Why?
Why Massachusetts?
Massachusetts has a special place in computing history. With its cluster of colleges and universities including MIT, the various UMass campuses, Worcester Polytechnic, and facilities like Lincoln Laboratory, as well as the many tech companies of the famous "128 corridor." It has been host to scores of developments in the field, from the days of Project Whirlwind and the Harvard Mark-1 to the invention of the first interactive computer game, Spacewar!, and is home to many notable scholars, coders, and artists.
Why name it @party?
In a word (to paraphrase Fiddler on the Roof) TRADITION, TRADITION! ( : Basically, meetups for computer geeks at science fiction conventions (such as Metoikos has been working on as a stage tech or other staff since 2003)in the late 80s and early 90s were called @parties, and the name of this event has been chosen to honour that tradition.See this link for more: http://www.jargondb.org/glossary/at-party
Related links
- Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, birthplace of a lot of hacking jargon
- A page about WPI hackers in the 70s
@party is a program of Boston Cyberarts 
.