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City of Durham, United Kingdom

CryptoParty on October 21st, 2014


Welcome to the organising page for the Durham CryptoParty.

Book your place now ← This will not record anything about you other than what you write in the form. You can use a pseudonym.

Please book yourself a place if you intend to be there on the night in any capacity, so we don't overcrowd the room. If we get fully booked we'll think about putting on another event for anyone who we couldnt' fit in.

There is no charge for attendance. We have been given free use of a room on the understanding that we will be buying drinks at the bar which is open from 7.30PM.


WTF is a CryptoParty?

Attend this CryptoParty to learn and teach how to use basic cryptography tools. A CryptoParty is free, public and fun. People bring their computers, mobile devices, and a willingness to learn! CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography software and the fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public, such as the Tor anonymity network, public key encryption (PGP/GPG), and OTR (Off The Record messaging).

CryptoParties are free to attend, public, and commercially and politically non-aligned. (see the guiding principles)

Who should come?

Anyone who wants to learn about, or share their skills about, basic cryptographic software. That means the kind of program that can keep your personal information private, if you use it properly. So if you don't like the idea of strangers looking at your personal things, and you use a computer, this is for you.

Who is organising this?

The event has been instigated by some members of Durham Linux User Group, however the event is open to users of all computer systems. We're offering this event as a service to the community, because we think it's important that people should be able to protect their privacy (it is a human right, after all) and because it's fun :)

We are also reaching out to some other local groups in the hope of involving them. If you have knowledge of a non-*nix system and are able to help people use simply encryption tools on it, please make yourself known (use an alias if you like) in the volunteers section below.

What should I do before I come?

This website you're reading now has loads of useful information on it. Have a look at the documentation and see what you make of it. If you find it easy, you can come along and help people who didn't find it easy. We can all learn something from each other.

Now the organising section...

Nobody is in charge so dive in and make it happen. You see those little gray words that say “Edit” to the right of this? They are talking to you kid. Also the thing at the top left that say “Edit this page” is also talking to you, the difference is that does the whole page at once.

Go on… if you don't do it, maybe no one will… and if you're not sure just edit the Q&A section and put in a question then check back later to see if someone answered it.

What we have

This is what we've got:

  • Venue: Classroom at the Durham Amateur Rowing Club
  • Time: 7.30pm to 10.30pm
  • Desk space and chairs for up to 30 people
  • Plenty of power sockets
  • wifi
  • projector with VGA input if anyone wants to show stuff to the group
  • “break out” space in the bar
  • parking for cars and bikes. and boats for that matter.
  • level access for those with mobility problems
  • Real ale

What we need

Can you help us source these?

  • Snacks
  • Signage
  • Some old, cheapo USB flash drives to give away TAILS on. Anyone know where we can get some, e.g. some promotional ones that got overproduced?
  • Relevant campaign stickers

Volunteers

In advance
RoleVolunteer
Make some witty, attractive promotional materials who has dem skillz please?
Add good ideas to this wiki page all
Contact interested local groups all
Pump out social media & other links pointing to this page all
Make some signs (A4 should do) to direct people to the right room who has access to a printer at work?
Bake a cake #1 mark will make one
Bake a cake #2 no volunteer yet - write here if you're up for it
On the night

I think the main plan is to hang loose and show each other cool stuff. However if lots of people turn up needing a basic overview of a topic, it would be cool to have a 5-minute presentation prepared, would it not? There are slides already on this wiki for us to use. Could folks nominate themselves here / add your offer to the list, or take one of these:

RoleVolunteer
PGP basics Olly
PGP keysigning Rich M
Simple TOR usage with TBB mark
OTR Dan + someone else? Alice and Bob?
Hard disk encryption several of us know how to use dmcrypt?
Mac go-to person Helen
Windows go-to person Rich P

Questions and Answers

please add Q/A depending on what you have

Q Will the cakes be stored in a CryptoPantry?

A No, nor will they contain keys.

Q I have a 3D printer which can dispense solder paste. Can I use it to render my key into icing on top of a cake?

A You should definitely do that. Use a clean syringe though.

Q Who should attend?

A Anyone who wants to learn or share how to use simple encryption tools

Q What should I bring?

A Bring a portable computing device if you want help to use it