On May 31st, Corelight’s Open Source team hosted a “Meet the Zeek Developers” day in Amsterdam. Different from other Zeek events, this was a very informal gathering without a set agenda; this meeting was an opportunity for exchange between members of the Zeek community and the Zeek development team.
The meeting took place in the boardroom of the historic Meet Berlage in Amsterdam. The meeting was attended by approximately 20 people in addition to the core Zeek development and Corelight Open Source teams.
The event consisted of informal conversations at the four large tables in the meeting room. In addition to this, there were two dedicated talks. Christian Kreibich (Zeek’s technical lead and LT member) gave an overview of the current Zeek roadmap. Furthermore, guest speaker and long-time Zeek user Barry Weymes (Aramco) gave a talk about his journey with Zeek & Corelight.
The topics covered at the different tables covered a wide spectrum from specific questions about protocols that one can analyze with Zeek, over discussions of the impact of encryption, questions about Zeek and Spicy development, to experiences that attendees have using Zeek — just about every topic was covered.
We consider this “ZeekDay” format a prototype of smaller, regional events focused on learning Zeek and connecting with other users. Many of our community members still experience limitations on corporate travel, so one motivator for this approach is for us to come to you, as opposed to everyone coming to a central ZeekWeek. Another ZeekDay just wrapped up in Phoenix, Arizona, and two more are coming up in St. Louis, MO, USA on October 24, as well as in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 16. All of them are free to attend!
If you’d like to see a ZeekDay in your area and are able to host us, please get in touch — we would love to talk to you. Meanwhile, we will continue to explore variations to the format, such as a single-day ZeekWeek-style curated program of talks, a virtual ZeekWeek, and of course a return to classic, in-person ZeekWeek — still the ideal format from the Zeek team’s perspective. Feedback on these ideas is very welcome.
Many thanks to Corelight Open Source for organizing these events, and to our local hosts for the support!