[CryptoParty] Media Inquiries

Wed Jul 24 08:00:48 GMT 2013

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hey Josh,

welcome to the list it is great to hear from you.

On 24/07/13 05:32, Josh Scott wrote:
> Yes I agree its important to gain consent. I have already had a
> request from another photo-journalist to come and I informed him
> that all are welcome at the monthly CryptoParties however he must
> gain consent before any pictures are taken.

IMO asking for permission of the participants is the correct approach.

Here is a practical suggestion: at Cryptoparty London, we made a brief
announcement at the beginning of the event and aksed all members of
the press in the room to raise their hands and identify themselves. We
then told everyone in the room that permission was required before
photographs are taken. Simple as that.

But as Malte said, we need both events that do and do not allow in the
press in their official capacity as press. Also, the same applies to
guests taking photographs and you will find this culture is common at
hacker conferences too- it is just polite to ask. Also we need to
understand and embrace social and political differences, for example I
believe it is the case that in Germany the law actually states that
you can legally require someone to delete a photo of you.

 I also make myself available for OTR
> CryptoParties and more private sessions to those who are trying to
> be more discreet since meeting at an open public event might be too
> risky.

Yes, many of the other Cryptoparty groups offer sessions for activists
or social orgs and these are often very small, discrete, private
sessions. Keep it up!

> At a session like that journalists would be barred.
> 
> Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I guess I just felt that
> since these are publicly held meetings vs. private education
> sessions there should be less opposition to the press.

I would not say there is opposition as such, just healthy cynicism.
There is a great synergy to be had between 'Hacks and Hackers'. But
the press is always subject to editorial oversight and, unfortunately,
this introduces bias to what otherwise might be a straightforward
story: "this event happened, people had fun, people learned something"

In fact we need to be more media savvy and make sure there are more
positive stories about Crypto in the press, see 22C3 talk:

I found it a bit disturbing that
> NONE of the other US based CryptoParties were open.

Well the press could have attended as participants and not as press,
so in that sense they are open.

If we continue to
> operate in secrecy its going to breed mistrust and soon there will
> be one world order type rumors flying about Crypto Party.

a) our main website has always been a publicly-editable wiki
b) we have a public mailing list

Josh, I also had a question for you re:
https://twitter.com/scottjosh/status/359804761433833473

"@Asher_Wolf @CryptoPartyFFM @CryptoParty_ @samthetechie @jselzer Its
all been a clusterfuck since http://cryptoparty.org  went down."

Can you please explain a little bit more what you meant by this tweet,
and also outline some ways to make things better? This would be more
productive in order to engage the hard-working volunteers (mostly from
Germany) who have filled the gap when the .org website unexpectedly
went down. I also note that you have used the wiki so thanks for that!
https://www.cryptoparty.in/dfwtexas

Kind Regards,

samthetechie

> 
> 
> On 7/23/2013 10:16 PM, ml at enteig.net wrote:
>> Hi Josh,
>> 
>> On Tue, 23 Jul 2013, Josh Scott wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello Everyone! I have been organizing a CryptoParty in Dallas,
>>> TX USA since January of this year. Last week we were approached
>>> by a reporter at the AP doing a story about how people are
>>> changing their habits based off of the leaks by Edward Snowden
>>> and asked if we could have a photographer came by and take some
>>> pictures. I agreed and the photographer was good about asking
>>> for consent before taking pictures.
>> 
>> This is great!
>> 
>>> The photographer mentioned that none of the other CryptoParties
>>> in the US would agree to letting a Photographer in. Why would
>>> you bar the press from doing a story about CryptoParty? Isn't
>>> the whole point to get the word out and teach as many people as
>>> possible?
>> 
>> But it is not the whole point. The point is in teaching as many
>> people as possible _in a friendly and welcoming environment_.
>> Many people feel uncomfortable with cameras around.
>> 
>> 
>>> I thought I just saw something about a German CryptoParty
>>> getting featured on a network news segment.
>> 
>> Yes. There are some which allow cameras and some that don't. Both
>> is needed.
>> 
>> What, in my opinion, is important, is, that the possible presence
>> of cameras or other surveillance equipment is clearly
>> communicated upfront.
>> 
>> 
>>> Anyways I figured that I should probably alert people about the
>>> AP story. Since yesterday I have gotten some media inquiries
>>> and you might too since the AP story got picked up everywhere
>>> and there seems to be some media interest in cryptoparty in
>>> general now.
>> 
>> "Brace yourselves..." (;
>> 
>>> The AP story briefly mentions cryptoparty but the pictures are
>>> all from the Dallas CryptoParty from last week.
>>> 
>>> http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nsa-revelations-reframe-digital-life-some
>>
>>
>>> 
Nice. Rock on!
>> 
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> Malte
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________ CryptoParty
>> mailing list CryptoParty at kuix.de 
>> https://kuix.de/mailman/listinfo/cryptoparty
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________ CryptoParty mailing
> list CryptoParty at kuix.de 
> https://kuix.de/mailman/listinfo/cryptoparty

- -- 
Samuel Carlisle BEng (Hons) Dunelm MIET
pgp: 0x54828CAA
fingerprint: 9E01 D8A4 CFEB ED72 B0D2 70D7 1D57 A297 5482 8CAA
twitter: @samthetechie
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJR74mwAAoJEB1XopdUgoyqLXkIAI/YL08lCCwLqeJREP5JsiC3
Rz+WVKeC6ku+plLK5FBTJAGhITteuUFNp4PQ/QJrKZv5y51xdlaZmK1bR3KTBbAo
dIoemYNlcRX/Nu+4bB4wBhxg7DueNlfVjnGJZKkYzcn0oRaRxMWPoq45vIDgsSQ+
jAsPi6fHFwxUU16JhYYnwR26PJOnSBAxMLcZd/qOvWoq0kRAx732bYNWFyHe1nlA
cEfchfKHvKl1WQ8k9DqG53oY6ZQ33UtconCI7gdNGboca4bvaEGQ+5KCDUrPBnCe
7T4OOb/MRhOB349K3wX5efqbvmRSpDNC6+00D4Bv1wokHFhW8q+NzgQLoaYBXWM=
=eZwb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----