WHYcast transcript episode 37

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Transcript 37

Nancy: Hi and welcome to the WHYcast episode 37. I'm Nancy. I'm Ad. And we are the hosts of the only podcast about a hacker camp in the universe. This volunteer-run event will take place this year in the Netherlands, approximately 42 kilometers north of Amsterdam from August 8 to 12.

Nancy: So Ad, what are we talking about today?

Ad: Today we are talking about the news. We have an interview, we have a where-to hack, we have vacancies, and we have messages from listeners.

[Unknown]: Sounds like any other week. But there are a few slight differences because one of the things for the news was we went to Tito's.

Ad: One of the things for the news was we went to Tito's. Yeah, we split ourselves up. So I was there on Sunday with another podcast and a lot of people.

Nancy: Saturday with a lot of cool target-minded people as well, and you were there on Sunday with another podcast and a lot of cool white-minded people as well. How was your tea dose?

Ad: It was cool. The internet connection did have a problem yet again, but that is tradition. We did an episode of my other podcast, the Angry Nerds Podcast in Dutch, and that was pretty cool because we had some people from the stands in the central hall of the event come join us at the table and talk about why they're there and what they're doing. Basically, we would also like to hear from you if you are coming to WHY and what you are going to do at WHY, people at home—or if you're in a team, what you are doing with your team. Come join us.

Nancy: Yeah, and I was on Saturday, and I also did a presentation about the history and the future of Dutch hacker camps together with Crystal. We had to do the presentation in Dutch, by the way, because we didn't have any English-speaking non-Dutch speakers in the audience, and that was fun. We also spoke to Team Sysadmin, Team Volunteers, Team Deco, Team Project Lighting, Team Waste—so we had a blast.

Nancy: The day before Tito's I was at Crystal's place because we wanted to prepare some things for the opening on August 8. We'll be on stage opening the whole event. We're both the types of people who love to be well prepared—especially because we're doing it together, unlike earlier editions. We had a nice chat and then came up with the idea that it would be cool to let the event be opened by all the volunteers—well, at least one volunteer per team.

Nancy: So we started recording that. Still a lot of teams to go. Probably on June 21 we'll have an in-person org meet at Rest Space in The Hague. If you want to meet your organ team members, please be there and sign up on the wiki. I'll probably be there; it will take you maybe five seconds to record it with me. If you aren't there, I will reach out to ask you to come online or send in a short video recording in which you say, “Hi, welcome to WHY from Team Project Landing in my case.” You can record that on your phone—not fancy, just something to show all the people, or as many as possible, who make this happen. Yes, we're on stage, but it's not about us. There are 150–160 people, 42 teams working together to make this happen, and we want to showcase them, not just us being on stage.

[Unknown]: Which are now at this point of recording—32, 33 tickets sold. Wow.

Nancy: Yeah, and probably when this episode airs there will be fewer than 250 tickets left.

Ad: Wow, that's amazing. Yes, and the cool thing is last time MCH—3,220 tickets were sold for MCH, the last Dutch hacker camp in 2022. That was right after corona, so people were hesitant to go to a big outdoor event, but it's really cool that we surpassed the MCH mark.

Nancy: We're still trying to figure out with teams if it's possible to have more people on the fields, but we're not sure yet because more people means more effort and it's two months and two days to go. We don't want to burn out volunteers. We're in close contact with the teams who would be affected by more people to figure out if it works and how many is a nice number. It could still be that we say, “Sold out is sold out—that's it, tickets are gone, bad luck, see you in four years.” So if you're on the fence, buy now. Don't wait too long.

Nancy: Also, by the end of June ticket prices will go up again to the pre-cruising earth price. Don't procrastinate—buy your ticket. We don't judge: you can be a progressive nerd. I know I've paid the ADHD tax; I know how this works. It's fine; we love you. But be gentle to your wallet and buy before July 1.

Nancy: Let me check the notes—am I forgetting something? Tito's was amazing as always. I loved that Peter opened the event Saturday morning by saying, “Welcome to Fostam,” which I found hilarious—dream big, man. We had loads of fun and took some cool pictures, which we shared on Mastodon. If you aren't following us on social media, please do. We have great content coming out in the next couple of weeks, and you can stay up to date with news and things like that.

Ad: Exactly. Click all the buttons at the bottom of the post because the algorithm likes that, and then more people can see it, and we can sell out the last 250 tickets as well.

Nancy: Yes—this felt like a bit of a monologue, but a lot is going on, so that's fine. Now we can go to the next part of the show.

Ad: You did the interview, so it's even more fancy—it's your podcast, buddy.

Nancy: Yep. Also at Tito's the Angry Nerds were present doing a live show on stage in the main area during lunch, and that was pretty cool. One of the founding members of the Angry Nerds Podcast is Marcel.

Ad: Marcel has been in radio for more than 25 years, even though you'd never guess it—he looks 25. He's been doing the Angry Nerds Podcast for many years, and I've been part of it for five or six years now. It's a long-running show. He accused me of jumping him—I asked him, “Can I please interview you about your village?”—because he's taking care of podcasting at WHY. I had a lot of fun talking to him about the Podcast Village, and what I learned is that there will be two professional podcast studios, workshops on how to podcast, live broadcasts, and if you already have a podcast you can just use their mobile setup at WHY. How cool is that?

Nancy: Okay, let's jump into the interview. Today we have yet another village here to talk about what cool stuff they're going to do. Marcel, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your plans for WHY?

Marcel: Yeah, I'm a podcaster and I've been doing this for a very, very long time. The idea was to bring the podcast to WHY as we did at MCH, which was a lot of fun, so we want to do it again.

Nancy: What's the name of the podcast?

Marcel: The Angry Nerds Podcast.

Nancy: And what are your plans at WHY? Will other people be involved?

Marcel: First, we'll have our regular shows broadcasting live from WHY. We’d also like to facilitate other podcasters—Met Nerds on Tafel, the Cyber Ladies—they’re all very welcome. If you have a podcast or are curious to see how it works, come participate. We’re planning two studios: one for live shows and one for training, workshops, testing, and newbies. Come try things out, learn, or be a guest. Maybe we can improve the WHYcast even more.

Nancy: I don't think you can improve the WHYcast.

Marcel: It's already very good, but this is cool too.

Nancy: Having podcasting as a media outlet on the White field is fantastic. We decided to be a village so we can welcome everyone to come listen, watch, be audience, or podcast themselves.

Marcel: Just come over, sit down, we'll talk about neat stuff. I'm curious how busy it will be, but hopefully we can do a live WHYcast with Ad in the Podcast Village. If not, we'll create a cool after-movie.

Nancy: You’ve been to a lot of camps—right?

Marcel: I’ve only missed two.

Nancy: What would you say to people who’ve never been to a Dutch hacker camp? Why should they come?

Marcel: My condolences—it’s sad you missed it. You should definitely come. It’s one big party, starts Thursday, ends next week, you'll be exhausted but very happy. I'm blown away by all the nice stuff.

Nancy: Any standout memories?

Marcel: I remember parking our camper van opposite the pretty lights in the party area—it was beautiful when you arrive until you try to sleep; you don’t sleep. Advice: decide in advance if you want quiet nights or non-stop partying. I also remember relaxing in a hammock reading my books, but I also volunteered days and learned so much.

Nancy: Angeling is a great way to get involved.

Marcel: At MCH, I have a boating permit so I drove the ferry a couple times when the regular driver was tired. Video switching talks is another useful skill I contributed. It’s fun and you meet nice people.

Nancy: Thank you for your time, Marcel. Everyone, visit the Podcast Village—Dutch and international podcasters are welcome.

Marcel: They're all very welcome.

Nancy: Great—lots of fantastic people from the Dutch scene. I hope that’s helpful for our viewers. That was fun. Last weekend we were at Tito's, but now let’s look at where to hack.

Nancy: Each week we share where to find WHY-minded people. If one hacker camp this summer isn’t enough, people go to BornHack and then proceed to WHY. It’s possible—I was there last year and it was a blast. Slightly smaller than WHY, different atmosphere, in a forest, lots of ticks, so bring gear to remove them. Probably survived the mild winter.

Ad: Yeah, mild winter—be careful.

Nancy: BornHack is amazing, seven days in July 16–23, outdoor. Highly recommended and enough time to recover before WHY on August 8.

[Unknown]: Yep.

Ad: You have a couple weeks to recover—hacker road-trip style.

Ad: If you want to stay closer to home, check out DevOps Days in Amsterdam—workshops, keynotes, lectures.

Nancy: I’ll be giving a keynote on Dutch hacker camps’ history, future, and importance at Pakhuis Zwijger. Fun crossover: I helped facilitate online open spaces during corona, and Haram Boertien volunteers both for DevOps Days and WHY’s Party Area. DevOps Days is a three-day event with a great speaker lineup.

Ad: Yes, Thursday at 9:15 p.m.—my second keynote of the week. Social events are always great, and I see many familiar faces from the hacker scene. DevOps Days are worldwide—also in Eindhoven and Taipei.

Nancy: Both BornHack and DevOps Days still have tickets, which is rare for events we mention. At recording time, tickets are still available. Not only can you see us talk about hacker camps, you can also see what a lot of my WHY-minded friends do—develop stuff—maybe with open spaces and platform talks.

[Unknown]: Yep.

Ad: Normally we’d rattle off vacancies of the week, but I got some cool microphones for on-the-spot interviews. Nancy and I have our own sets, so we interviewed people on Saturday and Sunday and asked about vacancies.

Ad: I ran into Bookworm, your co-chair, and asked if she wanted to do something for the WHYcast. She said yes, so I handed her the mic and ran into Moom from Team Deco to ask the same.

Nancy: Let’s roll that tape.

[On-site Reporter]: Hi and welcome to the WHYcast on location. We’re today at Tito’s for the second day—cheers! We’re here promoting WHY and I’ve seen a lot of white-minded people with white-minded questions. I’ve helped some people over the threshold: if you like conferences like this, you’re probably in your place at WHY.

Ad: At this event there are around 150–160 volunteers across 42 teams, all on a volunteer basis. We still need a few people—what are the vacancies of the week?

[On-site Reporter]: The big ones are merch support: testing samples and helping the supplier hand them out on the field. We’re still looking for a parking coordinator to design the parking space, manage parking tickets, and coordinate with other teams. We always need help with Deco—many teams still need assistance. Check wiki.WHY2025.org/vacancies for details. Thanks and see you at the party!

Moom: Hi, this is Moom from Team Deco. We would really like to have some hands during build-up for WHY. If you’re inclined, please come help us—it will be fun. Team Deco is making all the pretty, colorful things on the terrain and in the tents—mostly outside. Lights—small lights, big lights—some one meter, some several meters. We got a donation of lamps from a museum: three that are 50 cm in diameter, any color, and two that are one meter. They look like planets—they’re huge. So if you want to play with those lights, talk to Moom. Come play with paint, get messy, and have fun. You also do signage—definitely.

Nancy: Thank you very much, Moom, and see you at WHY. We also checked Team Info’s mailbox and had a question about shuttle service.

Ad: Is there public transport to camp?

Nancy: Yes, there will be shuttle service between Alkmaar station and the event. This is not a 24-hour service, but on the most important days it’ll run all day, then switch to on-demand in the evening. Mid-event it’s on-demand because most people have already arrived, and at the end of the event there will be full service during the day and on-demand until midnight. Buses will have GPS trackers so you can see where they are.

Nancy: Shout out to Team Rock. Last time tickets were sold separately for the shuttle; this time it’s free with your WHY ticket. Five electric buses will run—green as we can be, though we do have flamethrowers and fire.

Ad: Yeah, but we’re mindful.

Nancy: I think that’s the end of the list.

Ad: Thank you all so much for listening and watching. If you have any feedback, put it in the description below or send an email to whycast@why2025.org.

Nancy: Oh, and if you have cool ideas for episode 42, let us know at the same address.

Ad: If you want to send in your “welcome to the WHYcast” in your language, or tell us what you’re going to do at WHY, send it in.

Ad: And while you’re on socials, like and subscribe—algorithms love it. Thanks all, and hope to see you next Friday—WHYday?