cedar challenge that.

Biella: I think she gave this talk at
PyCon, the Python Open Source Developer

conference, and it's really incredible
talk. I really encourage you to watch the

whole talk. But this is a question. This
is the moment where she's like, do I have

to leave the community or can I transition
in the community?

Paula: Exactly. So let's watch a tiny
clip.

clip starts
I decided that to do that would probably

mean giving up everything. Remember, back
at 13, I had absorbed this into my brain

that the only way you were going to get
out of this was to basically leave

everything. And this was a very painful
thing to think about. But like a lot of

trans people, I had come to the point
where even if I lost everything, that was

fine. So I started to think about other
alternatives here. I had toyed with the

idea of doing the education summit as a
farewell thing to the community. I would

do it and then disappear, go into the
witness protection program. The

only problem was I actually started
accelerating the pace of my transition

because, well, it was just such freaky
relief to start moving in that direction

that that wouldn't work. So I actually
thought about what was for me hacking back

to Laverne Cox, a very revolutionary idea.
What if I just did it and was open about

it? First thing I looked at codes of
conduct. I looked for specifics. What

happens to me if there is a problem? If I
am harassed? This was important to me.

Other thing I did was I started telling a
few people Jesse Nola, Avi Alaska. Some

people I would work with PyCon on and they
were all pretty cool with the idea. And

the more I talked about it, the more I
decided that I would go ahead and take

that chance. So I did. I started by
teaching at some Python workshops for

women. I spoke at some conferences. We
went to PyCon . It was good. The education

summit was fine. Okay. Some of the people
I worked with in organizing it were a

little bit confused when the names on the
emails changed. I apologize, but in

general it went pretty well. In fact, the
more open I was, the easier it was on. It

was for me because I didn't have to worry
about being outed. And it was easier for

other people because they certainly knew
what to expect. The other interesting

sidelight is that when I told people they
sometimes felt an obligation to share some

deep, dark secret about themselves, like I
kind of thrump them and they had to answer

back. So my takeaway here is that, we talk
a lot about diversity and that's real. So

we should be ending on this point, except
that I'm a contrarian in my old age.

So it is not quite all rainbows and
unicorns or as you might put it, this is

kind of common in social justice circles
right now. We don't get a cookie.

Video ends
Paula: All right. And yeah, yeah,

Paula and Biella are applauding
Biella: He's a very powerful player.

Paula: Exactly. And I guess we could also
say that the next if I want to show that

after the entry by Christina Dunbar
Hester, Naomi Cedar actually gave a response

to this entry, which we've also published,
which we also want to do. We want to have

a discussion between some of the responses
to the actual very areas.

Biella: So we actually wanted to quote it
in full.

Paula: Yeah, exactly. So perhaps. Let's
read, let's read this this section from

the response of Naomi Cedar. PyCon itself
has continued to evolve into an ever more

diverse place with an ever stronger
representation of queer folks, people of

color, people who speak different
languages, etc. Codes of conduct are

nearly universal these days, and more
often than not, communities insist that

they be well crafted and meaningful and
backed up by real enforcement. Even in

these retrograde times of official attacks
on the rights of so many groups, we have

come a long way. But just as I said five
years ago, it's still not all rainbows and

unicorns. Too many groups throughout the
open source world globally are making only

token efforts to foster inclusion. And in
my opinion, too many members of privileged

groups tend to focus on supervisual or
cosmetic changes rather than addressing

the underlying fundamental issues.
Marginalized groups face. It doesn't take

a bit away from how far we've come to also
acknowledge how much we still have to do.

Naomi Cedar. So this really part we wanted
to discuss this in the way in which

hacking is also a practice of challenging
power, challenging stereotypes and

challenging really gender norms in many
ways. All right, let's move on.

Biella: All right. So the final frontier.
We have three more videos to show. Before

we get to the Q and A. In all videos
relate to geopolitics and hacking. You

know, hacking has always been political in
some fashion, if for no other reason than

sometimes laws are challenged. You're
you're doing what you're doing, something

that someone doesn't want you to do.
Right. But there's only been certain

moments, where nation states have been
interested in hacking or there have been

sort of ways in which nation states have
used hacking. For example, recently in

order to kind of engage in international
politics. So we're going to kind of focus

on these last, the last three videos will
focus on these issues. We're at the CCC.

So of course, I wanted to show a video
related to CCC. Unfortunately, I don't have

one related to the German CCC. Please do
send good videos related to the CCC to me.

But I am going to show one related to the
FCCC established in Lion by Jean-Bernard

Condat. So do people know what the F
stands for? All right. What

does it stand for?
One Auditor: French? Biella: French.

OK. Once you see the video. Oh no.
Hold on. You will also see that it stands

for fake and fuck as well, because
basically the French chapter of the CCC

was established in part to try to entrap
hackers in order to kind of work for the

French government. It's a fascinating
story that's been told in bits and pieces

and I'm going to say a little bit more
about it. But now I'm going to show a clip

from a French documentary that kind of,
you know, charts a little bit of that

history. It's in French with subtitles.

Video is in progress

Biella: OK. So pretty incredible, right?
And this story has been told in bits and

pieces by French journalists. I'm
working with another French journalist to

try to kind of uncover the fuller history,
as well tell the story of kind of American

and European hackers who did not get
recruited by intelligence, but who

nevertheless came from the underground,
because they were breaking into systems,

not maliciously, but they learned a lot
and they had really valuable knowledge

that no one else had. I mean, it's kind of
really incredible, right? And, you know,

this history, whether it's just that the
transformation of the underground into

security hackers or in the case of France,
where some portion of people were tapped

to work for intelligence informally,
formerly with pressure. Right. Has yet to

be written. And there's many remarkable
elements about this. But basically, I do

think it's remarkable that it's a bunch of
kind of amateurs who just were obsessed

with with networks who were the ones
holding the special knowledge that were

needed, that was needed by corporations
and intelligence in order to start

securing systems. Right. The other kind of
really interesting thing is that some of

the best underground non malicious hacker
crews were European. TESO, which had a lot

of Austrian and German members. ADM, which
is from France, was considered to be the

best at exploit writing. Rights. So the
entry, which I'm going to write with a

French journalist is going to reflect on
this. And this is actually a big project

that I'm working on as well. So I'll have
more to say about it later. All right. So

going from the past to the present.
Paula: Exactly. And I guess we couldn't

talk to you politics and hacking without
talking about Trump, talking about Putin.

A slew of politicians that we know in
recent years has used the hacker for their

own political discourse, for their somehow
political gain. And with this next video

will show us just that. This is our hacker
depictions section. It was posted by a

scholar named Marietta Brezovich. So
without further ado, let's listen to the

way in which Putin sees the hacker.

Video is in Progress

Paula: So I don't know if Putin was reading
a Russian Hacker for the night. Biella: best image

of the night. Possibly. I don't know.
Paula: We weren't sure if Putin is reading

Paul Graham's Hackers & Painters on the
toilet or some of his other Hacker

cultures literature. But it seems like
he's getting something right. Right. We

kind of think, hey, you kind of got it.
It's not hackers actually.

Biella: well, except for one part.
Paula: Exactly. That's what we want to

say. In some ways, yes. It's true. The
hackers are artistic and creative, etc.

Biella: They just don't wake up early
in the morning.

Paula: Exactly. Maybe they don't wake up
early in the morning. But what's

important, I think in here and this is
also what Brezovich points out in her

entry, is that he uses this, of course,
for his political gain to show that he is

not influencing any hackers or any
technologists, who maybe identify as

hackers or not. He's not influencing them.
And because they are so free and artistic

and sort of living in their sort of creative
world that they're beyond his control.

Right? So partially it's true. But
partially he's gonna employing this to

make a political statement about his non
involvement with any sort of role.

Biella: And what's interesting is all
evidence points to the fact that that

technologists who did the hacking just
work at intelligence organizations.

Paula: Exactly.
Biella: All right. So we just had one more

video and we'll end on a positive note.
Right? A lot of stuff around hackers is

sometimes depressing, especially when it
comes to the law. They get arrested, they

get thrown in jail. They commit suicide.
Paula: True.

Biella: And so we want to showcase a video
that covers British and Finnish hacker

Lauri Love, who's presented here at the
CCC. Some of you may know that he face

extradition to the United States due to
his alleged involvement with Anonymous

operation called #OpLastResort, which was
kind of in support of Aaron Swartz, who

had committed suicide when he was facing
many criminal charges. And we'll watch a

clip where parliamentarians and others
debate his case.

Video proceedes

A young man with Asperger's syndrome

awaits extradition to the United States,
facing charges of computer hacking and is

then likely to kill himself. It sounds
familiar. He's not, of course, Gary

McKinnon, who is saved by the prime
minister. But Lauri Love, who faces, in

a fact, a death sentence. So when the
prime minister introduced the form above

to, in her words, provide greater
safeguards for individuals, surely she

expensed it to protect the vulnerable,
like Gary McKinnon, like Lauri Love. The

honorable gentleman. My honorable friend
obviously campaigned long and hard for

Gary McKinnon. And obviously I took that
decision because at that time it was a

decision for the home secretary to decide
whether there was a human rights case for

an individual not to be extradited. We
subsequently changed the legal position on

that. So this is now a matter for the
courts. There are certain parameters that

the courts look at in terms of the
extradition decision, and that is then

passed to the home secretary. But it is
for the courts to determine the human

rights aspects of any case that comes
forward. It was right, I think, to

introduce the form box, to make sure that
there was that challenge for cases here in

the United Kingdom, as to whether they
should be held here in the United Kingdom.

But the legal process is very clear and
the home secretary is part of that legal

process.
Biella: OK, so the author of the entry,

Naomi Colvin, is right there in front.
And she has a great sentence which

says in Lauri Love, the U.S. had
definitively chosen the wrong target

principle, passionate and articulate,
certainly more articulate than Theresa May

herself in the clip which accompanies this
article, Love versus USA would be one for

the underdog. And it was Love one. He's
not being extradited. And in part, it was

also because Naomi Colvin was part of the
team that stopped it. So let's thank Naomi

as well as. Applause And it's just
really important to document some of the

wins every once in a while. So do check.
Check that out. So we are now going to

wrap up said that there's going to be 10
minutes for Q and A, but a few final

reflections about this project.
Paula: So I think these videos show actual

hackers and hackings and at a more level
meta level demonstrated how hackers have

become central to our popular imagination.
How hackers and hacking are one medium to

think through digital cultures, to think
through politics. I mean, we care about

culture. We care about representing
digging deep, looking at various angles of

a certain culture. And I think that's the
purpose. Where I see this is the purpose

of Biella and mine, and Chris', and our friends
projects is that we really want to take

the work that we've been doing and really
pay tribute to this really huge, diverse

community that that you are.
Biella: On a more practical level being a

little less meta. We do hope that people
assign hack_curio entries in their

courses. You could use them in high
school. You can use them in college

classes. You know, heck, you know, maybe
you could even use them in middle school,

elementary. I don't know if that will
work. But get it out there. And also for

some of you, I think it will be fun to
look at different tidbits of hacker

history. And when you're at home for the
holidays before you come to the CCC and

you're like, man, my parents don't really
understand what I do. So you could fire up

a video that kind of represents what you
do and fire up another video that

represents what you don't do.
Paula: And have a discussion. Haven't

especially.
Biella: And so this is our last slide.

What next? The site is Life. Share It. Our
Twitter address is up there. We consider

this a soft launch. We have 42 entries,
but we'll get some feedback and tweet

things, send video suggestions, spread the
word. And to end before Q and A. We just

really want to thank the CCC. We want to
thank Lisa for having us here. This is

really an amazing place to launch. And we
also want to thank everyone who made this

possible from funding to the authors to
the entire hack_curio team. So thank you

so much. And we're here for a little Q &
A. Applause

Herald: Thanks a lot for this beautiful
talk. We are now open for the

question. Mics. If there's any questions
from the audience, please just stand up to

one of the mics. Paula: Don't be shy. Herald: Nobody is
more interested in hacking culture? Are

you overwhelmed?
Paula: Someone.

Herald: Yeah. There's someone on mic 1.
Please.

Mic1: Thank you for this talk and for
the energy that was in your talk. It was just

amazing! I have one question to ask. What
was like the... way more like

surprising moments for you in this, like,
research journey.

Paula: OK, that's a good question.
Biella: I mean. In terms of the

project, you know, collaborating with
others and building a Web site is very

different than what academics often do,
where we do often have to rely on

ourselves and we get feedback. You know
what I mean? And I think it does give a

sense of the really beautiful relations
that form, where you go back and forth

with an author, with a web developer. You
know, it really does give you a sense of

the deep social ties that we do have as
academics. But I think it's much, much

deeper with hackers. That's one thing. But
I do think I mean, I am frustrated as an

academic, where a lot of people do have
very, very, very narrow conceptions of

hackers. It's not a perfect world. And
there's a lot which, you know, we can

change. There is very clear also that as
academics, we weren't necessarily changing

perceptions so much. And this project was
an effort to finally do that. It's like

see them like stop listening or reading
just my words, because obviously that's

not really changing chat, you know, so
come see some of the videos. Yeah.

Paula: Yeah. And I guess for me, I also
mean, if you work in your own little

bubble and you work in your own little
corner, just in any type of science, you

don't see as much as what's going on out
of there. And I for me, the whole

definition of what it is to hack what a
hacker actually is, you start really

opening your eyes out when you see while
there's 50 hundred other scholars out

there that are actually think that a
hacker is this or hackers that. And I

think for me, that opened my eyes up
really saying, hey, well, this is what you

think it means. So interesting know.
Herald: Thank you. Now a question from

mic 2, too, please.
Mic2: Hi, thank you for the talk. It was

very enlightening. I have two questions.
The first one would be, could you tell us

maybe a bit more about the server and
infrastructure you using or are you just

linking YouTube videos? And the second one
would be, how would you envision future

engagement with students? Because I'm
teaching a course for computer scientists

undergrads. And we did something
similar around movies and descriptions

that they have to make around hacker
movies. And they don't really learn how to

reflect on social issues a lot in the
studies. So I wonder how does this could

be integrated into platform and how that
could how you could engage students further?

Biella: So great questions. I mean, first
of all, for the Web site, it runs on

WordPress. It just seemed like an easy way
to, like, hack it up for this sort of

thing. And we hired actually a master
student from my department at McGill

University. Thanks to all. You're awesome.
And then we're hosting the videos on Vimeo

and they come from all sorts of different
places. That's actually not the best or

the most ideal solution. And so far as
like, you know, who knows if Vimeo is

going to exist in 15 years? Right.
Internet Archive. We looked into them and

they were kind of like psyched about it,
that it was going to be slower to deliver

the video. Right? So maybe if the project
grows, we can at a certain point host our

own videos. Right? But like we'll have to
sort of graduate there at the next level.

The entries are all going to be creative
comments and we're using clips that then we

cite the entire clip and where it came
from. We consider this fair use and for

those that may be wondering. And so we'll
see how that goes.

Paula: And for the second, I guess I could
take the second question. When ever I

mean, my students are not their digital
media students. They're not from computing

science. But if you ever even try to touch
along something around culture or

something, maybe real social science is
always, I think, ask how is power really

how these people relate to power? How did
they relate to critique? How do they use

these tools to critique something? And I
think all of these videos and maybe even

the videos that your students chose, if
they just asked that question, whether

they're studying computing science,
whether they're studying geography or

whatever it is, if they look at it from a
form of power and how it's contested, I

think that that's a way in which they they
really can engage into a certain topic

really deeply. That's cool. There's a nice
little text by Fuko with what's called

what is critique. That's it. I use it for
my students that are non maybe cultural

studies students or whatever. And there's
a nice little text that could be with

Herald: Thank you. One more question from

mic 2, please.
Mic2: So thank you again. And I wanted

to ask you, because I looked at the videos
on the site and I see a lot of stories of

single people and I'm quite surprised to
find very little stories of communities

and showcases of hacker spaces. And a lot
of researchers I've spoke about are

actually focusing on like how communities
work. So was there any conscious decision

that you want to tell singular
people, singular person stories instead of

like communities?
Biella: First of all, it's a great piece

of feedback because I mean, one of the
things as an anthropologist that I've

always loved about the hacker world is on
the one hand, you know, people often talk

about rights that are are tied to notions
of individualism. But hacking is so

collectivist. Right. I mean, look at the
CCC. I mean, you can't have a better

example of a kind of ritual, collective,
effervescent experience, hacker spaces.

Right. So I do think it's really important
to try to showcase that. And we do, we do

have videos around hacker spaces and
they're being written up like the authors

are writing about them now. But if that's
not coming through the sites, we actually

need to write. But it does show I mean,
one of the problems with video and we and

we will reflect on this is that on the one
hand, while you could put a face to

hacking, which is great. It's like it's
not the hooded person video has its own

limits. Right? Often it's an individual.
It's often what journalists are interested

in. And we also have to make sure that
this isn't the whole of hacking and also

at times use the video to tell a different
story than what the video is showing. So I

think that's a great comment. And we're
going to keep that in mind because to me,

the collectivist community, part of
hacking. Is one of the most amazing parts

that never makes it into kind of
mainstream representation.

Paula: That's right. Thank you.
Herald: Thank you.

Herald: Then we have a question from the

Internet. First Internet.
Biella: Internet. Tell us. Talk to us.

Signal Angel: That question from the Internet is:
when covering international scenes, scenes

like Phrack magazine use as source material.
Biella: Is Phrack magazine a source?

Signal Angel: Yeah.
Biella: Yeah. I mean, Phrack magazine.

Remember the video that I showed around
the fake French CCC? That is a larger

project around how parts of the
underground went pro and started doing

security work. And Phrack is amazing. I
mean, Phrack tells so much of that story.

And what is also so interesting, because
I've done like almost 26 interviews, in-

depth interviews around on this. And like
you'd expect in many hacker circles,

there's a lot of diversity of opinions.
And the one thing that people agree on was

that like Phrack was awesome, technically.
And it brought very different types of

people together. You know, Phrack hasn't
come up in the video because it's one of

these things that hasn't been documented.
Right? So much in documentaries or film.

And again, it points to that problem,
which is on the one hand, we're trying to

show the faces of hacking. But we also
have to make very, very clear, that

there's certain parts of hacker history
that don't exist in video and don't take

this as the definitive sort of word or
record.

Herald: Now the question from microphone
2, please.

Mic2: Hi, I'm... I was wondering,
whether you plan to expand your

categories. If I didn't miss anything
to something for example as in my PhD.

Examples of hacking connected with biology,
genetics and digital fabrication,

neuro-hacking and so on.
Biella: Ja.

Mic2.: So here that the CCC does a track
dedicated to science that I think it's

somehow related. Thanks.
Biella: Great. Yeah. So if I can come

correctly, I think we have 11 categories
and we absolutely are expanding and like

bio hacking is one that we want include
because actually, you know, hackers are

like creating insulin in the context of
the United States, where insulin is

ridiculously expensive, like some of the
most important hacking I think is

happening. So we're absolutely going to
expand by a handful. We also don't want to

go much more beyond 15 or 18. And one of
the ways that we're also then handling

that is that each entry comes with tags
and then there's gonna be other groupings

around tags. But it's certainly I mean,
what you've seen is alive. It's alive, it's

alive, but it's also very much beta, you
know.

Paula: And it and if you've written also
on this topic and you have an interesting

video, please email us, send it over. We'd
be really interested to hear about your

research. Yeah. Yeah.
Herald: And then we have another question

on mic 1, please.
Mic1: Thank you. Thank you.

My question is for Biella.
And it's about would you say that your

work be done on Anonymous affected the way
you engage with working with video

after going deep into seeing, how
Anonymous uses video as a medium to engage

with the public as compared to other
activist groups who are way less

successful in that?
Biella: That's great. I mean, that is

definitely, you know, I on the one hand
always use video in my class. And it's not

just like hackers. You know, if I'm
talking about Martin Luther King and

something he said, I will show a video of
what he said. Because having me repeat it

versus having MLK on the screen it's a lot
more persuasive. And we are in a moment

where truth is not winning the game and we
have to think about our game of

persuasion. Right? That's just this is a
kind of side project. But you're

absolutely right. It was also Anonymous
who used so many videos. Right. In a

period where, sure, others had to use
videos. But it was groups like, for

example, Indymedia who's turned 20 this
year, who took videos of the world around

us, whereas Anonymous created videos as a
means for persuasion. And it was very

powerful at the time. And I am... I am
inspired to think about how can we think

about persuasive mediums in all contexts
in order to get our message out. Because

again, we're not always winning in this
regard. Truth can never speak on its own,

right? And we always need adjuncts and
adjuvants in order to get truth's message

out there. And certainly it was Anonymous
in part that that helped me see the

importance of video and in a new way. So
I'm really glad you mentioned that.

Herald: Thank you. And then we have
another question from the Internet.

Signal-engel: Yeah, and the next question
from the Internet is: how will you select

the right curators for the entries
and how do they decide how they are

presented and contextualized?
Biella: All right. So, I mean, I've been

working on hacker cultures for since 1998.
Paula: Mine is a journey has been a

little bit shorter, but also for about 10
years or so.

Biella: Yeah. And so I do, I know a lot of
people working on different topics. And

for the first round, we invited people.
And it wasn't just academics. I have

gotten journalists and hackers are writing
some entries as well. But they're just

like a little bit harder to kind of get
them to turn in their entries. But

hopefully they will, because, again, it's
it's not just who's been credentialed to

talk about a topic. It's who knows about a
topic, who has something to say and who's

willing to go through the editing process.
Because while journalists generally don't

have to go through multiple edits because
you all just really know how to write for

the public, everyone else actually does
struggle a little bit. And we do really

try to get the entries written in such a
way where we're presuming, you know,

nothing about hackers or the video. It's
not always easy, then, to write an entry,

that kind of starts from that that low
level. And then in terms of the

contextualization, that's where we have
three editors and curators. And I would

actually even say four because our final
editor, Matt Gorson. He was an M.A.

student under me. He's doing a big project
on security, hacking with me at data and

society. He knows a ton. And it's
precisely having many eyeballs on one

entry that allows us to hopefully
contextualize it properly. But, you know,

again, if something seems off, people
should email us. And again, we're also

open to responses from the community as
well, which we have one response from

Naomi. But, you know, perhaps that will
kind of grow into something larger.

Paula: So when you ask why or why is it us
that are curating, who's curating, really,

it's just the three of us that are doing
this. And what kind of speech position are

we coming from? I mean, we're
anthropologists of hacker cultures. What

does that mean? May for you guys, it
doesn't mean much or it means a lot. Or

it's really we've studied you guys for a
long time.

Biella: Yes. But it's it's also cool
because it's like, well, except for Paula.

I mean, Chris and I like we have tenure
and that may mean nothing to you all. But,

you know, hackers care about freedom and
free speech and tenure allows you to be

free.
Puala: I have tenure now.

Biella: Oh, you do? Sweet. We all are free
to kind of do what we want in interesting

ways. And again, we're trying to
experiment with mediums that go a little

bit beyond the academic journal, which I'm
totally behind. I think there's really

good things about the academic journal. I
think there's really good things about the

book. But we have the freedom to
experiment with new mediums. And so

hopefully this this new medium will kind
of reach different types of publics in a

way that kind of academic journal articles
will never reach.

Herald: Are there any more questions?
Paula: Party. Party.

Herald: It doesn't look like it. So I
would like to invite you for another round

of applause for Biella and Paula.

Applause

Biella und Paula: Thank you guys, thank
you so much.

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