The 14-17th May the 5th Click festival was held. As previous ones it was at the Culture Yard in Elsingor, and just as previous years it focused on both tech, art and life in the digital era. The conference, which consist of three parts and spanned over 4 days, had both lectures, workshops and performances.

Seminars – Richard Stallman, extreme capitalism and IoT

Amongst the guests and speakers was Richard Stallman, famous for being behind the GNU and free software movement. A very strongly opinioned man, who emphasised the need to not trade convenience for freedom. He went into SaaS and the challenges of free software in a time when more and more software is run as a service in the cloud. But he also touched about the very current issues of personal freedom vs convenience, such as paying with cash instead of credit cards in stores.

Another speaker was Jennifer Lyn Morone Inc, who spoke about taking the concept of capitalism to the extreme. By incorporating herself she has commoditsed her body and life, and collects as much data as possible about herself.

Cory Doctorow talked about the Internet of Things and things that the internet enables. He talked about that they not just opened possibilities but also restrictions which we should be aware about. The future of copyright will be experiencing new challenges, with DRM being used for software on gadgets – which can have a lot of unpleasant or annoying side effects.

Overall, the stage was filled with strong personalities who often have taken their respective field to the extreme. A very impressive line-up!

Play – exploring games in society

Click festival also had one day focusing on game and playfulness. Besides keynotes from Thomas Vigild from Vallekilde and Carsten Jessen from Aarhus University, the day consisted of workshops, playshops, and interactive game experiments, Urban Games.

Apart from the seminars click also had the Live session over the weekend, merging art, music and performance.

A truly different 4 day event, that challenges and focuses on the creative part of technology and it’s enabling force. Impressive work by the team behind it, getting such a varied program together.