I’ve recently been attending (almost) daily cybersecurity study sessions with a small group of students and professionals from the Fediverse, all brought together by our desire to increase our level of knowledge and fine tune our skills. These have been fun and productive, as it has taken us from studying and facing challenges on our own, to now tackling it as a group. It also gives everyone a bit more focus on what to study next and brings people to ping for hints, a fresh sets of eyes on problems and potential solutions, with occasional reminders to step away and get some fresh air.

We’ve taken to calling our study group “The Joey Sessions.” It’s a nod to Joey from Hackers, the newest and least skilled member of the group, but also the most passionate about learning. Every other character seems to have their skills already, with Joey being the only one a learning pursuit.

I took a greater liking to Joey and was given the chance re-think his role when I was visiting New York City in the summer of 2016 for the HOPE conference. I don’t remember which talk I was at, but I remember there were some technical difficulties linking up to one of the remote speakers for a panel discussion. One panelist took the downtime as an opportunity to talk about Joey. She mainly focused on the identity crisis of Joey and his search for a hacker handle. When he was seeking help from his friend and mentor, The Phantom Phreak, he threw out several names looking for feedback, “Master of Disaster, Ultra Laser, Dr. Doom?” All he heard in response was, “You’re Utterly Hopeless.”

The panelist related this moment back to something all hackers and netizens have gone through, a search for an online identity. Whether it’s joining a new IRC server, creating a Twitter account, or logging in for a deathmatch, we’ve all faced the prompts requesting our handle. “Is today the day I become something new? Evolved? Exposed?”

This time killing chatter was one my favorite moments of the conference. It was unplanned, off-the-cuff, and more importantly it rang truth. It set me down a path, thinking more about Joey’s role and who he is as a Hacker. After pondering it for quite a while, it lead me to the conclusion that while many of us see ourselves Zero Cool, Lord Nikon, or Acid Burn, we’re all more like Joey than most of us are comfortable to admit.

#TheJoeySessions