[mch2021-orga] Call for Comments on Call for Papers

[Robin Edgar]

Hi all,
Team: Content has settled pretty much on the following text for the CfP. We
understand that there is always room for improvement and so we would like
to invite you all to comment away on this until the first of June. We will
take your feedback on board to finalise the text before sending it out.
Thanks for your help!

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Call for Participation to MCH2021

May Contain Hackers 2021 is requesting proposals for participation,
including content

TL;DR: submit here  [URL]

*What is May Contain Hackers 2021 (MCH2021)?*

MCH2021 is a five-day international outdoor technology and security
conference, to be held in the Netherlands, running from the 6th till the 10th
of August 2021. We are calling for participation in the form of talks,
workshops, installations, volunteers - the only limits are your imagination!

*Is this a new thing?*

No, it is the 9th edition of an event with a proud lineage and which
happens every four year. Starting with the Galactic Hacker Party in 1989
and going outdoors with Hackers at the End of the Universe in 1993, here we
are, several wars and pandemics later, with another outdoor hacker camp. So
there'll be 36 years of history by the time it rolls around.

*Where is it?*
Near Zeewolde, the Netherlands, Europe, Earth. The exact location is the
Scoutinglandgoed in Zeewolde, 55km east of Amsterdam and a bit less than
55km north-east of Utrecht. OSM shows it here:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=52.2844&mlon=5.5219#map=15/52.2844/5.5219&layers=T

*When is it?*

The 6th to the 10th of August 2021.

*What kind of participation are **you **looking for?*

Right now we want your content: the things that you are enthousiastic about
and want to share. Lectures, workshops, art installations, all those kinds
of things.

*What kind of an audience can I expect?*

A motley crew of around 5000 hackers, free-thinkers, philosophers,
activists, geeks, scientists, artists, makers, creative minds, and others
from all over the world will convene to contemplate, reflect, share,
discuss, criticise, look ahead, code, build, and reflect.

*What kind of content are you looking for?*

We're into technology, society and science. We would like this event to be
many things at once and call on you to contribute in the following (or
other interesting) domains: information security, decentralised
infrastructures hardware hacks, 'sploits, surveillance and/or
anti-surveillance, free culture, free software, art, mechatronic or
otherwise. Escapist tinkering with technology on a campground below
sealevel? Yes, please. Dreaming about a solarpunk future? Tell us all about
it. Confronting your fellow participants with the harsh realities of
surveillance capitalism? Come aboard. Launching water rockets with the
little and not-so-little ones? Sounds fantastic! Making trippy
kaleidoscopes of high- and low-tech wonder, seriously reflecting upon
ourselves and the world, wallowing in nostalgic retro-computing,
unadulterated fun as well as catching up with each other? This event is for
all ages.

To give completely three random examples from the past: at SHA2017 there
was a workshop organised by a teenager how to efficiently pack your luggage
for air travel. At OHM2013 there was a literary workshop by the Dutch
writer Arnon Grunberg. At HAR2009 there was a lecture on how to build your
own particle accelerator. So if it is something that gives you a sense of
wonder, tickles your curiosity or just a vehicle to show off your
cleverness, go for it.

*Yes, that is pretty eclectic, is there something that ties the room
together?*

While MCH2021's lineage was buidling up, logistics chains got longer and
more fragile, civil liberties and democracies eroded further and
improvements in information security got swamped by wholesale sectors of
society adopting ICT in ways that ignored hard-learned lessons from the
past. Neither the near-term or long-term future are looking great either.
Part of our joint mission for August 2021 is figuring out how exactly we,
as a community, can deal with this. How to rebound from drastic events,
from the micro- to the macroscale. Because nobody expects a Black Swan and
since we're also pretty good at ignoring elephants in our rooms, the
question is how to be able to rebound from either creature. The future
is *Eventually
Consistent*, it is up to us what kind of consistency it'll have.

*And if I don't like this theme?*

It is up to you to define what will happen at MCH2021. This is a call for
participation to you, the avant-garde of the information revolution and
those who live and breathe technology, subversively or just retro and
everything in between. Help us to create the inconceivable. Submit early,
submit often - submit to MCH2021.

By stepping forward you can help make MCH2021 the most exciting, inspiring
and awesome community-driven event everyone is looking forward to. Submit
your proposal now, and if you know of someone you think should be present,
ask them to submit!

*How can I submit?*

Submissions can be entered through the MCH2021 content submission system:

[URL]

*When does this CfP end?*

The deadline for proposals is February 1st, 2021. If you are from outside
the European Union and have visa requirements with a substantial leadtime,
please mention that in your proposal so we can give it priority for
processing it.

*What happens after Februariy 1st, 2021?*

All proposals submitted before the deadline will be reviewed. Review of
proposals submitted after the deadline may or may not happen. Submission
after the deadline comes with a tacit agreement to bribe the Content Team
with single malt whiskeys. Notifications of acceptance or rejection will
start being sent out before April 30th, 2021. A rejection can also mean
that we would like to recommend your proposal to villages that have their
own programmes, so do not despair.

*When will the program be public?*

The program will be made available incrementally, from May 1st, 2021.

*How is this organised?*

MCH2021 is a non-commercial, self-organised community event. Visitors help
us make it happen. Being a community event means that it is unlike your
typical conference. Luckily just a few hours of collecting bottles
already includes
you in the community instead of being a consumer. This also means that as
rule of thumb almost anyone who will be there, including the speakers, will
have paid their own tickets.

*But I am not a rich Western tech-dude, how can I afford to speak at such
an event?*

Rules of thumbs always have exceptions, so please indicate in your proposal
whether you would need support for attending. Do realise that even if we
are going to support you, there'll be things you'll have to sort out for
yourself, such as travel and lodging.

*Are there proposals you wouldn't like?*

Yes. We are not terribly keen on panels. Having a panel is a format that is
difficult to get right. Neither are we keen on anything that is about
blockchains, at least if they involve proof-of-work blockchains. We think
blockchains are terribly interesting, but very rarely a solution for
anything. We are even less keen on flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers,
climate-denialists, conspiracy theories, crackpot science and nazis.
Especially nazis, fuck nazis.

On behalf of the wider ORGA that is working on making this happen, the MCH2021
Content Team.
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