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 John Thomas Draper (born March 11, 1943), also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman after a toy boatswain's call whistle once given away in boxes of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal that for some years could be used to make free long d ...

, Richard Greenblatt,

Robert Woodhead Robert J. Woodhead (born 1958 or 1959) is an American entrepreneur, software engineer and former game programmer. He is the co-creator of the ''Wizardry'' franchise, and the co-founder of both the video game publishing company Sir-Tech and ani ...

, 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 Philip E. Agre is an American Artificial intelligence researcher and humanities professor, formerly a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for his critiques of technology and for introducing critical technical ...

, 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 William Dana Atkinson (March 17, 1951 – June 5, 2025) was an American computer engineer, computer programmer, and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of ...

, Bill Bates, Allen Baum, Bruce Baumgart, Mike Beeler, Ward Bell, Gerry Berkowitz,

Nancy Blachman Nancy Blachman (born 1956 in Palo Alto, CA) is an American educator, supporter of recreational mathematics and mathematical outreach, software book author, and supporter of indie documentary films.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 ...

, John Brockman, Dennis Brothers,

Bill Budge Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954) is a retired American video game programmer and designer. He is best known for the Apple II games ''Raster Blaster'' (1981) and '' Pinball Construction Set'' (1983). Early games Budge says he became interested ...

, John Bumgarner, Bill Burns, Art Canfil,

Steve Capps Steve Capps is a pioneering American computer programmer and software engineer, who was one of the original designers of the Apple Macintosh computer and co-designers of the Finder in the 1980s. He also led development of the Apple Newton PDA an ...

Doug Carlston Douglas Gene Carlston (born April 30, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts) is the founder and CEO of Tawala Systems based in San Rafael, California. He was previously CEO, chairman, and co-founder of Broderbund Software, a software publishing firm th ...

, Simon Cassidy, Dave Caulkins, Richard Cheshire, Fred Cisin, Mike Coffey,

Margot Comstock Margot Comstock (formerly Margot Comstock Tommervik, – ) was co-founder and editor of ''Softalk'' magazine, which was influential in the Apple II community, as part of a growing Personal computer, personal computing movement. Career Comstock ...

, Rich Davis, Steven Dompier, Wes Dorman,

, Mark Duchaineau,

Les Earnest Lester Donald Earnest (December 17, 1930 – August 27, 2024) was an American computer scientist. Life and career After receiving his B.S. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1953, he began his c ...

, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Erik Fair,

Richard Fateman Richard J Fateman (born November 4, 1946)Page 97
Who's who in California, Volume ...

Lee Felsenstein Lee Felsenstein (born April 27, 1945) is an American computer engineer who played a central role in the development of personal computers. He was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club and the designer of the Osborne 1, the f ...

, 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 Robert M. Frankston (born June 14, 1949) is an American software engineer and businessman who co-created, with Dan Bricklin, the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. Frankston is also the co-founder of Software Arts. Early life and education Frankston ...

Paul Freiberger ''Pirates of Silicon Valley'' is a 1999 American biographical drama television film directed by Martyn Burke and starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates. Spanning the years 1971–1997 and based on Paul Freiberge ...

Rob Fulop Rob Fulop is an American game programmer who created two of the Atari 2600's biggest hits: the port of arcade game '' Missile Command'' and 1982's '' Demon Attack'', which won '' Electronic Games Game of the Year award. While at Atari, Fulop ...

Robert Gaskins Robert Gaskins is an American software developer. He is one of the creators of PowerPoint, and an expert and author on the history of the English concertina. Education and professional work Gaskins was educated in Computer Science at Univers ...

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 Roger Lee Gregory (born July 17, 1953) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Background Gregory was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but grew up in P ...

, 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 Andrew Jay Hertzfeld (born April 6, 1953) is an American software engineer who was a member of Apple Computer's original Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for Apple Computer fr ...

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 Thomas Daniel Jennings (born 1955) is a Los Angeles-based artist and computer programmer, known for his work that led to FidoNet (the first message and file networking bulletin board system, or BBS), and for his work at Phoenix Software on ...

Jerry Jewell Jerry Dean Jewell is an American voice actor and voice director. He has performed the voices for several anime roles and is noted for his roles as: Kyo Sohma in the ''Fruits Basket'' series, ace detective Jimmy Kudo in ''Case Closed'', Caes ...

, 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 Henry Lieberman is an American computer scientist at the MIT CSAIL in the fields of programming languages, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. He received the 2018 ACM Impact Award Intelligent User Interaction for work on min ...

, Efrem Lipkin, William Low,

David Lubar David Lubar (born March 16, 1954) is an author of numerous books for teens. He is also a video game programmer, who programmed ''Super Breakout'' for the Game Boy and ''Frogger'' for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy. He ...

, Scott Mace,

John Markoff John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at ''The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture ...

, 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 Diana Merry-Shapiro (née Mayhugh; born August 25, 1939) is an American computer programmer. Merry-Shapiro was born in Iowa. She graduated from Valparaiso University in 1961. In the early 1970s, Merry-Shapiro began working as a secretary for X ...

, Mark Miller, Charles Moore,

Michael Naimark Michael Naimark is an artist, inventor, and scholar in the fields of virtual reality and new media art. He is best known for his work in projection mapping, virtual travel, live global video, and cultural preservation, and often refers to this bod ...

, Terry Niksch, Guy Nouri, David Oster,

Ray Ozzie Raymond "Ray" Ozzie (born November 20, 1955) is an American software industry entrepreneur who held the positions of Chief Technical Officer and Chief Software Architect at Microsoft between 2005 and 2010. Before Microsoft, he was best known for ...

, Donn Parker, Howard Pearlmutter,

Mark Pelczarski Mark Pelczarski wrote and published some of the earliest digital multimedia computer software. In 1979 while teaching computer science at Northern Illinois University, he self-published Magic Paintbrush, which was one of the first digital paint pr ...

, Michael Perry, Patricia Phelan, Tom Pittman, Eric Podietz,

Kevin Poulsen Kevin Lee Poulsen (born November 30, 1965) is an American contributing editor at ''The Daily Beast'', a former black-hat hacker, and convicted fraudster. Biography He was born in Pasadena, California, on November 30, 1965. On June 1, 1990, P ...

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 Steven Ross Purcell (born July 30, 1961) is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer, and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise ''Sam & Max'' and received an Eisner Award in 2007 for working on the show. The series has e ...

, Christopher Reed, David Reed, Barbara Robertson, Michael Rogers, Pete Rowe,

Peter Samson Peter R. Samson (born 1941 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts) is an American computer scientist, best known for creating pioneering computer software for the TX-0 and PDP-1. Samson studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 195 ...

, Steve Saunders, Laura Scholl,

Rich Schroeppel Richard C. Schroeppel (born 1948) is an American mathematician born in Illinois. His research has included magic squares, elliptic curves, and cryptography. In 1964, Schroeppel won first place in the United States among over 225,000 high school st ...

, Tom Scoville, Rony Sebok, Rhod Sharp, Bob Shur,

Burrell Smith Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is a retired American computer engineer who created the first wire wrap prototype of the motherboard for the original Macintosh at Apple Computer. He became Apple employee #282 in February 1979 as a ...

, David Snider, Tom Spence, Bud Spurgeon,

, Michael Swaine, David Taylor, Jack Trainor,

Bud Tribble Guy L. "Bud" Tribble is a software technologist known for his work on the original Apple Macintosh. Work Tribble was a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team. He served as manager of the software development team, and helped to design ...

Bruce H. Van Natta IMS Associates, Inc., or IMSAI, was a microcomputer company, responsible for one of the earliest successes in personal computing, the IMSAI 8080. The company was founded in 1973 by William Millard and was based in San Leandro, California. Their ...

, Bob Wallace, Walter E. (Gene) Wallis,

Bruce Webster Bruce F. Webster is an American academic and software engineer. He is a principal at Bruce F. Webster & Associates and an adjunct professor in computer science at Brigham Young University. Early life and education Webster received a full Nat ...

, Ken Williams, Deborah Wise, Steve Witham,

Don Woods Donald Woods (1933–2001) was a South African journalist and activist. Donald or Don Woods may also refer to: * Donald Woods (actor) (1906–1998), Canadian-born American film and television actor * Donald Devereux Woods (1912–1964), British ...

, 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