Black Hat goes interactive in selecting upcoming speakers
Having paid attendees vote on upcoming conference speakers is just one of the online improvements Black Hat hopes to make during 2008.
On Wednesday, Black Hat officials opened their Call For Papers (CFP) site to paid attendees registered for this summer's Black Hat USA 2008 Briefings and Trainings.
In February, speaking at Black Hat D.C. 2008, director Jeff Moss said his idea is to make the redesigned Black Hat Web site more interactive between speakers and attendees. The first improvement is to give future attendees a voice in choosing what speakers and presentations they'd like to see. Black Hat USA 2008, to be held August 2-7 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, is the first conference to offer this function.
Moss said in an e-mail that the "ratings will help us create the show you want to attend, and even help focus presentations as they're being created. We are excited to see what kind of information we learn about what interests our delegates and what kind of talks meet their needs best."
At present, the Black Hat CFP lists more than 80 submissions. The submission period will continue through May 1, when final selection will begin.
Approved talks will then be programmed into a dozen topic-based tracks, including Zero Day, Zero Day Defense, Application Security 1.0/2.0, Bots and Stuff, Covert, Deep Knowledge, Forensics & Anti-Forensics, Hardware, the Network, New Hotness, Over the Air (OTA), Privacy and Anonymity, and Turbo Talks. A new track, Un-Track, will be an opportunity for attendees and presenters to talk after a session, and was tested after sessions in Washington, D.C.
Moss also hinted that future improvements to the Black Hat site may include online forums.