[Nettime-bold] Wireless Culture

["Armin Medosch" <armin@easynet.co.uk>]

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. 


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