Warchalking does not exist: a wager.

[J.A. Terranson]

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 at vt.edu>
> Reply-To: cypherpunks at einstein.ssz.com
> To: cypherpunks at 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
> 
> 
> 
> --
> http://www.niftyc.org/
> 
> 

-- 
Yours, 
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at 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