Internet television is a concept that has exploded in the last few years. Networks such as Cnet and Revision3 have been creating and distributing shows for quite some time. But in the beginning it started out as a more independent and underground movement, done by people who didn't have a background in television. Using the power of bit-torrent and at the time a new service called Youtube, these shows were able to distribute their content across the internet. Word of mouth also played a huge part in building an audience, and as their popularity grew, so came internet based IPTV networks and advertisers. One of the shows that got its start in this manner is Hak5.
Hak5 began as a homegrown effort. Started by friends Darren Kitchen, Wess Tobler and Alli Buehring, the show is a technology based program which included comedic skits, making it entertaining and informational. Hacking, hardware mods, how to's and gaming are among the main subjects covered by this crew, with Wess handling most of the hardware mods (any regular viewer knows that Darren is rarely allowed to touch power tools), Darren with how to's on hacks, networking, and generally making gadgets do things they were not originally meant to do, and Alli handled the LAN parties, trivia, and subjects such as photoshop how to's.
Over time new faces began to appear regularly. Paul Tobias (the mastermind behind the camera) began appearing in Mac OS X and Linux segments, Shannon Morse (also known as Snubs) came on board, adding more segments and taking over the trivia and LAN party segments when Alli departed the show, and Matt Lestock performed a few mods and started giving an in-depth look at cooperate networking. Other friends such as Rob Fuller (aka Mubix) and Jenn Cutter, as well as many others contributed to the show as well, covering subjects such as gaming hardware hacks and security exploits on networks and operating systems.
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The show remained independent for the first three seasons, and in August of 2008, Darren announced that they had signed a distribution deal with Revision3. At this time, Wess also announced that he was resigning from Hak5 due to several factor. With the beginning of the forth season, the show went from monthly to weekly. Hosting was now performed by Darren, Matt and Shannon, with Darren going deeper into subjects such as wireless hacks, Matt demonstrating the power of vitalization and details on corporate networking, and Shannon showing us fun with devices such as the Amazon Kindle.
At the end of the sixth season, Matt had announced that he resigned from the show, and at the start of the seventh season, Darren and Shannon informed the audience that they felt Hak5 was successful enough to tackle it on a more full time. They took the show from its birth place of Williamsburg, VA, and in a cross-country motorcycle adventure dubbed "Hack Across America" and settled in San Francisco, CA.
One of the most appealing aspects of Hak5 is the community that surrounds the show. This community not only discusses the show in an official IRC chat room and forum, but also contribute ideas and information for segments for episodes. Not only does Darren use this information for Hak5, but he also actively participates with the fans, joining in the chat room, streaming video of him filming episodes, hosting meet-ups in nearly every city they visit, and even hosts a streaming video internet trivia show. It's rare in this day and age that people truly interact with their audience, and Darren does so, treating people as an equal, instead of feeling he is above them.
Over the past five years, Hak5 has given its followers information on anything from turning an old PC into a network storage, using a pineapple to find out what people are doing on a wireless network, all the way down to building an Evil Server bent on world domination. Entertaining and informative, and all performed by a group of people with a dream and the know-how to get it done.
If you want to check the show out, heres how
www.hak5.org, www.revision3.com/hak5, www.youtube.com/hak5darren
Special Thanks to Darren Kitchen for the personal email allowing use of images from the show.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to add them below or email at omck@aotg.us
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