Digital DawgPound

Digital DawgPound
aka DDP

The Digital DawgPound (more commonly referred to as the "DDP") is a group of hackers, best known for a series of articles in hacker magazines such as 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and Make, the long-running webcast Binary Revolution Radio, and a very active set of forums with posts from high-profile hackers such as Strom Carlson, decoder, Phiber Optik and StankDawg. The stated mission of the DDP is to propagate a more positive image of hackers than the negative mass media stereotype. The group welcomes new members who want to learn about hacking, and attempts to teach them more positive aspects and steer them away from the negative aspects, by reinforcing the hacker ethic. Their goal is to show that hackers can, and regularly do, make positive contributions not only to technology, but to society as a whole.[1]

History

The DDP was originally founded and named by StankDawg. His stated reasons were that he had made many friends in the hacking scene and thought that it would be useful to have everyone begin working together in a more organized fashion. He was motivated by the fact that there had been other well known Hacker Groups in the 1980s who had accomplished great things in the hacking world such as the LoD and the MoD. In 1988, while a junior in high school, StankDawg came up with the name on his way to the "Sweet 16" computer programming competition. He jokingly referred to his teammates as "The Digital Dawgpound".

StankDawg lurked in the shadows of the hacking world for many years throughout college under many different pseudonyms. In 1997 he popped his head out into the public and began becoming more active on IRC and many smaller hacking forums. He saw some insanely brilliant people who seemed to have the same mindset and positive attitude towards hacking that he did, so he decided to approach a couple of them to see if they'd be interested. There was always a huge emphasis not only on technical competence and variety, but also on strength of character and integrity. DDP members are good programmers and hackers, but more importantly, they're good people. By 1999 the DDP had its first members and from this partnership, creativity flowed.

The DDP communicated and worked together on StankDawg's personal site, which was open to anyone who wanted to join in on the fun. StankDawg was never comfortable with the fact that it was his name that was on the domain and that many people who were coming to the site were coming because of his articles or presentations but not really appreciating all of the other great community members that were around. In 2002, after watching the web site grow quickly, it was decided that a new community needed to be created for these like-minded hackers who were gathering. This was the start of the biggest DDP project called Binary Revolution which was an attempt at starting a true "community" of hackers. As the site grew, so did the DDP roster.

Members

Over the years, DDP membership has included several staff writers for 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and Blacklisted! 411 magazine including StankDawg and bland_inquisitor. They frequently publish articles, provide content, and appear on many media sources across the global Interweb. DDP members are also regular speakers at hacking conferences such as DEF CON, H.O.P.E., and Interzone.

The majority of DDP members are college graduates and have professional experience in the computer industry. Some work for Fortune 500 companies, while others have been entrepreneurs who have created successful businesses. They hold memberships in Mensa and the International High IQ society.[2]

Binary Revolution

The best known of the DDP projects is that of Binary Revolution, or "BinRev". This project was created in an attempt to bring the hacking community back together, working towards a common, positive goal of reclaiming the name of hackers. The Binary Revolution emphasizes positive aspects of hacking and projects that help society. It does this in a variety of outlets including monthly meetings, the weekly radio show Binary Revolution Radio(BRR), a video-based series of shows called HackTV, and very active message board forums.

Binary Revolution Radio, often shortened to "BRR", is one small part of the binrev community. It is common for people to discover BRR on one of the many podcast sites or applications out there and not realize that the "Binary Revolution" refers to a larger community than just the radio show. When people refer to "BinRev" they should not be referring only to the radio show. They should be referring to the community of projects as a whole, specifically focusing on the forums.

Recognition

The DDP maintains a blog "which they refer to as a "blawg". Posts by DDP members have been featured on other technology-related sites such as those of Make Magazine,[3][4] HackADay,[5][6] Hacked Gadgets,[7][8] and others.

Works

Printed

Online

Presentations

Notes

  1. ↑ StankDawg (2004-12-23). "Why Hack?".
  2. ↑ "StankDawg's High IQ Society member page". 2007.
  3. ↑ Phillip Torrone (2007-04-06). "HOW TO - RFID Enable your front door (with a Parallax BASIC Stamp & 13.5 MHz APSX RW-210)". Make Magazine.
  4. ↑ Phillip Torrone (2005-06-25). "Apple's Podcasting iTunes 4.9 is out!". Make Magazine.
  5. ↑ Eliot Phillips (2006-03-27). "Using Radiosondes as cheap GPS trackers". hackaday.com.
  6. ↑ Eliot Phillips (2006-07-02). "Email on the Cisco 7960". hackaday.com. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  7. ↑ Alan Parekh (2006-09-18). "RFID Front Door Lock". hackedgadgets.com. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  8. ↑ Alan Parekh (2007-04-03). "RFID Enabling Your Front Door using a Parallax Microcontroller". hackedgadgets.com. Retrieved 2007-07-08.

External links

DDP projects

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