Last August, as the DC401 crew was enjoying dinner on the Sunday night of Defcon weekend, we came to a general consensus that Rhode Island needs a con. The Northeast as a whole is pretty under-represented in the con ecosystem. HOPE only happens every two years and Source:Boston is more corporate than it is hacker.
The hacker spirit runs deep in Rhode Island. We were the first state to sign the Declaration of Independence, the last to ratify the Constitution and the American Industrial Revolution began here with Slater Mill. Flash forward to today and we've got some really cool things going on in Providence. There's a cool art and music scene, a nascent and growing information economy, a FabLab and a boatload of hackers itching to put on a con.
Like most cons, QuahogCon will be a weekend affair, running Friday through Sunday. We're shooting for Fall of 2009 or Spring of 2010. The primary foci will be InfoSec and Hardware Hacking, but we also want to hear about other cool hacking projects you might be working on. Doing something cool with music and electronics? How about Green Living and Zero Eco-Impact hacks? We want to hear about it!
Everything is in the planning stages right now. We're filing paperwork, setting up business accounts and checking with hotels to find somewhere to host the Con. You can help out by filling out the QuahogCon Poll. Let us know if you want to come, what you want to see for topics and whether you'll need a hotel room or not (so we can figure how big a block to reserve.) Keep an eye out here to stay up to date, or subscribe for the low volume announcement list in the sidebar.