Thank you to those who celebrated with us at EFF's 25th anniversary party and minicon! It was a lovely day full of remembering the important fights of the past 25 years and planning how to face the threats of the next 25. Both the minicon and the party were well-attended, informative, and so much fun. We at EFF are so grateful to those who attended, those who followed along at home, those who gave to the EFF25 member drive, and the many of you who have made our 25 years possible.
A toast from EFF's fearless leader Cindy Cohn to 25 years of EFF and to all of you.
Minicon
The day started out with the minicon, a four-hour conference on the past, present, and future of various EFF issues. The three panels, moderated by EFF staff members and bringing together experts with differing backgrounds and perspectives, covered digital activism and what it means for the web to be a public space, copyright and user control issues in an increasingly technical world, and the privacy and security issues of the next 25 years. EFF staff member Nadia Kayyali was on hand to provide practical security training tips throughout the afternoon based on EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense project, and EFF hosted its first-ever CTF hacking challenge.
Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Kurt Opsahl kicks off the minicon activities.
From left, EFF activist Adi Kamdar moderates the Digital Activism panel, with Sina Khanifar, Annalee Newitz, Amie Stepanovich, and Trevor Timm.
Pam Samuelson, Professor of Law and Information Management at the UC Berkeley, discusses "the next great copyright act" as EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry looks on during the Copyright and User Control panel.
Hackers be hacking during the CTF challenge. Congratulations to winner John-Mark Gurney (@encthenet) and runner-up Micah Lee (@micahflee)!
Party
The party kicked off at 8pm, with hosts Wil Wheaton and Cory Doctorow leading the festivities. We had special toasts, cool interactive art from Sustainable Magic, a photobooth, and plenty of dancing to music from Midtown Social, Dual Core, and A plus D.
EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn hugs cofounder John Perry Barlow after his thoughtful and sweet introductory remarks.
A still from Edward Snowden's kind recorded birthday message to EFF.
Hosts Wil Wheaton and Cory Doctorow moved back and forth from humor to inspiration all night, here reading excerpts from and comments on Barlow's "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace"
Midtown Social started the evening with groovy soul, funk, and rock songs.
Hip hop group Dual Core brought the nerdcore to the party.
Partygoers (purposefully kept anonymous!) danced 'til late to A plus D's awesome mashups
It was a long but wonderful day, and we're proud to have such an awesome community. Now it's time for us to face the next 25 years and ensure essential rights have an advocate for years to come.
Many thanks to our sponsors: Automattic, No Starch Press, O'Reilly Media, Adobe, Kevin Mahaffey, BSides Las Vegas, and OPG Communications! A special appreciation also goes out to Squirrel Herder Productions for excellent event planning and production; thank you for helping make our event so great.
