Opening Doors (Autumn, 1994)
----------------------------

You've probably noticed that this issue is coming to you a bit later than it
should. We have one thing to say: Blame HOPE.

Never before in this country has such an event occurred. And never again will
we be able to say that. Things are different now and it's up to all of us to
hold onto the ground that we've gained.

By all estimates, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people descended upon the
Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City on August 13 and 14. At some point on the
second day we just lost count.

In stark contrast to the commercialized "Son of Woodstock" taking place
simultaneously to the north, Hackers On Planet Earth was a grass roots, down to
earth labor of love and obsession. People came from all around the world with
their computers, radios, music, toys, and expertise. For the first time,
hackers in America were able to meet with the Chaos Computer Club of Germany.
Other groups from Holland, England, Italy, Canada, Australia, Russia, Israel,
and Argentina were also on hand, not to mention the diversity of all the
attendees from the United States. Whether they journeyed cross country in a
van, crosstown in a subway, or over the ocean in a plane, HOPE attendees came
to learn and to share information about hacking and about technology.

It was really everything we could have hoped for. When people from the United
States attended Holland's Galactic Hacker Party in 1989 and Hacking at the End
of the Universe in 1993, they saw a spirit and an energy that had been largely
quelled in this country. By organizing something as large as HOPE, we wanted to
try and bring that spirit over here, or rather, nurture the spirit that has
always been present. At long last, through the help of those present, we
succeeded in doing this.

And for once, the press had something to say about hackers when we weren't
being raided, charged, or sentenced to prison. Here we were holding seminars,
reviewing our history, playing with new technology, and showing the public how
to hook into the Internet. Of course, media stupidity is hard to defeat, one New
York Times piece made it appear that our only purpose in gathering was to make
free phone calls. But such blindness seemed to be the exception rather than the
rule.

All of the worries about hackers roaming loose in such an environment proved
unfounded. The massive crowd was extremely well behaved by any standard. We
found this especially true in the face of our botched registration system,
which forced people to wait on line for long periods of time in order to get a
photo ID. It was a little taste of Eastern Europe and the patience of the
participants was unbelievable. (Eventually we scrapped the system and just gave
everyone handwritten numbers.) Our thinking was that having a picture that
matched an existing face would be less intrusive than having a name printed on
a badge. While that still may be so, the technology just wasn't with us. Maybe
next time. (By the way, we had always planned on wiping the pictures out of the
computer after HOPE. Through another misfortune, we managed to wipe them before
the conference ended.) Attendees will also be pleased to know that all of the
registration forms were intentionally destroyed, if this conference ever becomes
the focus of some absurd investigation of "hacker conspiracy" in the future,
gathering evidence on those present will be tricky at best.

Despite a flaky net connection, mostly because of an uncooperative hotel phone
system, the internal network managed to keep going. And, no matter what the
topic (social engineering, cellular phones, boxing, lock picking, hackers from
overseas), the auditorium always seemed to be filled with an enthusiastic
audience. We even managed to get Phiber Optik on the phone live from prison to
speak to the crowd. That in itself added a great deal of magic to the event.

We couldn't have come close to making this work without the dedicated help of
many dozens of people. We toyed with the idea of trying to list them all by
name. Then we realized that inevitably someone would be left out, which might
cause bad feelings. Or perhaps somebody who carried a small box from one room
to another would be listed right next to someone who got no sleep for three
days trying to keep the net up. This might cause resentment. Or maybe a person
would be listed who wanted more than anything to remain anonymous. This could
result in fear and paranoia. Rather than risk all of that negativity, we
decided to keep it on a personal level. Suffice to say, we know who helped
change the future of hacking this summer. And we won't forget.

For those of you who weren't able to make it, we will have video transcripts
available in the future. We'll announce the details in a future issue.

We have been deluged with requests from people asking if they can help with
HOPE 2 next summer. We need to set the record straight. There isn't going to be
another one of these next summer. HOPE was a special event and such events don't
take place on a regular schedule. This is not to say that there won't be
other special events taking place in other parts of the world. But the next
HOPE isn't going to happen for a while. One of the main reasons for this is the
fact that such an endeavor is very draining. We have bill collectors,
subscribers, and close personal friends who are very angry with us for having
neglected them. If you're one of those, we apologize for our lapses. For now,
our priority will be to continue the work of 2600. And when it's time for
another HOPE-like event, we know we can count on our readers to make it happen
again.