WHY 2025

What Hackers Yearn 2025
The NL camp
Start date	2025-08-08
End date	2025-08-12
Location	Geestmerambacht

About

What Hackers Yearn is the dutch camp organised by IFCAT.
WHY is the successor to MCH, SHA, OHM, etc.

Recent News

We try to attend all WHY Orga meetings, you can read our notes on these here.
- The previous WHY Orga Jitsi was 2024-12-04 at 19:00 UTC / 20:00 CEST, the meeting minutes are here
- The next WHY Orga in person meeting is 2024-12-14 at Bitlair in Amersfoort.
The next Milliways meeting is on 2024-01-04 at 20:00 UTC
Tickets for WHY2025 are available

Communication

Chat Communication for Milliways at WHY 2025 will be in a bridged room between irc and matrix. Both rooms have the same information.

   IRC: join #milliways-why2025 at irc.hackint.org
   Matrix: join #why:milliways.info (and of course the milliways space: https://matrix.to/#/#milliways-space:milliways.info)

We will attempt to keep this wiki page up to date with event orga changes and announcements as well as milliways updates and announcements. The chat will have @room and/or @here notifications when large announcement \ updates are made to the wiki.

Further, there will be recurring jitsi meetings that will rise in frequency as time to the event ticks down.

Travellers Info

Add yourself as a participant on our Participants page.
This list helps us with meal planning for our kitchen, guaging space needed at the site and feasbility of our wild ideas!

Tickets

Although the Official WHY wiki and Orga Meeting of Nov 6th makes no mention of them, the Why-cast episoides 8 and 9 mention ticket sales.

WHY PL Think ticket sales will start around beginning of december and they aim to hit an average ticket price of €342

what to bring - packing

Struggling with your pack list? Checkout Columbia19's excellent camping list and MacLemon's amazing Congress Checklist. Ofcourse; Don't let yourself get surprised by the weather, always pack for expected weather circumstances. Check the weather report regularly from at least a few weeks in advance until right up to your departure and change accordingly.

Hint: A tarp is useful whether it rains or shines! ;)

Don't have camping gear for yourself? Watch this space - we may have something to offer for you!

Meetings

Pads can be created under https://cpad.milliways.info/ Please link here when done.

When	Where	Type	Description	Notes
2024-06-04	emfcamp	meetup	a first meeting of interested participants
2024-06-15	Geestmerambacht	field day	first WHY2025 field day	read our notes
2024-07-07	jitsi	orga	July Kickoff	Meeting Minutes
2024-08-04	jitsi	orga	August Meeting	Meeting Minutes
2024-09-01	jitsi	orga	September Meeting	nothing of relevance, so no meeting minutes
2024-10-13	jitsi	orga	October Meeting	Meeting Minutes
2024-11-03	jitsi	orga	November Meeting	Meeting Minutes
2024-12-01	jitsi	orga	December Meeting	Meeting Minutes
2024-12-28	38c3	meetup	WHY have a plan?

We meet in jitsi on the first sunday of every month at 21:00 German Standard Time until April 2025.
There will be bi-weekly (once every two weeks) meetings in April, May and June.
There will be weekly meetings in July and Aug.
There will be daily meetings during WHY.

Teams

Call for Engagement - We want you!

We currently have a CfER (Call for Event-Reiseleitung) open!
We are looking for:

one or two more Archangels
- Organize volunteers in/around our village (and possibly stage)
- Link up with WHY orga Volunteer Team
Bar manager
Logistics team
- Truck from Weeze to WHY
- Loading \ Unloading
- Perhaps local pickup/dropoff of groceries/materials if scheduled delivery unavailable
Buildup team (optional: Mgr)
- Be onsite, from latest Day 0 - Thurs 7th Aug (prefer Day -2 Tues 5th), helping with Milliways buildup (Dome, Kitchen, Rummery, etc)
- Understand what needs to be built, where and how.
- Help unload Storage truck
Teardown team
- Be onsite, until latest Day 6 - Wed 13th Aug, helping with Milliways teardown (Dome, Kitchen, Rummery, etc)
- Understand what needs to be packed up, where and how.
- Make sure everything packed is at least clean (can't promise dry, that is weather dependent)
- Help load storage truck
Treasurer
Social Media Manager (hanemile might claim this as part of the infodesk if nobody else does)
- Keep our Mastadon up to date with events (Talks/Worksshop/Entertainment)
- Retoot interesting orga, sub village, individual stuff, boost mentions etc
Music!
- We need DJs for evenings!
  - nspace has raised interest (played a nice set with cyanpencil at EMF)

Event Reiseleitung

Find yourself in need of someone kinda official to talk to about something Milliways specific for WHY? Look no further than this list!

Name	Role
Obsidian	WHY Orga contact
Zornem	Archangel
SleepyEntropy	Archangel
Hanemile	Infodesk
Junglerot	Constructions
boreq	Deco (Art \ Light \ Interactive)
cqc	Power + Midnight snack
McFly	milliways cyber circus \ Content Team
emerson	Content Team
Erik	Content Team
Cy	Content Team
kraln	Stage Team
firel0x	Stage Team (Technical)

Content

We aim at attracting high quality or very entertaining cyber security content presented by speakers who know how to engage with the audience. The circus is not supposed to be the only cyber security stage on the camp since there might be good submissions/speakers that would fit better on a traditional stage.

We would like to be part of the core WHY2025 schedule and CFP and let speakers decide whether they would like to present in the circus or whether they would prefer a traditional stage. Besides that, we would like to actively contact potential speakers and ask them to submit something to the stage. Submissions for the circus should be reviewed by Milliways, while other submissions stay with the MCH2025 core team. Acceptance can be based on the quality of the content and based on the ability of the speaker to engage with the audience and to make proper use of the special stage. Both teams may recommend to shift a submission from one stage/team to the other stage. A shared Pretix instance would be very beneficial for that.

Kitchen

Manager needed

The difference in having our own dedicated dishwashing station (at at least, access to freshwater and waste through rotating IBCs or similar) at CCCamp23 vs using public facilities at EMF was apparant and frustrating to all. We hold up the dishwashing queue for individuals, families and smaller villages which is not a great experience and we can't efficiently or correctly clean our equipment because of lack of space, warm water etc. It would be great if we could have our own dedicated space at WHY 2025.

Instead of relying on volunteer kitchen managers, our idea is to have a professional Chef/Cook/Kitchen Manager paid by Milliways to head up the Kitchen. We then need to look for a Milliways Kitchen Manager accustomed to organizing volunteers and other hackercamp event stuff to liasie between our kitchen, our archangels and event.

Bar

Cyber Circus

Would be great to see mc.fly's dream finally realized: A very special Milliways content stage, Van Rosmalen's Salon Perdu tent.
Now, this idea is contingent on some other decisions that need to be made by WHY-orga but the most important one which should not be underestimated; this would mean we run our own content like at CCCamp23 and share responsibility with the central content team. This is currently in very early discussions and may not even happen.

There is a draft explanation of the idea that is shared with the official Orga.
At Hp197's request, We have introduced three potential event sponsors to the Orga sponsors team and are in talks with more potential parties.

Setup

We could add a round 3-4m wide and 0.2-0.5 meter high podium in the centre of the tent with multiple screens pointing in different directions towards the audience above the speaker. The audience will be placed all around the speaker, just with small gaps for the entrance and a bar.

Open Questions

Do we want to run our own Pretalx if we have our own stage/workshop/entertainment/whatever? Is it even needed or worth it?
Could this be built to a default template so it's easily recyclable for other events?
What benefit does this have above using existing infra at each event?

infodesk

Headed by Hanemile.
Like at CCCamp23, have an infodesk with info on Milliways content, lost&found, directions, weather, mealtimes, volunteer signup, coins, stickers, music and more!

Setup: the ccc-camp style "hut" was amazing, having a roof against rain and sun is essential.

power

water

Deco

Constructions

Headed by Junglerot.
Please remember This is a hackercamp, we should only plan for this if we have the people, plans and equipment in place to fulfill the request.
We can not improvise any serious woodworking on-site at little to no notice.

Intended Constructions

Infodesk
Keg Rack for beer
Weather dependant; Flooring
- Infodesk
- Kitchen
- Dome
WOPR
- Dependant on Cyber Circus plans - bar might go in cyber circus, then no need for WOPR

It should go without saying, but to be sure;
Don't teardown any constructions without approval from construction team. Don't use excess lumber \ torn down constructions to build bonfires.

Lumber sourcing and storage

Sourcing from PontMeyer
Obsidian has a space "close" to WHY terrain that can be used for storage and buildup of Milliways constructions for WHY.

Heaven

Headed by Zornem Supported by SleepyEntropy

Getting the right volunteers in the right places at the right times has proved challenging in the past, which creates absolute chaos.
Chaos is fine and all every now and again and certainly, it's to be expected at these events, but; in the one area we are known for, the one area we strive to deliver properly, our wonderful kitchen that provides delicious food by hardworking volunteers - is suffering due to this chaos.

How can we make this better?

With our own heaven using something like the Engelsystem? other ideas?
Perhaps we can even link into and use or have volunteer shifts available in WHY's volunteer system for kitchen and - if we do our own stage - the heralding etc?
Have a big whiteboard / blackboard into which people can add themselves. Pro: is super present and people can directly see what is still needed, best even if it's in the queue for the kitchen, so people can see the current status and spontaneously add themselves.

Logistics

Buildup

Takedown

Subvillages

Plans

Village \ Circus Content

Seen in a few workshop tents at EMF, have a printed schedule in large type size taped somewhere visible for visitors and volunteers so they can easy spot and check schedule. Where applicable, have additional info about content taped next to schedule. Sign up links/QR, workshop provider contact details, more info/reading qr links etc.

Whiskyleaks

Milliways' famous Whiskyleaks event; Self organizing, repeating, turned into a legend. Many bottles arrive, none leave. Bring a bottle of your favourite whisky (or other spirits) and share it with other passionate drinkers. If you can’t bring a bottle, come along - bring one next time!

Suggestion; Sunday 10th Aug

WOPR

Let's re-imagine NORAD's War Operation Plan Response (WOPR) SuperComputer from the beloved WarGames film as a theme befitting bar in the Milliways village at WHY!

Coin

Deco \ Art

We need to do a CfP for deco and art for our village.

Free Beer

Generator Sound System

No diesel generators? We'll emulate them using a few boxes generating the unique noise that has accompanied us the last camps.

Infrastructure

Dome

As we learned at EMF, A new tarp can be ruined after several strong gusts of wind. We need ground ankers and 200m of high tensile rope for each dome to prevent this from happening again + improved plans on setting up the dome and adding a tarp so it's clear for newbies.

Weeze_Storage

History

Milliways has attended several hackercamps in NL;