[Defcon 19] Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

[Club81]

I see from Joe Grand's twitter account that he is not designing the badge, so the obvious question is "Who is doing it and will it be as kick-ass as the previous five years?"

http://twitter.com/joegrand

I guess I don't really care WHO does it (I trust DT and Co. to pick somebody good) just as long as it's cool as hell.

Any updates from anybody in the know?

[kallahar]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

It will not be a self-inking rubber stamp that says DEFCON WAS HERE.
It will not be an airsoft gun.
It *will* sell out, and there will be paper human badges, even if the official badges are also paper.

[The Dark Tangent]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

You mean you guys don't know?

It is L0sT BoY

[TheCotMan]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

You mean you guys don't know?

It is L0sT BoY

You should have posted that on April 1.

Heya Lost[Boy], you found the marble in the oatmeal! This means questions from attendees on status, progress and delivery dates being met... I mean, you get to drink from the firehose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwlTqU1Lw3Y

:-D

Let me be first, how is your progress on this? Will it all come together on time? Any hints on what to expect in the way of puzzles?

[Club81]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

...<stuff Cot said>....how is your progress on this? Will it all come together on time? Any hints on what to expect in the way of puzzles?

ialwayslovedthatone!

[LosT]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

Geez Cot, give away all my secrets...

[TheCotMan]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

Geez Cot, give away all my secrets...

You finding joy with creating and solving puzzles is not a secret, so you must mean my video reference to UHF.

Now people will wonder if that really is or was a secret, or if it is a misdirection.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE

Is this a a secret too, or misdirection? Maybe I am providing lost-like clues as my own disinformation campaign directed at people that will assume you will include puzzles in this badge, like you have in other contests.

[Edit:]
You ever notice that the Tinman was a hacker? Look at the axe he has in his hands!

[acoustica]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

Puzzles in badges?? Nevar!! XD

[Bbox]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

I am sure the badge by this point is already designed, however , my 2 cents or less would be to see a badge that is "glitzy" enough to capture someone's attention but does something that is interesting enough to challenge someone to expand their knowledge through its use.

For me personally the TV B Gone badge (I believe Defcon 16) was that powerful catalyst. It did something I could immediately see and that made me want to learn more about electronics and how that specific technology worked.

If a badge can capture someone's attention (think the smiley face badge with the LEDs) and that gets them thinking about how LEDs work or how to control its flash pattern then its value is far greater than just a cool show badge.

Seeing the contests that Lost has put together in the past and knowing he is a teacher leads me to believe that the badge will probably be multifaceted. It will be something that will be a lot of fun, but will also make us users have to think and challenge us to increase our knowledge.

[LosT]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

I'm going to put this out there right now.

The badge this year is not going to be electronic.

There, I said it.

After many, many talks with DT, Kingpin, Russ, and others, we decided that it was time for a change. It wasn't long after Defcon started doing electronic badges that darn near every conference you went to had an electronic bage.

The badge hacking contest was a great idea, and the number of people actually hacking the badge increased from year to year, but percentage wise the number participating was relatively low. There are many reasons for this, which isn't where I want this post to go.

I appreciate Bbox's comments above in this thread, that the intent of the badge is to get people's attention- I'd carry that further, and say that the badge (IMHO) has roughly three purposes:

1. As a 'security token' showing you paid for and are allowed to be in the conference spaces. This includes the distinction of TYPE of badge- (hell people this is a hacker conference, the OG badge hacking was privilege escalation)

2. Something that fosters learning/curiosity/pondering/thinking <---Translation: Something that appeals to "hackers" (no not going to get into the religious war of trying to define the term "hacker"- I hope that at least 60% 'get' what this means, unlike Dateline...

3. Something that fosters PARTICIPATION in the conference. Something that fosters INTERACTION with others. Something that helps make you a part of the experience/conference. This can be the most difficult, as a hard problem (impossible IMHO) to be everything to everyone. So you do your best.

Now, one has to try and accomplish all of that while NOT requiring the level of time commitment that say participating in the Mystery Challenge does. When people signed up for the Mystery Challenge they knew (for the most part) what they were getting into time wise. Every year the Mystery Challenge ran the most heard complaint I had was that people didn't get to do anything else at the conference due to the time commitment. (Consequently that was ALSO the most heard compliment as well, for those who really enjoyed the stupid stuff I came up with for them to do. I think the biggest compliment I ever got regarding Mystery Challenge was that it was "the only reason I come to Defcon is to compete in the Mystery Challenge".)

The 'badge contest' isn't going to be the Mystery Challenge. What I *do* hope it is is something that meets all the requirements I listed above, especially facilitating making people just plain have a bit of fun while making their Defcon experience a good one.

I really should stop getting up at 4am. I don't do this often, but I see it makes me wax philosophical...

LostboY

[TheWill]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

How has nobody responded to this yet?

Awesome, LosT! Any hints? Want to tap the plethora of hackerspaces for prototyping/fabrication help or contributions?

[kampf]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

Thanks for that LosT. Looking forward to seeing what the badge is this year.

[KillerSpud]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

If you are going to do some mystery badge challenge I would suggest going parallel. Don't just make one badge for all the humans, make 4 or 5 (or more?) different badges, handed out randomly, each with a different set of puzzles and/or tasks. Possibly even some kind of benefit or reward for
the group that finishes first.

This might encourage more random interaction with participants, say you are wandering through the contest room and see a table full of 'blue' badges like your own so you stop and compare notes and brain storm or whatever.

As an electronics guy, I'm a bit disappointed to see the change, but I'm also hopeful that something else awesome emerge!

[0x58]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

At least this year we won't have to worry about the badges making it out of China on time ;-)

[Ellen]

Re: Who is designing the DEFCON 19 badge?

I picture the Mystery Challenge regulars like old war vets right now.. scampering around the house searching for dusty weapons and uniforms. ;)

I'll miss the electronic badge too, but on the bright side maybe we won't have a badge that will slice and stab us when we least expect it. Then again.. maybe it will. This is Lost. ;p