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 exp ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s and

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

s to discuss the latest developments and innovations in the

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

. On a daily basis, many

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

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 acros ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, by

Stewart Brand Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American writer, best known as editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He founded a number of organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the auth ...

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 book ...

'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 electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he c ...

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. Nelson coined the terms ''transcl ...

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 the Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot), is an American computer programmer and former phreaking, phone phreak. He is a widely known figure wi ...

, Richard Greenblatt,

Robert Woodhead Robert J. Woodhead is an entrepreneur, software engineer and former game programmer. He claims that a common thread in his career is "doing weird things with computers". Career In 1979 he co-founded Sirotech (later known as Sir-Tech) with ...

, and Bob Wallace. The gathering has been identified as instrumental in establishing the

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

ethos attributed to

cyberculture Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...

, and was the subject of a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

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 AI researcher and humanities professor, formerly a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for his critiques of technology. He was successively the publisher of The Network Observer (TNO) and T ...

, 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 t ...

Bill Atkinson Bill Atkinson (born March 17, 1951) is an American computer engineer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Atkinson was the principal designer and developer of the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Apple ...

, 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 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,

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

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

Margot Comstock Margot Comstock (formerly Margot Comstock Tommervik, 1940–2022) was co-founder and editor of ''Softalk'' magazine, which was influential in the Apple II community, as part of a growing personal computing movement. Career Comstock worked as a ...

, Rich Davis, Steven Dompier, Wes Dorman,

, Mark Duchaineau,

Les Earnest Lester Donald Earnest (born December 17, 1930) is an American computer scientist. Education and career After receiving his B.S. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1953, he began his career as a comp ...

Philip Elmer-DeWitt Philip Elmer-DeWitt (born September 8, 1949) is an American writer and editor. He was ''Time (magazine), Time'' first computer writer—producing much of the magazine's early coverage of personal computers and the Internet—and for 12 years its sci ...

, Erik Fair,

Richard Fateman Richard J Fateman (born November 4, 1946)Lee Felsenstein Lee Felsenstein (born April 27, 1945) is an American computer engineer who played a central role in the development of the personal computer. He was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club and the designer of the Osborne 1, the ...

, 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 ''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 al ...

Robert Gaskins Robert Gaskins was 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 University of California, Berkeley, and subsequ ...

Nasir Gebelli Nasir Gebelli ( fa, ناصر جبلی, also Nasser Gebelli, born 1957) is an Iranian-American programmer and video game designer usually credited in his games as simply Nasir. Gebelli wrote Apple II games for Sirius Software, created his own com ...

, Steve Gibson, Geoff Goodfellow, Richard Greenblatt,

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

, Leslie Grimm, Robert Hardy, Brian Harvey, Dick Heiser, Matt Herron,

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

Bruce Horn Bruce Lawrence Horn (born 1960) is a programmer and creator. He created the Macintosh Finder and the Macintosh Resource Manager for Apple Computer. His signature is amongst those molded to the case of the Macintosh 128K. He is a distinguished e ...

, David Hughes, John James,

Tom Jennings Thomas Daniel Jennings (born 1955) is a Los Angeles-based artist, known for his work on FidoNet and for his work at Phoenix Software on MS-DOS integration and interoperability. Work He is the creator of FidoNet, the first message and file ne ...

Jerry Jewell Jerry Jewell is an American voice actor and voice director who works on anime series for Funimation and OkraTron 5000. He has performed the voices for several anime roles and is noted for his roles as Kyo Sohma in the ''Fruits Basket'' series, ...

, Chris Jochumson, Ted Kaehler, Sat Tara Khalsa,

Scott Kim Scott Kim is an American puzzle and video game designer, artist, and author of Korean descent. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for ''Discover'' magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999, and created hundreds of ...

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

, Henry Lieberman, 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 ''Breakout (arcade game), Super Breakout'' for the Game Boy and ''Frogger'' for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment ...

, 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 (born 1946) is 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 companies ...

Diana Merry Diana Merry-Shapiro was a computer programmer for the Learning Research Group of Xerox PARC in the 1970s and 1980s, after having been hired originally as a secretary. As one of the original developers of the Smalltalk programming language, she hel ...

, 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, 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 former black-hat hacker and a contributing editor at ''The Daily Beast''. Biography He was born in Pasadena, California, on November 30, 1965. Black-hat hacking On June 1, 1990, Poul ...

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

, Larry Press, Steve Purcell, Christopher Reed,

David Reed David Reed may refer to: Entertainment * David Vern Reed (1924–1989), American comics writer * David E. Reed (1927–1990), ''Reader's Digest'' editor * David Reed (artist) (born 1946), American artist * David Jay Reed (born 1950), artist * Da ...

, 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 19 ...

, Steve Saunders, Laura Scholl, Rich Schroeppel, Tom Scoville, Rony Sebok, Rhod Sharp, Bob Shur,

Burrell Smith Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is an American engineer who, while working at Apple Computer, designed the motherboard (digital circuit board) for the original Macintosh. He was Apple employee #282, and was hired in February 1979, i ...

, David Snider, Tom Spence, Bud Spurgeon,

, Michael Swaine, David Taylor, Jack Trainor,

Bud Tribble Guy L. "Bud" Tribble is Vice President of Software Technology at Apple Inc. 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 the classic Mac OS and ...

, Bruce H. Van Natta, Bob Wallace, Walter E. (Gene) Wallis,

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

, 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 m ...

, 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