Armin Medosch on Thu, 31 Oct 2002 11:41:02 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-bold] Wireless Culture |
Wireless Culture Presentation for Urban Drift www.urbandrift.org, Berlin 10th of Oct. 2002 (re-edited Oct 30th) by Armin Medosch armin@easynet.co.uk Table of Content - Explanation of Basics of Technology - Free Networking - Trip The Loop - Build Community - Make a Mesh - DIY Power - War Chalking vs. Cartography - Different Approaches - Commercial Interest - Parallel (Gift) Economies - Conclusions - Explanation of Basics of Technology A Wireless Local Area Network, also known as WLAN, Wi-Fi and Airport on Macintosh computers, makes it possible to set up a local network that connects computers with ethernet speed without using cables. Via a router computers on this local network can also communicate with the internet. The technology is relatively new. It has been experimented with since the mid nineteen nineties. It was introduced as a standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) in 1999. The 802.11 standard enabled manufacturers to build hardware that would be compatible across different platforms in terms of hardware and software. The most commonly used standard is 802.11b which uses frequencies in the 2.4 Gigahrtz band for the transmission of data and achieves speeds of 2 to 11 Mbits/sec, which is considerably faster than most peoples internet connections. The technology was initially conceived for the personal use of individuals and for organisations. It is licence free, which means that everyone can set up a wireless access point without having to ask any authority first. http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/1st_page.html - Free Networking During the New Economy boom in the late ninetees Wireless got little attention outside geek communities. At the same time free network enthusiasts started already to use the technology to build community networks and open access points. This movement started simultaneously in cities in highly developed industrialized countries such es the UK, Germany, United States, Australia, Spain... http://www.freenetworks.org/ http://www.freenetworks.org/moin/index.cgi/WirelessNetworkingProjects Most of these initiatives prefer to speak about Free Networks rather than about Wavelan. Wavelan is just the technology of choice at this point in time, but the free network idea is the philosophy behind it. Free Networks try to build largely independent infrastructures for networked communications by interconnecting small access providers. Their model of growth is based on self-organisation - no single organisation owns the whole network; each individual node is self-managed by the user communities who run it; these communities are defined by shared interests and constituate themselves locally or trans-locally; they promote a supportive and constructive communication climate within protected online spaces; free networks are not necessarily free in the sense that no money has to be paid but because of their autonomy from state institutions and large corporations. Free Networks found their best expression not with the supposedly global World Wide Web but with Bulletin Board Systems, in Germany also known as Mailboxes. Before the WWW became popular BBS's already attracted communities of users in numbers of tens or hundreds of thousands. Some of them described themselves also as citizen networks or digital cities. Because their philosophy did not suit the agenda of the dotcom era their success was overshadowed by the commercial boom around the WWW. After the crash and facilitated by Wavelan technology free networks are now having a strong renaissance. - Trip The Loop A most basic function that makes wavelan attractive is its ability to trip the local loop. Failed or unfinished telecommunications privatisation resulted in a market that is still dominated by the former telephone monopolies. They control the last mile, the cable that runs into the individual household. This makes permanent internet access in Europe still relatively expensive and also establishes large telcos and a few mass market providers such as AOL as gatekeepers who control access to networked communications also in terms of policiy. They also enjoy a monopoly like situation in many countries as regards connecting users through ADSL technology, a form of high-speed internet access that uses standard telephone copper cables. With markets in a deep recession many high speed networks based on fibre optics are lying unused. These conditions together have hampered the more democratic use of the internet and the spread of broadband connections with richer and more interactive audio- visual services. With wavelan users who live in geographic proximity can hire together a high-speed connection to the internet and share the cost, which makes it significantly cheaper. They also by-pass the controlling ambitions and restrictive policies of large telcos and access providers. http://consume.net/ http://www.free2air.org/ - Build Community Wavelan re-introduces locality into networked communications. Setting up an access point and making it accessible for other people helps to create awareness of who lives or works in a certain area. The access point becomes a virtual home that facilitates the creation of services targeted at specific needs of these communities. This can find many expressions, from ideas for small businesses to very small media and filesharing applications. Because all computers who use the same node can communicate with each other on ethernet speed, this is not only fast but can also be very simple, as simple as opening a section of ones own harddisk for communal use. Users don't have to pass through the uncertain environment of the internet but remain within the walled garden of their own network. http://youarehere.metamute.com/twiki/bin/view/Home/YouAreHere - Make a Mesh Some free networks such as Consume.net in London have wider ambitions than only the creation of individual Access Points. Consume aims at establishing wireless links between individual AP's, a wireless meshed network that would cover large parts of a city. The benefits of community building and associated services which exist within the user group of one Access Points get extended to a much larger number of participants who would still remain within one network, by-passing the internet and forming various interconnected data clouds. - DIY Power Many free networks are created in a Do-It-Yourself spirit. Although more and more packages of commercial hard- and software become available and increasingly affordable, free networkers prefer to build their own stuff, from router to antenna to access point configuration. In London this happens with regularly held wavelan workshops, also called clinics, where wireless enthusiasts, from the interested newcomer to experienced techie come together to ask questions, share knowledge, show each other things they have made and discuss what they plan for the future. The workshops contribute to the social cohesion within wireless communities and facilitate de-centralized growth of free networks without centralized governance. Peopel teach each other the How-To's and the What-For's of wireless free networks. http://www.free2air.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2002/2/20/213511/252 http://www.ambienttv.net/index_frame.html On Oct. 12th and 13th wireless free networkers met at bootlab Berlin for BERLON, the Berlin London Wireless Culture Workshop. Practical work on antenna and nodebuilding and talks about an agreement for wireless free networking were held, the so called Pico Peering Agreement, which should form the basis for a bottom-up model of peering agreements between free networks but also define the interface to commercial providers. With free networkers from Denmark and Spain also present, this formed an attempt to broaden international collaboration on the basis of the workshop model. Reports, photos, etc. http://bootlab.org/berlon/ - War Chalking vs. Cartography Wireless free networks are a great thing - if you can find them. Recently there was much media hype about so called war chalking. The idea is that someone walks, drives or peddalls around with a mobile computer device and tries to find wireless access points. If one is found a sign is made with chalk on the pavement, whereby different shapes signify different types of networks, open and closed ones for instance. The idea was given much media publicity but is almost certainly completely useless in helping people to actually find access points. Chalk on pavement is washed a ways quickly by the next rain or street cleaning services. Chalking on walls is illegal, like graffiti. More helpful is a number of different ways of wireless cartography. Consume has a node database, where people who have created an access point can give their coordinates and a node description, which literally puts them on a map, an interface for web-investigation on location based information about wireless access points. The Australian based project nodedb tries to provide mapping services on a worldwide basis. It links streetmaps with wireless acces points and also information on meshed networks - wireless connections between access points - and offers node descriptions in a wiki. http://consume.net/nodedb.php http://www.nodedb.com/ http://www.nodedb.com/active/europe/at/vienna/? http://www.nodedb.com/unitedstates/ny/newyork/? These projects have two disadvantages: they depend on users creating their own entry into a database. This can lead to distortions. For instance, nodedeb has, at the time of writing no single entry for London, even so there are many nodes on the consume map. The second problem is that the maps show where access points are, but not how far the signal that they emit actually goes. This depends on many factors, such as urban topography, signal strength, type of antenna used. vortex from free2air.org is working on an advanced research project to overcome those limits to wireless mapping. He tries to map the actual size and shape of signal emission from a single node and, with a combination of GPS, geographical information systems, streetmaps, areal photography and special software, tries to visualise the real shape of a data cloud, which he calls "air shadow". This type of cartography gives a much more reliable information about where a signal can actually be picked up. It also takes out the "war" of mobile mapping, the much hyped "war driving" as which mobile mapping is usually described in the media, bringing it into realm of hacker type activities. "air shadow" is a much more useful way of mapping the electrosphere in an area that could benefit many user groups in different ways and has nothing to do with "hacking" http://www.free2air.org/?op=section;section=eastendnet http://www.ittc.ku.edu/wlan/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1639661.stm - Different Approaches Different wireless freenets in different cities tend to follow a very different approach. NYCwireless for instance focusses on providing free public wireless internet service to mobile users in public spaces throughout the New York City area. Consume in London focusses more on creating a wireless mesh and promoting free network ideas of self-management of nodes, knowledge transfer and community building. Other projects work closely together with public institutions such as local councils and educational institutions. Wireless projects in rural areas try to attack the problem that telco providers have failed them alltogether and that only self help will enable them to get cheap and fast access. http://www.nycwireless.net/ http://consume.net - Commercial Interest Since about a year or so mainstream media organisations started to report about wavelan activities, at first mostly on a hostile note, pointing out the vulnerability of wireless networks for "war driving" hackers. Since then the tone has changed and wireless community networks got some favourable reporting in media such as The Guardian, BBC and Der Spiegel. The publicity around grassroots movements of free networkers has also woken up the industry. Some telco providers and analysts fear that wavelan undermines 3G, in Germany UMTS technology, the next generation of mobile phone networks. Providers had to pay huge sums to governments to get a licence to operate a 3G network. Now they struggle to finance the building of network infrastructures, while licence free grassroots networks florish. Mobile phone masts for 3G on nearly every tall building create unprecedent levels of electrosmog which more and more people fear have effects on health and wellbeing. My personal opinion about competitive rivalry between wavelan and G3/UMTS is that it does not really matter. Technologies will become more complementary, combinations of 3G and wavelan will be built into one and the same mobile devices. More important than the commercial race is the self-sustained growth of free networks and the community enhancing applications and services that are being built on their shoulders. - Parallel (Gift) Economies Shu Lea Cheangs "Rich Air" project recently conducted in New York presented a model for the use of wavelan for trading of cultural goods in a money free barter economy. Inspired by the Argentinian truque clubs, Rich Air illustrates a number of benefits to be gained from establishing systems that exist outside capitalist markets and facilitate free exchange in gift economies. http://www.rich-air.com/ - Conclusions Free Networks are the antidot to dot-com depression and internet loneliness. They bring people together in the virtual and the real world, create a buzz and mobilize fresh energies in people to participate in communal activities. The motivation to do so is not really altruistic, which is a common misunderstanding. Maybe there will always be some people who only want to be freeloaders. But for the majority of those involved in free networking the result is that they get much more out of it than what they give. As in other gift economies such as free/open slource software development people benefit from the multiplication of individual efforts. Each one gives something gets something back from the community at large. On a social and economic level there are obvious benefits for regeneration in deprived inner city and rural areas. The existence of wireless access points makes an area more attractive and, in connection with imaginative projects in cartography and application building, will develop new business ideas, social and cultural projects. The future of wireless free networks can not be foretold but so far their potential has hardly been tapped into. _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold