On Wednesday evening we (the Digital Methods Initiative) arrived in Vierhouten, the Netherlands to attend Hacking at Random 2009. It is my first visit to the event which is held every four years. There are 3000 geeks, lectures, lightning talks, workshops, installations and a lot of pinball machines! The event was sold out before it started and the last tickets were sold on the black market for 900 euros!
The stereotype is true: The average HAR visitor is a 35 year old male into computer programming. But what the hack? It is wonderful here! The weather is absolutely great and we have built our own Digital Methods Inititiative village with a party tent with electricity and an ethernet connection. The campings are filled with people from all over Europe and we’ve met Canadians, Americans and people from all over the world.
The whole event is well organized and run by volunteers. We also signed up to help out by filling two shifts selling coins.
We spend the average day designing, downloading, tweeting and eating excellent vegetarian dishes made by Aan de Amstel catering. At night we walk around the event site which is beautifully decorated with lasers, disco balls and other lights. The site is filled with people hacking, soldering, programming, drinking beers or snoring like an unorganized orchestra ;)
Hacking at Random 2009 from silvertje on Vimeo.
Hacking at Random 2009 from silvertje on Vimeo.
Stay tuned for more posts, pictures and videos from HAR2009.