A page by Christian Sandvig. As you may have guessed I'm writing a paper about this. Email me if you want a copy when I finish.
Contents:
From: Christian Sandvig [csandvig@uiuc.edu] Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 6:24 PM To: Undisclosed List of Recipients Subject: does non-staged warchalking with chalk really exist? Warchalking continues to be a media darling. Last Sunday, "war- chalking" was named one of the 100 most significant ideas of the year 2002 by the New York Times Magazine. Other ideas were things like "the doctrine of pre-emption". I'm surprised that most media continue to treat the story of the chalk marks as though they were widespread. The story of chalk and symbols is a fun story, but I can't find any evidence that it is more than a story. I still think the "chalking" of note is the stuff done with bits in "free wireless" databases. I bet that very little is done with chalk on buildings. Exceptions are instances that are staged for self-promotion. I've seen (1) businesses pasting laser-printed warchalking symbols on windows to advertise wi-fi access (wow we are so hip!), and I've seen (2) chalking done as a publicity stunt -- e.g., chalk an access point, then take a digital photo of it and run it in a news story, upload it to a bragging Web page, or regularly warchalk your own access point. Although these are interesting they aren't consistent with the story of warchalking. I had a discussion about this with a professor in Chicago who says he regularly sees warchalking symbols in The Loop (a downtown neighborhood). When I go to The Loop I don't see any except one laser-printed self-posted one. Do we think warchalking actually exists as a cultural practice in the way it is supposed to? If it does exist I bet it would exist in London (where it started) or the Bay Area (center of tech). Maybe Seattle (big open wireless movement) or New York (center of everything)? But Chicago has lots of Wi-Fi and I can't find the chalk marks. If warchalking with chalk works the way it is supposed to, we should be able to find the marks, otherwise they are useless. If you want to know what the symbols look like, look here: http://www.warchalking.org/ Calling all stations: Have you made any actual sightings of widespread marks? or any marks? Thanks for any help, Christian *** http://www.niftyc.org/
From: Christian Sandvig [csandvig@uiuc.edu] Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 4:32 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Warchalking does not exist: a wager. Hi Steve and air-l colleagues, Steve: Remember the hallway conversation we had last fall about whether or not 'true' Warchalking exists? If I remember, it was your contention that it does and that you'd seen it in the Loop. As you know I'm doing a research project on Wi-Fi and I've been trying to settle this for a while. I'm writing this note to air-l because I need help. For background, Warchalking is the use of symbols (marked with chalk) to indicate the presence of a Wi-Fi hotspot. In pure form, the story of warchalking is that there is a subculture of Wi-Fi users that use chalk to communicate with each other about Wi-Fi locations. Hip/cool businesses then co-opted the subcultural warchalking to advertise their own hotspots. More at: http://www.warchalking.org/ My contention is that the first (subcultural) story about warchalking above is entirely a media phenomenon -- it is a beautiful idea, but it doesn't make any sense as a directory service to find Wi-Fi. It is too easy to miss a warchalk mark, and the chalk wears away (or washes away in the rain) too quickly. Warchalking symbols were heavily promoted in the New York Times just *48 hours* after they were first made public on the Web. There was a subsequent wave of media stories about warchalking, giving everyone ideas. Every single occurrence of chalk I've found can be attributed to chalkers who want to self-promote their own mark. So I believe that people *do* rarely make warchalking marks for various reasons (to be cool, to advertise for their own network) but I *don't* believe that people use warchalking marks in a meaningful way to find Wi-Fi. After the conversation with Steve, on December 18th I posted a call to many colleagues around the world asking for verifiable instances of warchalking that work the way that warchalking describes itself. Reports to date: zero. If warchalking worked as a directory location service, shouldn't I be able to find it? I just had a close call -- a friend told me that my office at Oxford had been warchalked. Since it is a WEP (non-open) node and I didn't do it, this could be half of a "true" instance of warchalking! I ran out as soon as I heard but couldn't find the mark. It must have washed away? (Here in England, it is raining.) So I am willing to propose a wager, or a bounty. I'll bet one dollar that warchalking is not a meaningful way of locating Wi-Fi hotspots. To win the bounty, can anyone deliver someone that uses warchalking to locate Wi-Fi hotspots? Caveats: (1) Warchalking done by the provider of the hotspot does not count -- it is supposedly a co-option of the "pure" subculture. I dispute the subculture, not the self-promotion. (2) I am not disputing that wardriving, warwalking, and online hotspot mapping (warchalking with bits in GIS databases, not with chalk) exist as advertised. (Though others have.) My beef here is only about the chalk part. I've made a web page for this bet that has the relevant emails I've sent and some links: http://www.niftyc.org/bet/ As you may have guessed I'm writing a paper about this. Email me if you want a copy when I finish. Thank you for any help! Christian -- http://www.niftyc.org/
Last modified 30 Jun 2003