Hack-Tic

In 1988, a small delegation from the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg visited Amsterdam after being invited by Caroline Nevejan, who organized political events at Paradiso in Amsterdam. Rop Gonggrijp, the magazine's later editor and publisher was at that point already rather well known as a hacker who sometimes appeared in the newspapers. Being inspired by Datenschleuder (the CCC magazine) and 2600 The Hacker Quarterly, Gonggrijp decided to start his own magazine. In January 1989, the first issue was published. That summer, Nevejan, Gonggrijp and Patrice Riemens organized the Galactic Hacker Party in Paradiso, Amsterdam.[1]

The magazine grew from its original circulation of 50 photocopies to several thousand printed issues. A group of authors published wide-ranging articles including "How to copy the data on the magnetic stripe of your bank card?", "How to build your own pay-TV descrambler" and at least twenty different variations of "How does one make free phone calls?" (much to the dismay of Dutch telecommunication monopoly KPN, then still called PTT Telecommunicatie).

But Hack-Tic was not just about hi-tech mischief: its makers sensed the upcoming importance of communications and technology and were actively involved in making sure new technology was accessible to everyone. In 1991, the foundations were laid for Hacktic Netwerk, the organization which later became the ISP XS4ALL.[2] Also in 1993, Hack-Tic organized Hacking at the End of the Universe (HEU), the first outdoor hacker festival event.[3]

In 1993 the last issue of Hack-Tic appeared. The issues are now online at XS4ALL, the ISP that grew out of Hacktic Network.

Even though the magazine has not been printed since 1993, the community that originally formed around the magazine continues to organize large hacker culture events every four years. These events continue to be important moments in hacker culture, with visitors from a large number of countries. The last editions have been complete outdoor cities with thousands of visitors staying in tents. Visitor participation at these events has been high, leading to events which some describe as "all crew, no visitors". Recent events have had many visitor-organized "villages" as well as a professionally organized conference program. So far, all events have been held in the Netherlands:

These events have been a major source of inspiration for the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conferences organized by 2600: The Hacker Quarterly in New York City as well as for the Chaos Communication Camps held near Berlin.

• All issues of Hack-Tic (Mirror site in Germany.)