The Hackers Conference is an annual invitation-only gathering of

designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

s and

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

s to discuss the latest developments and innovations in the

computer industry A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

. On a daily basis, many

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

s only interact virtually, and therefore rarely have face-to-face contact. The conference is a time for hackers to come together to share ideas.

History

The first Hackers Conference was organized in 1984 in

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, by

Stewart Brand Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American project developer and writer, best known as the co-founder and editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He has founded a number of organizations, including the WELL, the Global Business Networ ...

and his associates at Whole Earth and The Point Foundation. It was conceived in response to

Steven Levy Steven Levy (born 1951) is an American journalist and editor at large for '' Wired'' who has written extensively for publications on computers, technology, cryptography, the internet, cybersecurity, and privacy. He is the author of the 1984 boo ...

's book, '' Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution'', which inspired Brand to arrange a meeting between the individuals, or "

s", the book named. The first conference's roughly 150 attendees included

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

Ted Nelson Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''hypertext'' and ''hypermedia'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. According to his 1997 ''Forbes'' p ...

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, John Draper, Richard Greenblatt, Robert Woodhead, and Bob Wallace. The gathering has been identified as instrumental in establishing the

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

ethos attributed to

cyberculture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

, and was the subject of a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

documentary, produced by KQED: Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age.

Participants at the original 1984 Hackers Conference

Here is the list of participants at the original 1984 Hackers Conference, given in the contact list distributed to participants titled "List of Participants at the Hackers' Conference November 9–11, 1984" Arthur Abraham, Roe Adams, Phil Agre, Dick Ainsworth,

Bob Albrecht Bob Albrecht is a key figure in the early history of microcomputers. He was one of the founders of the People's Computer Company and its associated newsletters which turned into ''Dr. Dobb's Journal.'' He also brought the first Altair 8800 to the ...

, Bill Atkinson, Bill Bates, Allen Baum, Bruce Baumgart, Mike Beeler, Ward Bell, Gerry Berkowitz, Nancy Blachman, Steve Bobker, Stewart Bonn, Russell Brand,

, John Brockman, Dennis Brothers, Bill Budge, John Bumgarner, Bill Burns, Art Canfil, Steve Capps, Doug Carlston, Simon Cassidy, Dave Caulkins, Richard Cheshire, Fred Cisin, Mike Coffey, Margot Comstock, Rich Davis, Steven Dompier, Wes Dorman, John Draper, Mark Duchaineau, Les Earnest, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Erik Fair, Richard Fateman, Lee Felsenstein, Jay Fenlason, Fabrice Florin,

Andrew Fluegelman Andrew Cardozo Fluegelman (November 27, 1943 – July 6, 1985) was a publisher, photographer, programmer and attorney best known as a pioneer of what is now known as the shareware business model for software marketing. He was also the founding ...

, Robert Frankston, Paul Freiberger, Rob Fulop, Robert Gaskins,

Nasir Gebelli Nasir Gebelli (, also Nasser Gebelli, born 1957) is an Iranian-American programmer and video game designer usually credited in his games as simply Nasir. He became known in the early 1980s for programming action games for Apple II, such as '' ...

, Steve Gibson, Geoff Goodfellow, Richard Greenblatt, Roger Gregory, Leslie Grimm, Robert Hardy,

Brian Harvey Brian Lee Harvey (born 8 August 1974) is an English singer from London. He was the lead singer of pop group East 17. The later incarnation of the band, E-17, had two top 20 singles on the UK Singles Chart between 1998 and 1999, with the album ...

, Dick Heiser, Matt Herron, Andy Hertzfeld,

Bruce Horn Bruce Lawrence Horn (born August 18, 1959) is an American software engineer. He created the original Macintosh Finder and the Macintosh Resource Manager for Apple Computer. His signature is molded into the case of the Macintosh 128K alongside ...

, David Hughes, John James, Tom Jennings, Jerry Jewell, Chris Jochumson, Ted Kaehler, Sat Tara Khalsa,

Scott Kim Scott Kim is an American puzzle and video game designer, artist, and author of Korean people, Korean descent. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for ''Discover (magazine), Discover'' magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive column ...

, Peter LaDeau, Fred Lakin, Marc Le Brun, Jim Leeke, David Levitt,

, Henry Lieberman, Efrem Lipkin, William Low, David Lubar, Scott Mace, John Markoff, David Maynard, Bob McConaghy,

Roger Melen Roger Douglas Melen (1946–2024) was an electrical engineer recognized for his early contributions to the microcomputer industry, and for his technical innovations. Dr. Melen was co-founder of Cromemco, one of the earliest microcomputer compa ...

, Diana Merry, Mark Miller, Charles Moore, Michael Naimark,

, Terry Niksch, Guy Nouri, David Oster, Ray Ozzie, Donn Parker, Howard Pearlmutter, Mark Pelczarski, Michael Perry, Patricia Phelan, Tom Pittman, Eric Podietz, Kevin Poulsen,

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and ergonomics, human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. ...

, Larry Press, Steve Purcell, Christopher Reed, David Reed, Barbara Robertson, Michael Rogers, Pete Rowe, Peter Samson, Steve Saunders, Laura Scholl, Rich Schroeppel, Tom Scoville, Rony Sebok, Rhod Sharp, Bob Shur, Burrell Smith, David Snider, Tom Spence, Bud Spurgeon,

, Michael Swaine, David Taylor, Jack Trainor, Bud Tribble, Bruce H. Van Natta, Bob Wallace, Walter E. (Gene) Wallis, Bruce Webster, Ken Williams, Deborah Wise, Steve Witham, Robert Woodhead, Don Woods,

, Fred Wright

Logo

designed the iconic Hackers Conference logo.

References

External links

Official siteHackers - Wizards of the Electronic Age (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackers Conference, The Technology conferences Hacker culture Whole Earth Catalog Recurring events established in 1984