Call for Contributions: Bitcoin Weekend at the London Hackspace, 24/25 Sept 2011
Martin Dittus
Hello,
a few weeks ago I met Amir Taaki of the Bitcoin Consultancy and asked him to give a talk. This has now gradually morphed into a full weekend of Bitcoin-related talks, discussions, and workshops. It will take place on the weekend of 24/25 Sept at the London Hackspace. We're quite excited about it; there have been very few Bitcoin contributor meetings so far, even outside the UK. We'll try to record the talks and will make the videos public.
I don't want to have a revolutionary attitude about it; I'm more interested in a sober account of the system and the community. Judging by what I learned so far it's hard to get past the hysteria, so I'm trying to use this event to bring some clarity.
Want to participate? Or know anybody else we should ask? Get in touch with me here or at mar...@dekstop.de
PLEASE don't use this thread as an opportunity to share your opinions of the Bitcoin system. Start your own thread; I'm trying to get stuff done here.
Some of the confirmed attendees:
* Amir Taaki ("genjix") is an open source software developer, co-founder of the Bitcoin Consultancy, the author of libbitcoin, has helped build a few Bitcoin exchanges and is running one himself (Britcoin, the UK's largest exchange.)
* Jason Chia is a member of the Bitcoin Consultancy and a barrister in the UK specialising in corporate law.
* Vladimir Marchenko was previously known as the author of the FileDonkey and Figator P2P search engines. He is currently running a private supercomputer which is one of the largest private bitcoin mining operations in the UK, and possibly the world.
* Gary Mulder has worked in IT for 20 years with a long-term interest in economics and has taken a recent interest in Bitcoin. We might pair him up with some actual economists.
We're particularly interested in:
* software developers familiar with the Bitcoin codebase
* cryptographers who can comment on Bitcoin crypto mechanisms
* admins/developers with experience running Bitcoin infrastructure
* economists and lawyers/barristers with a good understanding of Bitcoin, and optimally some practical experience
* Bitcoin merchants and exchange providers
... but generally we're just curious to hear your suggestions. We're not necessarily looking for someone prolific; we're looking for someone who can understand, explain and critique these systems. Put them in a wider context.
Non-topical contributions are appreciated as well. We're especially looking for people who can film the event, or who can promote it to potentially interested groups. I will send around an invitation once we have a more detailed plan.
The London Hackspace is run as a non-profit, and we don't have a budget to pay people for talks. Attendance will be in the low-dozens rather than hundreds, but (as you know) we draw a passionate crowd of specialists and hackers of all kinds of interesting backgrounds.
You can check us out here:
http://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/
http://flickr.com/groups/londonhackspace/pool/
Hoping to hear from you!
Martin Dittus