FC: A $1 wager: Wireless "warchalking" does not exist

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Jul 02 2003 - 06:53:42 PDT

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    ----- Forwarded message from jeremy hunsinger <jhunsat_private> -----
    
    From: jeremy hunsinger <jhunsat_private>
    Subject: Warchalking does not exist: a wager.
    To: cypherpunks
    Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:01:50 -0400
    X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552)
    
    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/
    
    ----- End forwarded message -----
    
    
    
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