Announcing the Green Tech Hackathon

Event details

• What: Green Tech Hackathon (or Sustain-a-thon 😉)
• When: 10-11 December 2024 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
• Where: Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- and online

Apply here

Our Green Tech Hackathon will explore innovative solutions for reducing the environmental impact of digital technologies, not only with a focus on Internet infrastructure but also on ideas of regenerative society and climate justice - and everything in between. Our projects will cover topics such as:

• Renewable energy
• Sustainable purchasing
• E-waste recycling
• Water consumption of data centres
• Low-tech networking
• Inclusion of marginalised voices in Internet Governance
• Reuse and repurpose of telecom equipment
• Energy efficiency
• Data minimalism
• DeGrowth tech
• Feminist Internet
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for ISPs
• Materiality Assessments and Alignment with the UN SDG's
• Solar Punk
• Carbon-aware routing
• Permacomputing

Expected outcomes are: improved documentation, software tools, research paper, contribution to an IETF draft, art piece, design prototype, (start of) Best Current Practice document, hardware you have re-purposed or soldered from scratch -- and most importantly, new connections and inspiration from getting to know each other and working together!

Call for Participation

We are looking for enthusiastic and critical thinkers in Green Tech. If you are a hacker, software developer, climate expert, network engineer, student, researcher, data scientist, designer, economist, sys-admin, philosopher, gardener, academic, or poet, who wants to create a sustainable future, then this event is for you!

Apply here

Application deadlines

• Early Bird: Apply by September 30, 2024, if you need to arrange travel and accommodation in advance.
• Last-Minute: Apply by November 30, 2024, if you can decide on short notice (for example, if you are local to Amsterdam or nearby)
• Online: Join remotely, anytime.

Organisation team

• Vesna Manojlovic, Community Builder, RIPE NCC (NOGs and academia liaison)
• Michael Oghia, ICT sustainability advocate (Digital infrastructure liaison)
• Mallory Knodel, CTO, Center for Democracy and Technology (Digital Rights and standardisation bodies liaison)
• Shane Kerr, Software Developer, IBM (FLOSS and DNS liaison)
• Claudia Borges, Passionate Green Computing Advocate (Artists, Hackers and Activists liaison)
• Noelle Starliper, Events Coordinator, RIPE NCC
• Chris Buckridge, Consultant (Internet Governance communities liaison)

Hackathon format

The hackathon will bring together 42 participants to work on various challenges in teams of three to six people. We will provide food, drinks, space, Club Mate, electricity, post-it notes, WiFi, and stroopwafels.

Agenda

• Day 1: Project proposals, team formation, progress rounds, and social dinner.
• Day 2: Continued work, final presentations, and awards for Best Team Work, Craziest Idea, and Most Complete Project.
• Post-event: Reviews will be published on RIPE Labs, and some projects may be presented at RIPE meetings or other events.

Format

On day one, everyone will introduce themselves and their skills/interests, and people will choose their teammates and potential projects they would like to work on. In the afternoon, there will be a progress round with feedback from other teams and judges, followed by a social dinner.

On day two, work will continue with more collaboration and feedback rounds until the final presentation of the results in the afternoon.

After the event, we will publish the results on RIPE Labs and might suggest presenting the work at future RIPE Meetings or other NOG/IETF events. Some projects continue after the hackathon and evolve into different ideas and solutions.

Please note that RIPE NCC hackathons are non-commercial and non-competitive. We focus on cooperation and openness - all the code produced is FLOSS, and all the results are published on public software repositories, wikis, and on blogs to help others further create, experiment, and develop ideas and tools.

Projects and challenges

We have put together a list of potential projects that may need attention. This is up for the team to explore if they would like to work on them:

• Contributing to IETF drafts from e-impact and GREEN-BoF
• Developing Best Current Practices for sustainable equipment purchasing and responsible e-waste recycling
• Creating a syllabus for Sustainable Tech university courses
• Measuring energy consumption of network operations
• Building sustainable alternative networks
• ... and many other ideas that the participants will suggest!

Green tech RIPE talks

In previous RIPE Meetings, there were a series of interesting Green Tech talks that may inspire you and your team. Have a look:

• Internet Services and Energy Demand
• Scion BoF
• Sustainable ICT Procurement and RIPE
• Towards a Fossil Free Internet
• Environmental Ethics in Tech
• Energy Consumption of the Internet
• The Internet of Tomorrow Must Sleep More and Grow Old
• Sustainable Networking: Where are we and where should we go

Green Tech RIPE Labs articles and podcasts

There is an ongoing interest among RIPE Labs authors to write or talk about Green Tech. These are some of the articles published in the last 10 years under "/sustainability" :

• The Climate Cost of the AI Revolution
• Book release: Insolvent - How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability
• A Carbon-Aware Internet with the Green Web Foundation
• To Green the Internet, We Need RIPE
• What to do with e-waste
• Wim Vanderbauwhede: Frugal Computing for a Sustainable Internet
• Amazon Doesn’t Care How You Heat Swimming Pools: ICT and Ecosocialism
• Environmental Impact of Internet: Urgency, De-Growth, Rebellion
• Paola Grosso: Defining a Responsible Internet
• Sustainability is Good for the Internet (and Business too)

Co-hosting or supporting opportunities

We are still seeking co-hosting or supporting organisations and individuals to help us make this event a success:

• Co-hosting organisation: Provide financial support or administrative/logistics work. Your organisation will be featured in promotional materials such as t-shirts and banners. You can also appoint someone to be on the core organisation team.
• Supporting organisations: we can accept "sponsorship in kind" -- if you would like to pay for a dinner, printing of T-shirts or special coffee, please get in touch!
• Core Organisation Team: Participate in the programme, selection, and review committees - these are the people 'behind the scenes' working hard to make the event happen from advising on content, selecting participants, and reviewing the final projects. If you're into "herding cats" and expert in Green Tech, this is the role for you!

Do you want to get involved? Confirm your commitment by 30 September 2024 by emailing vesna@ripe.net.

Repeated participation application link: apply to join the hackathon!