DESCON 6.0 IoT Hackathon - climate change, sustainability and low-tech Click here to view all session recordings!

    ABOUT DESCON 6.0

    In its sixth year, DESCON 6.0 continues to explore the relationship between ecology and technology. After many hacks for water and air pollution measurement, wind turbines, and solar power technologies during previous IoT hackathons, in 2020 we delve deeper into sustainability and low-tech.

    Together, let’s question how to think, act, and better design our future, our energy sources and how we look after our world. What can be done about the anthropogenic climate change impact on Earth’s geology and its ecosystems so far?

    Scientists say we need negative-emissions technology to reach the pledge the world has made to keep global warming below 2℃. That means we ought to suck out the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, not just stop the flow by curbing emissions. In other words, we need to start the reverse process really fast to keep the social cost of CO2 emissions down.

    Using resources in a responsible way not only helps us sustain our planet by curbing our consumerism and mass production, but challenges us to think about how to design with less while allowing for critical mass innovation.

    We invite you to join us for another DESCON, this year in a new virtual format to adapt to the current global crisis. We are swapping our usual two-day in-person IoT Hackathon event for a five-day set of online keynotes, cryptoparty and 24-hour capture the flag challenge, as well as one online and one, in real life, open software and open hardware workshop.

    Once again, we have lined up great international and local presenters for you to interact with, while you can also submit a lightning talk for a chance to present during the event. See the full event schedule below for more details.

    We look forward to connecting with you soon and inspiring you to do more for our planet by using less.

    Register

    DESCON IOT HACKATHON DURING COVID-19

    As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the world, everything that we are used to has changed, including our lives, habits and communication. For this reason, we have decided to organise our annual DESCON IoT Hackathon virtually this year. To take care of your privacy, we have chosen BigBlueButton (BBB) as our DESCON 6.0 event platform to avoid the vulnerabilities that closed web conferencing systems may encounter.

    This global crisis has helped to highlight why we must care about the air we breathe. Accordingly, we proudly present the “Air to the People 2.0” ISOC Serbia, Belgrade Chapter project, supported by the Internet Society Foundation. This project is an expansion of the citizen’s initiative to build a nation-wide open data network of sensors that help to measure air pollution and concentration of PM 1, PM 2.5 and PM 10 particles using the DIY IoT open source and open hardware device “Klimerko”, the DESCON 4.0 winning product.

    On Sat, 31 Oct, you will have the opportunity to attend a workshop on “How to assemble Klimerko”, organised together with the PSSOH conference. Once installed on your window, balcony or other outdoor space, Klimerko will measure air quality in real-time. With Klimerko, we can prepare for the coming winter and protect ourselves from COVID-19, which could spread faster when high air pollution is present, especially as we spend more time in closed spaces.

    HOW TO JOIN?

    DESCON 6.0 is a free event. Simply register through this link and join us for the sessions that interest you. Instructions on how to connect will be sent to all registrants prior to the event.

    ONLINE DESCON VENUES

    With every DESCON IoT Hackathon, our aim has been to create an inspiring and collaborative atmosphere through our carefully selected venues. This year, we wish to recreate this as best as we can through the following virtual rooms:

    Main venue – a dedicated BBB room where all the talks and workshops will take place.
    Separate BBB chat rooms – for additional networking between participants.
    Discord chat room – for Klimerko makers.
    Online Bar “At the End of the Internet” – Join this special BBB room and let DJ Flip take you on a journey through our galaxy. Get comfortable, grab your headset and lose yourself in hypnotic and lo-fi visualisations accompanied by sounds from our solar system and planets.

    CALL FOR PARTICIPATION & VOLUNTEERS

    We welcome you to submit your talk or project proposal through this form by Tue, 20 Oct. If you are selected, we will inform you within 3 business days so that you have time to prepare yourself. Maybe your project is the one deserving of a new BBB room, so we are waiting for your pitch!

    If you wish to help out during the event, let us know here!

    DESCON 6.0 session recordings are now available for viewing

    Click here to view recordings
    Expand All +

    • Day 1

      Tue, 27 Oct

    • Day 2

      Wed, 28 Oct

    • Day 3

      Thu, 29 Oct

    • Day 4

      Fri, 30 Oct

    • Day 5

      Sat, 31 Oct

    • Our annual DESCON IoT Hackathon has a new online format in 2020. Join Dez to hear what is planned over the next five days.

    • Our so-called networked society has failed so far to transpose the logic of interconnectedness into our lives. Citizens are becoming increasingly machine-like and dependent on data, threatening the connection between humans and their natural habitats. Although most of our daily transactions are carried out through electronic devices, we know very little of the apparatus that facilitates such interactions, or in other words, about the factory that lies beyond the interface. In this talk, artist Joana Moll will try to trace the connection between interface design, data, language, business models, free labour, surveillance, CO2 and domesticated electricity.
      Keynote

    • Introducing a novel minimalistic approach to cybersecurity: personal hardware for end-to-end secure communication, with near-zero attack surface, no backends, and universal applications. Code Talker is the first product in this line, in the form factor of a Bluetooth headset, providing secure voice over any audio link. This talk will address major issues - technical, political and ideological - in the current cybersecurity landscape, and offer some ways of dealing with them.
      Presentation

    • This session will be held in Serbian only. It will be posted with English subtitles at a later date.

      Pridružite nam se u ovoj retkoj prilici da čujete Voju Antonića, autora prvog jugoslovenskog kućnog računara 'Galaksija', i tvorca više od 50 objavljenih projekata namenjenih entuzijastima iz 'uradi sam' zajednice. Kroz opušten razgovor sa Dez, i prilikom za postavljanje pitanja iz publike, Voja će govoriti o svom pogledu na kreativne izazove i principe u razvoju hardvera i softvera.

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      Join us for this unique opportunity to hear from Voja Antonić, author of Galaksija, the first ex-YU home computer, and more than 50 open projects published and shared with DIY enthusiasts. Through a relaxed conversation with Dez and opportunity for Q&A with the audience, Voja will share his insights into creative challenges and design principles for software and hardware.
      Presentation

    • To combat climate change, our infrastructures will need to get “smarter,” but an internet-connected infrastructures are vulnerable to new threats. How can encryption help secure the smart infrastructure of the future?
      Lightning Talk

    • Join us for the first in a series of three cryptoparties with the purpose of educating and spreading the word about free and open source software that can be used to protect everyday communication and web surfing. You will learn about recommendations for secure communication, privacy in email and I.M., as well as privacy-friendly alternatives to online video conferencing and private or off-the-record web surfing. Next, we will be protecting your personal computer and improving security practices on passwords and personal data and applications.

      The following two cryptoparties will be organised online in Nov and Dec 2020. Sessions details will be published on the ISOC Serbia, Belgrade Chapter site.
      Workshop

    • Twenty years ago the internet was conceived as an open technology that would bring equality and freedom. Today, it is a space structured by patriarchal, capitalist practices: surveillance, digital colonialism, misinformation, or sexism - just to name a few. How can we fight these inequalities and initiate social change?

      Feminist Futures is an ongoing participatory art project that initiates, creates and archives science fiction stories of a feminist internet. During the Feminist Futures workshop, we will first map current issues of the internet and get into a debate. Second, we use imagination and narration as tools to re-imagine the Internet through stories, comics or poems. Fiction, in this context, becomes a cultural communal practice that enables political action by re-writing and co-creating feminist futures.

      This workshop is limited to 25 participants. Please register your interest to participate here.

      Find out more about Feminist Futures here.
      Workshop

    • When COVID-19 erupted in Serbia and the first curfews began, mobile carriers and ISPs were struggling at different points in time and space. Why did this happen, how could it be avoided, and what are the possible future scenarios for data flow during this crisis?
      Lightning Talk

    • At this moment in the 21st century, we see a new form of extractivism that is well underway: one that reaches into the furthest corners of the biosphere and the deepest layers of human cognitive and affective being. The stack behind contemporary technological systems goes well beyond the multi-layered ‘technical stack’ of data modeling, hardware, servers and networks. The full stack reaches much further into capital, labor and nature, and demands an enormous amount of each. The true costs of these systems – social, environmental, economic, and political – remain hidden and may stay that way for some time. This map and accompanying footnotes are one big messy assemblage of different concepts and ideas, assembled into one semi-coherent picture or let us say a map, a world view. The concepts presented are mostly represented here visually in the form of allegories. All of these allegories and concepts together, joined in the form of an assemblage, create together a blueprint of a machine-like superstructure, or a super allegory. In that sense, what we have here is an almost fractal allegorical structure—an allegory within an allegory within an allegory.
      Presentation

    • Low-tech Magazine questions the belief in technological progress, and highlights the potential of past knowledge and technologies for designing a sustainable society. Because a web redesign was long overdue — and because we try to practice what we preach — we decided to build a low-tech website that meets our needs and abides by our principles.
      Presentation

    • Petar Simovic from Hacklab Belgrade will introduce the 24-hour Capture the Flag challenge, which starts at 8:00 pm Fri, 30 Oct. The winning team will be announced during the closing session on Sat, 31 Oct.

      The challenge begins here: https://ctf.descon.me

    • Let DJ Flip take you on a journey through our galaxy. Get comfortable, grab your headset and lose yourself in hypnotic and lo-fi visualisations accompanied by sounds from our solar system and planets.
      Online Bar

    • This session will be held in Serbian
      Please note: while this workshop will take place IRL at ETF in Belgrade, it will also be streamed live during DESCON.

      Klimerko je uređaj koji meri kvalitet vazduha tako što meri količinu PM čestica u vazduhu kao i temperaturu, vlažnost vazduha i pritisak. Cilj ove radionice je da sve učesnike upoznamo sa Klimerkom (lokalnim projektom otvorenog hardvera), a zatim da demonstriramo kako neko može sam da sastavi i postavi kod kuće Klimerka.

      17:00–17:30 Prezentacija Klimerka i inicijative “Vazduh građanima" - Dez & Vanja Stanić
      17:30–18:30 Demonstracija sastavljanja Klimerka - Vanja Stanić, Dez & Nikola Todorović

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      In partnership with the PSSOH conference, this post-conference in-real-life workshop will introduce you to Klimerko and demonstrate how to assemble and install one of the devices at home. Klimerko is a DIY air quality measuring device that measures particulate matter in the air as well as temperature, humidity and pressure.

      17:00–17:30 Presentation about Klimerko and “Vazduh građanima” 2.0 initiative - Dez & Vanja Stanić
      17:30–18:30 Demonstration of assembling Klimerko - Vanja Stanić, Dez & Nikola Todorović

      Useful links: Official Klimerko website, Klimerko GitHub
      Workshop
      Where
      Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, Belgrade + Live Stream

    • During this open session, developers, makers, designers and new concerned community members who have already assembled or wish to further develop Klimerko are invited to share their ideas and discuss future development needs, compatibility of measurements, etc. We will continue ideas discussed in our Klimerko Discord and Element rooms.
      Workshop

    • Join Dez as she announces the Capture the Flag winners and officially closes DESCON 6.0.