Especially for global p(l)ayers, the former airport in Berlin-Tempelhof seems to have a fascination going way beyond practical aspects. Newest example: »Campus Party™ – Europe in Berlin« with its main actors Telefonica | O2 and the European Commission. The weather was not the best during the time span 21st to 26th of August and – even worse – the airplane hangars provide for horrible acoustics if there are as many stages as in this case. This holds true even though or precisely because not all seats were in use in front of every stage. Tempelhof seems to have enough tech-appeal to be the place for hackers, bloggers and wannabes (like me).
The panel I discuss here had the interesting title »Tools and Strategies to hack the European Union«. Noteworthy on a stage paid for in part by the European Commission, that is. Discussiants were Sandra Mamitzsch (Digitale Gesellschaft e. V.) and Katarzyna Szymielewicz (Panoptykon), both active in the umbrella organization EDRI (European Digital Rights). Of course, the panel seemed a little hyped by the vote against the ACTA treaty. Katarzyna Szymielewicz, who is also a member of the EDRI Board, started the panel with a »commercial« for EDRI and its main issues.
Even though there was a serious effort by both discussants to not talk too much about ACTA, the issue came back in the game when they went into the campaigning challenges. The easy aspect of the European Parliaments vote was in the view of both activists that it was just necessary to get the Members of Parliament to vote against the proposed regulation. Understandably, it is much more difficult to bring forward an initiative, e. g. for a reformed copyright.
At this future-oriented part of the discussion the mentioned Tempelhof atmosphere was taking its toll more and more. As Katarzyna Szymielewicz was explaining why »self regulation« in the Internet sector does not always work in a good way, the noise on the main stage just a few meters away reached crisis level. The »hacking attempt« against the European Union had to be aborted. By the way, on the main stage Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, was enjoying the acoustic aura.
