A small tent is pitched on the grassy top of an old Soviet airplane bunker, a black skull-and-crossbones flag flying at its front. Spread out below are hundreds of other tents, a geodesic dome, hackers in sandals and straw hats, or black T-shirts and the rosy beginnings of sunburns.
The first hours of Chaos Communication Camp are underway. Like many here, I arrived by train from Berlin, along with fellow campers from Stockholm, California, and elsewhere in Germany. This being Germany, of course, the arrangements are anything but chaotic: Shuttles met us at the small-town train station, meals and shower facilities are plentiful, fiber optic cables are strung across the camping ground, giving the laptop-loving crowd both power and Net access.
The camp is being held at a former Soviet airfield called Finowfurt, now a museum dedicated to Cold War-era military aircraft. The all-day conference presentations are being held in the facility's massive old hangers, curved concrete ceilings looming over rows of folding chairs, thick steel-reinforced concrete doors sliding aside at the beginning of the day.
The early atmosphere is one of holiday. Open laptops are naturally everywhere in evidence, and little groups congregate to discuss their various projects, with the most surprising or audacious (some of which will be detailed here later) drawing oohs and nods of approval. But there are families here too, a toddler wearing a Linux T-shirt sleeping in a stroller, and a entire kindergarten and family campsite set apart from the rest.
For slow moments, bright blue hammocks are strung throughout a grove of trees underneath a spinning disco ball. Refreshment stands offer ice cream, Thai soups and Indian mango lhassis, as well as the more ubiquitous German beer.
Organizer Tim Pritlove greets the overflow crowd with a few welcoming words, a reminder to drink enough water, and a warning about the decommissioned MiG fighters scattered around the museum grounds. They're rare planes, he says, "so please don't remove anything, don't attach anything, and don't try to fly them."
