We're happy to announce that one of our keynote addresses at HOPE Number Nine this summer will be given by The Yes Men, in what will surely be a lively, enlightening, and inspirational presentation.
The Yes Men have probably caused more global trouble and confusion in the upper echelons than anyone and they've pulled it off with true hacker spirit. Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum created a fake World Trade Organization website back in 1999 which managed to fool a large number of people, many within the WTO itself. They found themselves invited to conferences to speak as WTO representatives which they eagerly did, causing all kinds of mayhem as documented in their film The Yes Men. (Their most recent film, The Yes Men Fix the World, was released in 2009.)
The duo have also targeted George W. Bush, Dow Chemical, oil companies, media outlets, and all sorts of corporations and governments that never saw them coming. Each time they've defeated the system and won a victory in a battle nobody else thought to fight, at least, not in this manner. Mike and Andy's slick social engineering skills have fooled all sorts of media outlets, including the BBC, into spreading their fake stories throughout the world. They've also been known to print tens of thousands of fake newspapers to hand out to commuters in busy train stations, causing no end of turmoil.
But these pranks aren't done just for the fun of it. The Yes Men always have a message behind what they say and do, one that is often not given a voice in the mainstream. Just as popular websites have been hacked by people who want to get a message out, the mainstream culture itself has been hacked by The Yes Men, in order to reach millions of people with an alternative to what they're being told.
We hope you share our enthusiasm at having The Yes Men deliver one of our keynote addresses at this year's Hackers On Planet Earth conference, known as HOPE Number Nine. It should be quite energetic and fun, and it will no doubt leave the thousands in attendance with all sorts of ideas on how to change the world.
HOPE Number Nine will be taking place July 13, 14, and 15, 2012 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City and will feature over 100 talks ranging from highly technical to socially provocative, but all connected in some way to the wonderful world of hacking. In addition, we'll have a huge floorspace for all kinds of hacker projects and displays.
Click here to register for HOPE Number Nine at the discounted rate.
Click here to learn more about The Yes Men.
Click here to visit The Yes Men website.
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