COSCUP 2026 Anonymity Networks Community track needs on-site crew: three roles, Aug 8–9¶

COSCUP 2026 Anonymity Networks Community track hero image

The schedule is set and all sixteen speakers have confirmed. Across Aug 8 and 9 in room TR-510 at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, the track runs from how censorship works and browser-fingerprint tracking, through the NTNU campus Tor node and data-privacy rights in the national health-insurance database, to the anonymous-payments session co-organized with ETHTaipei on the Aug 8 afternoon. Right now exactly one person is covering on-site operations.

Changeovers on Aug 9 are only five minutes long. Someone needs to raise the time card before a speaker runs over, and someone needs to use those five minutes to get the next speaker on stage with projection and audio tested. Several speakers have asked not to be recorded, so someone has to watch the whole way through and confirm nothing was captured. That one is unrecoverable if it goes wrong. On the Aug 8 morning there are invited civil-society groups and independent journalists arriving, so someone needs to greet people at the door and help them find seats.

We are looking for three on-site crew

Roles: recording (1), front-of-room runner (1), door runner (1)
Requirements: no background in Tor, anonymity networks, or any privacy technology
Availability: both days is ideal, one day is welcome too, and we will rotate shifts if enough people sign up
To sign up or ask: reach us through any channel on contact and tell us which role you want and which days you can make

What the three roles actually do¶

Recording: check that the conference recording is running, watch the sessions where speakers asked not to be recorded and confirm nothing was captured, and keep an eye on the video feed when a speaker joins remotely. This needs care, not professional camera skills.
Front-of-room runner: raise the time card, bring the next speaker up early, test projection and adapters, and pass the mic during Q&A. Being comfortable plugging a laptop into a projector is enough; you don't need to follow the content.
Door runner: guide people at the door and keep a headcount, hand out documentation-site material, and deal with catering and supplies. This needs someone easy to talk to who can explain in a sentence or two what the community does.

All three roles follow a set routine. We hold one online briefing the week before, walking through both days' run of show, the time-card signals, and how to handle the things that go wrong.

When and where¶

Sat, Aug 8: 08:30 to 17:00. The morning is the community's four primer talks; from 13:00 it is the anonymous-payments session co-organized with ETHTaipei (TR-511), where our staffing is lighter.
Sun, Aug 9: 09:00 to 16:30. Seven accepted talks back to back, the day we need people most.
Venue: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Taipei. The community track is in TR-510.

You are free to sit in on talks off shift¶

When you are not on a shift you can go listen to talks, and the Aug 8 afternoon is almost entirely free. Meals during your shift are covered by the community. Both the briefing and the event itself put you in direct contact with the speakers on this track.

This year the track covers how the internet and censorship work, OpenWRT home networks, the practical work of building the NTNU Tor node, browser-fingerprint tracking, the right to opt out of the national health-insurance database, and a 2026 privacy guide spanning individuals and organizations. The full schedule and session summaries are on the event page.

No experience needed¶

The community's regular work is translating the interfaces of open-source tools like Tor, Tails, and OONI into Traditional Chinese, filing issues upstream, and helping set up relays on campuses. This on-site work likewise needs no prior expertise. Being willing to spend two days helping the track run is enough. If you have never been to COSCUP before, that is fine too, and the briefing covers everything you need to know.

Note that the track itself runs mostly in Mandarin, though the crew roles are largely operational and don't require following the talks.

See the full schedule and session summaries

How to sign up

Reach the community through any channel on the contact page and tell us the role you want, the days you can make, and how best to reach you. Even once the three roles are filled you are still welcome to join, since pre-event promotion and post-event write-ups need people too.