http://www.midwestwarchalking.org predates (look at the whois) the media's involvement. On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, jeremy hunsinger wrote:
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:01:50 -0400 From: jeremy hunsinger <jhuns@vt.edu> Reply-To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com To: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: CDR: Warchalking does not exist: a wager.
Forwarded for a colleague:
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 an 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
-- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org "...we are part now of a dubious troika in the war against terror with Vladimir Putin and Ariel Sharon, two leaders who do not shrink in Palestine or Chechnya from carrying out acts of gratuitous and senseless acts of violence. We have become the company we keep." Christopher Hedges 15-year veteran of foreign war coverage for the New York Times