tonight on Twitter there was a pretty decent discussion between myself, thePrez, Legion from 303, Jeff Jarmoc, and others regarding the DEFCON Workshops.
a great deal of differing opinion is out there, and i'd love to see how people here on the forums, the core DEFCON community, feels about these sessions.
i, personally, have come down on one side of the fence but i'm going to do my best to keep an open mind about the matter until we actually complete DC19 and the feedback can be heard from all sides. overall, however, i have always loved the fact that DEFCON had been a "pay at the door then the world is your oyster" type of event. there weren't (to my knowledge) any other costs for any of the contests, mini-events, parties, etc etc etc.
i don't especially like seeing a change in this paradigm. this is because something very meaningful went hand-in-hand with the "one badge gets you everything" policy. it meant that every new and fun thing to come along simply had to be free-of-charge. when i brought the TOOOL Lockpick Village here, we decided right then that all of the content (the hardware, the supplies, the lessons, the availability of staff for Q&A) would be freely available to all. (yes, we sell lockpick kits and such, but all of the same items are also scattered around the Village for people to use. sales are just in case people want a pristine, nice version to take home themselves.)
under the newly-emerging paradigm, it's almost as if something like the Lockpick Village would be handled by us dumping a bunch of hardware on tables for people to "play with" and then saying "so, if you want lessons on how this stuff works, the big names on the TOOOL staff will be in this separate room, elsewhere, where you can come to learn all day long (missing out on much of DEFCON in the process) and be sure to bring your wallet because there are additional costs.
i realize i'm over-simplifying... but there is a change in the air, and it's not one that i'm 100% comfortable with. i do hope that people get to enjoy a lot of new material, of course, and i hope that the workshops go well (many of the listed trainers are friends of mine and i wish them well... those who attend will surely be learning from some of the best. it's a pity that it means more costs and cutting a whole big chunk of your DEFCON time)
a great deal of differing opinion is out there, and i'd love to see how people here on the forums, the core DEFCON community, feels about these sessions.
i, personally, have come down on one side of the fence but i'm going to do my best to keep an open mind about the matter until we actually complete DC19 and the feedback can be heard from all sides. overall, however, i have always loved the fact that DEFCON had been a "pay at the door then the world is your oyster" type of event. there weren't (to my knowledge) any other costs for any of the contests, mini-events, parties, etc etc etc.
i don't especially like seeing a change in this paradigm. this is because something very meaningful went hand-in-hand with the "one badge gets you everything" policy. it meant that every new and fun thing to come along simply had to be free-of-charge. when i brought the TOOOL Lockpick Village here, we decided right then that all of the content (the hardware, the supplies, the lessons, the availability of staff for Q&A) would be freely available to all. (yes, we sell lockpick kits and such, but all of the same items are also scattered around the Village for people to use. sales are just in case people want a pristine, nice version to take home themselves.)
under the newly-emerging paradigm, it's almost as if something like the Lockpick Village would be handled by us dumping a bunch of hardware on tables for people to "play with" and then saying "so, if you want lessons on how this stuff works, the big names on the TOOOL staff will be in this separate room, elsewhere, where you can come to learn all day long (missing out on much of DEFCON in the process) and be sure to bring your wallet because there are additional costs.
i realize i'm over-simplifying... but there is a change in the air, and it's not one that i'm 100% comfortable with. i do hope that people get to enjoy a lot of new material, of course, and i hope that the workshops go well (many of the listed trainers are friends of mine and i wish them well... those who attend will surely be learning from some of the best. it's a pity that it means more costs and cutting a whole big chunk of your DEFCON time)
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