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Re: what are people's opinions?
Replying to last to point out the boat-missing that I see in this thread, all due respect to those throwing down.
At a conference like Defcon with 8k+ attendees, it's almost impossible to squeeze into an hour-long presentation of content among the masses (aka hundreds); let alone have the opportunity to participate in a focused, guided learning experience among handfuls of others.
Nothing is free. You are footing the cost of flight/hotel/timeoff/admission/etc for the opportunity to freely exchange info with others. The TBBQ isn't free, its glued together by donations and an organizer that puts down to make it happen. The Ninja Party isn't free, the ninjas have put down k-bucks year after year to make it happen, then sanely accepted some $$ from Facebook to throw the biggest baddest bash that Defcon has seen. Holy pogostick, they had an entire hotel with booze-icecream and arcade cabinets .. The Defcon admission doesn't begin to cover any of the cool clutch things we take for granted, I can only imagine it and the countless volunteers barely put a dent in the core event.
Not everyone is a hacker. Actually, at this point I would consider a small fraction of the attendees to fit in that category. That doesn't mean it's game over, it means the game is different. That means the onus is on hackers to lead by example and spread the mindset to those that don't get it, or choose to hang elitist and wallow in the societal crumbs you've snatched. Circumventing the corporate aspect to training doesn't mean magicly free or funded by someone else, it means finding a way to make it happen without the profit drive by those that want to make it happen. I'd have more of an issue if the badge cost jumped to $200 just to fund the workshop for a limited few. Totally not the case here.
The offering seems much more like an opportunity for the attendee than the conference/presenter. This is an opportunity to reg into a smaller workshop at a _magnitude_ less cost than trying to do the same at other venues like Blackhat, SANS, etc. Is it for me? Notsomuch. Is it a bad idea? Hardly.
Replying to last to point out the boat-missing that I see in this thread, all due respect to those throwing down.
At a conference like Defcon with 8k+ attendees, it's almost impossible to squeeze into an hour-long presentation of content among the masses (aka hundreds); let alone have the opportunity to participate in a focused, guided learning experience among handfuls of others.
Nothing is free. You are footing the cost of flight/hotel/timeoff/admission/etc for the opportunity to freely exchange info with others. The TBBQ isn't free, its glued together by donations and an organizer that puts down to make it happen. The Ninja Party isn't free, the ninjas have put down k-bucks year after year to make it happen, then sanely accepted some $$ from Facebook to throw the biggest baddest bash that Defcon has seen. Holy pogostick, they had an entire hotel with booze-icecream and arcade cabinets .. The Defcon admission doesn't begin to cover any of the cool clutch things we take for granted, I can only imagine it and the countless volunteers barely put a dent in the core event.
Not everyone is a hacker. Actually, at this point I would consider a small fraction of the attendees to fit in that category. That doesn't mean it's game over, it means the game is different. That means the onus is on hackers to lead by example and spread the mindset to those that don't get it, or choose to hang elitist and wallow in the societal crumbs you've snatched. Circumventing the corporate aspect to training doesn't mean magicly free or funded by someone else, it means finding a way to make it happen without the profit drive by those that want to make it happen. I'd have more of an issue if the badge cost jumped to $200 just to fund the workshop for a limited few. Totally not the case here.
The offering seems much more like an opportunity for the attendee than the conference/presenter. This is an opportunity to reg into a smaller workshop at a _magnitude_ less cost than trying to do the same at other venues like Blackhat, SANS, etc. Is it for me? Notsomuch. Is it a bad idea? Hardly.
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