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guide.adoc 894 B

Angel Guide

Dear reader,

Thank you for being part of the Chaos Community and taking the time to read up on how to participate!

This guide tries to convey all neccessary information and quirks you might encounter while helping at a chaos event.

As with any other guide, being complete is almost impossible, so bear with our own ignorance and feel free to enlighten the authors with any new knowledge you might come upon.

Quick Start

  1. Create yourself an angel system account

  2. Arrive at congress venue

  3. Locate and move to heaven

  4. Get marked as arrived and collect your badge

    • Ask a welcome angel or shift coordinator

  5. Attend an angel meeting

    • Announced in the angel system news

  6. Click yourself an interesting shift

    • Read shift descriptions first

  7. Participate in your shift

    • Use navigation to find location

    • Arrive a little bit early

  8. Rest for at least one hour

  9. Repeat from step 6

And always, have a lot of fun.

What is congress?

The Chaos Communication Congress (short Congress) is the annual gathering event of the Chaos Computer Club, bringing together diverse communities related to security, cryptography, privacy and online freedom of speech. For many people the congress is a social event to meet (old and new) friends but besides that it features also a great variety of lectures and workshops on political and technical issues. The event takes place regularly at the end of the year since 1984 and is considered one of the largest events of this kind which is only possible with your help as an angel!

What is an angel?

Everyone who invests their free time in our events is an angel.

While the most obvious angels to most participants are the helpers staffing the cash desk, checking wrist bands at the doors or selling drinks at the bars, there are tons of jobs to be done "behind the scenes" that are barely noticeable (or only become apparent if something goes wrong).

All these people, from a new person, who sits at a smoker door for one shift at their first congress up to the experienced people in the organization team who do the high level planning in the months and weeks before the event - they all are angels.

Perks

Being an angel also comes with some perks. Though we hope participating is enough of a reward, here is a list of things exclusive to angels.

  • Hanging out at heaven, Angel Hackcenter, using its wardrobe and chill out area.

  • Free coffee and (sparkling) water.

  • Free food for night shifts.

Rewards

Having contributed a certain amount of time will also grant you access to:

  • Awesome warm vegan and vegetarian meals.

  • Sleeping arrangements at nearby gyms.

  • The famous limited™ Angel T-Shirt in congress design.

Resources Limitations

Please keep in mind that our resources are limited. Not everyone might get a T-Shirt, and meals and sleeping arrangements are also finite resources.

Expectations

Helping at our events also comes with some simple but important expectations of you.

  • Be on time to your shift or give heaven notice early.

  • Be well-rested, sober and fed.

  • Be open-minded and friendly spirited.

  • Live our moral values:

    • Be friendly to each other.

    • All creatures are welcome.

Child Angels

Most angel jobs on our events are designed with adults in mind.

While we do not ask for your passport to check your legal age, we will probably not hand you an angel badge if you are clearly underage. In general, children should never be left unattended and therefore are not allowed to sign up for any angel shifts themselves when not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

However, every day is "bring your kid to work day", so if your kids are old enough to attend our events, you can bring them to most of the angel shifts as well.

Please come by heaven and talk to our shift coordinators and we will arrange everything as needed. Of course, if your kids want to get an angel badge as well, they can get one and they will also be eligible for a T-shirt if they work enough shifts.

Sadly, we are currently not able to provide children’s size T-shirts.

Nonetheless, please come to heaven and let us add your kid to any shifts as "n+1" instead of simply signing them up since the required number of angels needed for a shift is calculated on the basis of adults.

Please note that there are a few exceptions to this rule:

  • Children may not work bar shifts due to the handling of alcoholic beverages.

  • Children will be denied access to the LOC due to the heavy machinery and other work-related dangers in that area, so even if the shift itself may be appropriate, you will probably not be able to get there.

In addition, if you want to bring your kids to a shift that needs a special angel type introduction, please ask the appropriate angel type supporter(s) beforehand if this is okay.

What is the Heaven?

The heaven is the home of all the great angels.

It’s the place where you are getting marked as arrived when you start your angel career of the current event.

Within the heaven you will find some of the perks of being an angel like the angel hackcenter or the water / coffee supply.

Also there is some work done within the heaven. So called Standby Angels are waiting for spontaneously occuring tasks. At the heaven’s desk all the thousands of work hours needed to keep the congress running are managed and all of your angel related questions are answered.

The heaven is also the best place to call when you have any problems with your shift, e.g. if another angel does not show up.

Pack list

Participating as an Angel in the Chaos Community works best if some equipment is present. While most tools which are necessary to perform a task will be provided to you, some items are personal and are best supplied by yourself. This is a pack list on what you might bring. The list is ordered by priority:

  • Refillable water bottle

  • Laptop or tablet (not only mobile phone)

  • DECT phone

  • (collapsible) cup

  • Simple Multitool

  • Lanyard

  • Power cord / euro adapter

When to arrive?

As a generic rule of thumb, if you are mainly there for the event itself, day 0 (i.e. the day before the official start) is considered a good day to arrive.

On day 0, buildup is nearly completed, most infrastructure is done and in the evening the cash desk will already be open, so you can exchange your QR code into a wristband without having to queue too long.

In addition, the halls are not yet as crowded as during the event, so day 0 is a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the venue and have a look around without the fear of missing any interesting talks.

Being a Hero

If you want to be a real hero, consider helping with teardown instead of buildup.

Usually, a lot of highly motivated people are keen to help with buildup, but after the event, most people are tired and want to get home to rest. The more people stay a day or two longer and help, the faster we all will be able to watch all the talks we missed during the event while relaxing at home.

If you want to have a more detailed look behind the scenes and are not afraid of all sorts of manual labor like carrying heavy stuff and building all the infrastructure, you are welcome to arrive earlier and help with buildup.

However, there is only so much work to do and a lot of tasks cannot be parallelized, so if you would like to help, please have a look at the relevant posts in the event blog or contact the LOC for the specific details.

DECT phones

The congress relies heavily on the DECT phone network provided by the POC.

Not only is it used by participant to chat and meet-up, it is also used by the teams of congress to interconnect.

Heaven itself uses DECT phones to reach angels which provide a DECT phone number in the angel system. Bringing your DECT handheld phone to congress and registering it with the POC helps heaven greatly with many tasks.

For example, you could be dispatched to check out an area and report back with your finding while you are still on-site, allowing direct communication. Or, you can participate in an access control shift and quickly relay information if someone is trying to access the venue without a valid ticket/wristband.

The POC curates a list of compatible DECT phones. If you don’t have one at home, you can check the list and pick one up at the store for around 25€.

Phonebook

  • 110 Security

  • 112 CERT

  • 113 Awareness Team

  • 1023 Heaven

  • 1111 Info-Desk

Radio

In addition to the DECT telephones, handheld radios are used for communication purposes. They serve as backup at important points in case the DECT network fails and are also used for 1:n communication.

You may find a radio at your shift. In this case please make sure that the battery is not empty, the correct channel is set and the device is loud enough for you to understand. Communication always starts with an initialisation phase with call signs. Because most likeley no one knows that you are the security angel at the door, you should use "Entrance Glass Hall" as your call sign, not your real name or your nickname. For example: "Secu for Entrance glass hall" - "Here is Secu, go ahead".

You can find more details on radio traffic at https://howto.c3roc.de.

Teams

The congress is organized in different teams, each with its own area of expertise.

All teams are self-organized and provide their own set of services to the congress. To give you an overview, we describe the teams you are most likely to interact with here and have an extensive diagram of their interactions.

Teams spawn into existance by a need not fullfilled. They are seldom created by an authority.

Awareness Team

If you have any trouble in a non physical way while being at congress you can get help from the awareness team.

Things like talking about topics that won’t leave your mind or trouble with your current situation in any way are their expertise.

BOC (Bar Operation Center)

The BOC is getting all the drinks from the store into your stomach.

They operate several bars, sell beverages and deliver these from the storage to the bars.

Bottles Team

The Bottles Team is managing the routing of empty bottles from your hand back into the store where they came from.

Maybe you have noticed the bottle drop points. They decide where to place these and get all its content back to the storage.

Cash Desk Team

The Cash Desk is turning QR Codes into wristbands.

You had next to no time waiting for getting your wristband? This is thanks to the Cash Desk team preplanning all this.

CERT (Chaos Emergency Response Team)

If you have a physical emergency of any kind (medical / fire) call 112 (with your DECT!)

They take care of immediate or longer term medical problems and handle emergencies like fires.

Gelb Team

c3Gelb makes sure there is no congress epidemic.

They ensure hygiene and prevent contagious infections which can ruin the congress for thousands of people.

HAC (Hall Angel Coordination)

If you have already visited a talk in a lecture hall and have been led into the hall by the angels and guided to a vacant seat, you have already got to know the work of the HAC.

Angels who work in a big lecture hall, managing the flow of creatures in and out of the hall during and between the talks, are called Hall Angels. The Hall Angel Coordinator is responsible for the coordination of the hall angels in the lecture halls. Together they ensure that the event is carried out in a smooth and safe manner.

Heaven

The heaven-team are the angels who work as shift coordinators in the heaven and organise all the work that has to be done and the helping angels in the Engelsystem. They are excellent problem solvers who are attending the congress for several years, so whenever you have a problem during your shift or have questions regarding your angel work don’t hesitate to call heaven or come by and ask for help.

Infodesk

The Infodesk helps you to get answers about all the questions you have. These might be things like "Where is …" or "How can I …".

LOC (Logistics Operation Center)

The LOC brings all the stuff to the venue before the event starts and manages to cart it off after the closing ceremony.

They operate the storage and watch over all the heavy machinery needed.

Only go there if you’re sober and aware of your surroundings as you don’t want to be run over by a forklift.

NOC (Network Operation Center)

The NOC is running the Cyber within all the fiber (and wireless) at the fastest speeds possible.

They manage the internet connection to the outer world, the network switches in the hackcenters, all the wireless access points and the colocation.

PL (Project Lead / Projektleitung)

The PL is the Chaos - Real World Adapter. They are responsible for the congress and allow us to do all the fun stuff we are happy to enjoy.

Handling real world german bureaucracy like booking the event location and communication between the teams is their expertise.

POC (Phone Operation Center)

If you hear a telephone ringing thank the POC for it.

They keep the phones running and the telephone time service responding the current time.

Secu(rity)

If you have any problem with other people in a physical manner call 110 (with your DECT!).

Helping you out with agressive behaviour and ensuring all people within the event location have bought a ticket.

When you do an access control shift at one of the several doors they are to be called when someone is entering the building without showing their wristband.

VOC (Video Operation Center)

The VOC keeps all the waving lucky cats waving on the screens.

Streaming from home and handling your post congress depression with viewing talks is made possible by the VOC. Video and Audio recording and mixing as well as rendering and uploading the videos are handled by them.