It was a high tech trip, a culture exchange of the computer jockeys.  
Almost 40 hackers traveled together from the scene-con Defcon in Las Vegas 
directly to the summer camp of the European hacker scene.  The US nerds 
came to learn from the Germans.

"Could you tell me your IP address?" Korny Gozman asks friend Yotta, 
almost 40 minutes after the plane took off.  It's finally time to unfasten 
the seatbelts; 38 hackers on a plane from America take out their laptops.  
They are flying from Las Vegas to Dusseldorf, together on a trip from the 
biggest hacker conference, Defcon in Nevada, to the Chaos Communication 
Camp in Brandenberg, to learn how to organize there.  How to found 
regional and local groups, and how to make them strong, that's what the US 
hackers want to learn from the technophiles in Germany.

Aboard the airplane, they connect to the wireless network the 22 year old 
Yotta set up.  The other passengers on the plane are saved from the loud, 
geeky talks; hacker jokes are now exchanged in the chatroom.  The 
electronics aboard endure the wireless transmissions without complaint 
and, more importantly, without crashing.

"Wow.  There was like 13 people participating in the chat!"  Yotta is 
happy.  Probably this is a world record for a network chat above the 
clouds.  "That's why I did it.  Because it's fun, and because we can do 
it."

Almost two hours later, all the batteries are drained for the humans and 
the computers alike.  One after the other, they leave the chat channel.  
Soon after that, Yotta's laptop gives up.  This laptop was the one 
providing the airborne network.  That was it; in economy class, you only 
get electricity in the toilets.

The disputes about programming, about hardware, about the relationship 
between time and gravity become softer and softer.  Eventually people fall 
asleep.  After 3 days at Defcon, people are at the end of their tethers.  
At the biggest hacker conference in the USA, there was little sleep, much 
input, and 7000 other participants.  Las Vegas surely has drained the 
flight passengers.

Arriving at Dusseldorf Airport, there is a bus waiting to go to the Chaos 
Communication Camp at the site of the Finowfurt Airplane Museum.  Several 
kilograms of excess luggage, tents, and hi-tech devices have to be put in 
the bus.  After 3 hours of playing iPods on the bus's radio, the people 
traveling in this community split.  Some of them sleep, others exchange 
anecdotes while drinking vodka and Fanta from little plastic cups.

Leigh Honeywell from Canada is known among her hacker friends as 
'Hypatia'.  The rooms of Berlin's C-Base have inspired her, she says.  
"Something that can be compared to this project of Berlin-based art and 
computer enthusiasts is just not available in all of North America."

After the camp, the Americans want to do a trip to regional hacker labs in 
order to learn how they work and how they can bring this recipe back home.  
The scene in the US isn't as organized.  "Of course we have meeting points 
but they're in people's homes or in coffee shops", Leigh describes, "but 
this makes the groups dependent on single persons and sometimes commercial 
interests."  Places like DefCon are extremely important, and they exist, 
but they're only temporary and they are outside of the cultural and 
everyday life.  Korney Gozman believes that open meeting points for 
hackers and friends would help in thinking about ethics and future.  "In 
the end, we want to change the world for the better.  That's why we have 
to think about what rules we're going to break and what rules we're not 
going to break" the 27 year old says.

3 breaks and nine hours later, the final destination of the camp is 
reached.  The volunteer helpers there are already waiting for the group of 
travelers, and the main tent is already up.  The sun is coming down and 
the dusty field in front of the air museum, dried out by the summer sun, 
lives up to the promise of the motto of the camp; of the fairy dust, the 
fairy dust that according to Peter Pan should save you from growing up and 
give you wings: "In fairy dust we trust."

"Actually, I find the bus trip very refreshing", Jack says after 23 hours 
of traveling more than 9000 kilometers.  Despite sleep deprivation that 
amounts to several nights, he's looking forward to the next 5 days of 
camping with more than 2000 like minded people.  Shortly after the 
arrival, tables are set up in the main tent with computers and a projector 
for lights and images.   Some of the group prepare slides for their 
presentations in one of the two hangars; others advertise the breakfast 
where the hackers on a plane want to start a global hacker community.

Even the price of the trip is an insider joke.  "This is simply crazy to 
organize" Hacker Foundation treasurer Nick Farr says.  "It's a gigantic 
effort to make this trip.  Some had their doubts, but finally we are 
here." The Hacker Foundation offered the technophile tour with flights and 
registration for both conferences for 1337 dollars.  Real hackers pay this 
amount knowing the inside joke; the numbers stand for the word "leet", a 
corruption of "elite".

It seems like all the efforts have paid off.  Soon the international 
character of the camp shows.  The neighbors want to meet the Americans, 
and discussions ensue.  "It's simply amazing" Leigh Honeywell says, about 
the camp and the collaborative atmosphere between the campers.  She has 
only just returned from a short walk checking out the site and now goes 
back to the Americans.  Nick Farr describes how different this experience 
is to Defcon.  "In the North American scene, it's all about contests.  
People are individualists and want to be distinctive from others."

At the airport museum, the vacationers find themselves together in tent 
villages in order to support the communities be it with aspects of camping 
life or work on projects.  Of course the whole camp is networked; internet 
access is even in the remodeled mobile porta-potties; the so-called 
"Dataloos".  However, the American hackers want to experience the people 
at the camp, not the network.  A scavenger hunt and German-English 
pronunciation contest are set up to draw attention from the campers and 
draw them into discussions.

This kind of communication strategy also seems to work for the New Yorker 
Bre Pettis.  At the Hackcenter he is absorbing hackers working on their 
computers or fiddling with hardware projects.  "There are so many great 
people here.  It's only the second day and I'm already totally inspired.  
When I come home I want to meet even more people and work with them to 
found a hacker lab."

article by Ragni-Serina Zlotos