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Announcing ShmooCon 08 and the CFP



Howdy,
It's official. ShmooCon IV will be February 15-17, 2008 at the Wardman Park Marriott, Washington D.C., USA. We had over 1,000 people last year, and we're shooting for about the same size again this year. FYI: Most of the videos from last year are online, so if you missed the con and want to see the talks, check out the website.

More details on the con will be released in the future (like registration prices and dates, ShmooCon Lab info, and more hacker arcade goodness). But for now, enjoy the CFP.

later

bruce

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CALL FOR PAPERS (PDF version available at http://www.shmoocon.org/ cfp.pdf)
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The Shmoo Group is soliciting papers and presentations for the fourth annual ShmooCon.

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About ShmooCon 2008 and The Shmoo Group
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ShmooCon 2008 will be a highly-technical and entertaining East Coast hacker convention focused on technology exploitation, inventive software & hardware solutions, as well as open discussion on a variety of technology & security topics. ShmooCon 2008 is hosted by The Shmoo Group and will be held at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, D.C., just minutes from your choice of 3-letter agencies.

The Shmoo Group is comprised of security professionals from around the world who donate their time and energy towards information security research and development. TSG encourages speakers to perform new and interesting projects for ShmooCon and will give preferential treatment to submissions that have not been presented at other conferences. Further, TSG invites any individual who has not spoken at a conference before to submit a talk and attempt to make ShmooCon their inaugural event.

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Conference Format
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ShmooCon 2008 has 4 options for speaker submission.
+One Track Mind - Technical Tales in Twenty Minutes or Less Break It! - Technology Exploitation
+Build It! - Inventive Software & Hardware Solutions
+Bring It On! - Open Discussion of Technology & Security Topics

Topics for One Track Mind may include, but are not limited to:
+Updates to talks given at other conferences
+Works in Progress
+Talks that are as much about fun as they are about technology
+Anything that doesn't need a full hour to explain

Topics for Break It! may include, but are not limited to, EXPLOITATION of:
+Consumer electronic devices
+Application, host, and network security
+Telephony
+Embedded systems
+Physical security

Topics for Build It! may include, but are not limited to, inventive software & hardware SOLUTIONS in:
+Robotics
+Distributed computing
+Wireless networking
+Secure software techniques
+Trusted computing

Topics for Bring It On! may include, but are not limited to, open DISCUSSION of the following:
+Privacy and anonymity
+Exploit and vulnerability disclosure / databases
+DRM (Digital Rights Management), fair use, copyright infringement
+Terrorism, counter-terrorism, and eavesdropping
+Open source software world domination strategies
+Controversial views on existing trends or technology

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Presentation Format - One Track Mind, (Friday Night Only)
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Presenters will have 20 minutes on Friday night to give the entirety of ShmooCon a view into their mind. Perhaps that's a 10,000-foot overview of a new, cool idea or an update or extension of a previous presentation at ShmooCon or another conference. And we're still hoping for a twenty minute parody of Bruce Potter up on stage (ok, maybe not). We'll give you an additional 10 minutes for audience questions. If any questions can't be answered in that time, there is space set aside for further discussion while One Track Mind marches on.

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Presentation Format - Break It!, Build It!, Bring It On! (Saturday and Sunday)
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All presentations & discussions will be 50 minutes in length and presented to attendees on either Saturday or Sunday. It is the speaker's responsibility to budget time for audience participation and questions. Presentations in the Break It! and Build It! tracks are strongly encouraged to include demonstrations of personally developed techniques, working code, and/or devices, with code and/or schematics being open-source and released to the public for free. Presentations in Bring It On! are more open-ended, but presenters are strongly encouraged to structure their talk in a way that engages or enrages the audience.

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ShmooBalls
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ShmooCon 2008 is continuing in the tradition of arming attendees with ShmooBalls (a soft aerodynamic object of some sort). This is in an effort to facilitate a frank and open discussion of opinions. Speakers are encouraged to present innovative ideas that not everyone agrees with. Audience members are encouraged to use their ShmooBalls if they disagree.

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Submission Procedure
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ShmooCon 2008 has moved to a web based submission process. This might be a bit different than what you are used to, but using this system will help us out a lot. Please visit https://cfp.shmoocon.org and be prepared to enter in the following information:
Speaker name(s) and contact information
Presentation Title
Track preference
Keywords and 2-3 sentence abstract
Document in Text or PDF format which contains the following:
a.  Two to three paragraph presentation description and/or outline
b.  List of other conferences at which submission has been presented
c. List of facilities required. Projector for use with VGA input, flipchart, sound projection, and Internet connectivity will be provided.
d.  Speaker bio, limited to 75 words or less.

Accepted speakers will receive free admission to the conference, as well as a $100 (One Track Mind) or $200 (Build It!, Break It!, Bring it On!) honorarium after evaluation of their completed presentation. 4 runner-ups will receive free admission as hot-alternates. They should come to ShmooCon 2008 prepared to speak. If it becomes necessary for them to speak as an alternate, they too will receive a $200 honorarium after evaluation of their completed presentation.

Presentation proposals will be reviewed by members of The Shmoo Group. A list of the reviewers will be posted on the ShmooCon 2008 web site.

If you feel you have a presentation that would be appropriate but that does not meet these guidelines, feel free to submit it anyway but be sure to include information explaining your reasoning so we can better evaluate your proposal.

All questions regarding this call for papers should be addressed to cfp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Feel free to contact us if you have an idea for a talk but you're not sure how to present it at a conference.

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Schedule
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Please check the web site for updates: http://www.shmoocon.org
September 5, 2007 - CFP opens
November 1, 2007 - Papers for preferential first round consideration due
December 10, 2007 - Final due date for all papers
January 10, 2008 - All speakers notified

Submissions are due by December 10, 2007. Early selection speakers will be notified by November 31, 2007. All other speakers will be notified by the date specified above. We look forward to receiving your submissions as well as seeing you at ShmooCon 2008!