As some you might know, I have been pretty involved in organizing a couple of events in the last years, most notably the annual Chaos Communication Congress and the Chaos Communication Camp. The latter is a quadrennial event with insane organizational dimensions but unlimited fun. That makes it worthwhile.

The idea of placing hackers into the landscape and have an outdoor conference accompanied by a fat pipe to the Internet was not invented here, however. The tradition stems from the dutch hackers that first went on the field in 1993 with an event called „Hacking at the End of the Universe (HEU)“. Next was „Hacking In Progress (HIP)“ in 1997. We then slipped into the middle of this schedule with our first Camp in 1999. Then the ball turned over to the Netherlands again with „Hackers At Large (HAL)“ in 2001. The fifth and – so far – last event of that kind was our second Camp in the summer of 2003.

Two years are over now so it’s time for the next episode called What The Hack. This time the Chaos Computer Club is going to be more closely involved. We’re going to set up the Chaos Village in a central location and will contribute to other areas as well.

WTH runs for four days from July 28th to July 31th, 2005 on Landgoed Velder located between Eindhoven and ’s-Hertogenbosch. It’s a gorgeous location with lots of space surrounded by trees. Really nice.

If you decide early, you can save a few bucks. Early birds are awarded a discount (you pay only EUR 120), late-comers have to pay up to 150 EUR. Since might sound a lot but I tell you it’s going to be worth it. WTH will have a top-class line-up of speakers, lots of cool hackers around and is going to be big fun. It’s an investment you won’t regret.

Among other things, the CCC will contribute the phone system which you might already know from our events. This means you can use a DECT phone everywhere on the ground and have free phone calls to every other participant. Go and register your personal phone extension now! If you don’t have a DECT phone don’t worry. DECT handsets are cheap and I am sure you will be able to buy some in the nearby cities. My phone number will be 4235.

The CCC Cologne is readying its radio project for WTH. They are looking for people to help. If you are familiar with doing radio or just motvated enough contact and offer your help. They might be especially interested in english native speakers to improve the program. So this is the opportunity for your own radio show at WTH. The radio will be available on the local network via MP3 and via FM braodcast. So bring your radio as well!

Last but not least, there is an organised train travel if you are coming from Germany. Go and check out the HackTrain web site for more information.

(UPDATE: Wrong date given. It’s correct now. Thanks, Aldert)