[MLB-WIRELESS] Wi-Fi Users: Chalk This Way

[Barry Park]

Wi-Fi Users: Chalk This Way
By Paul Boutin
2:00 a.m. July 3, 2002 PDT
SAN FRANCISCO -- No, it's not the Burning Man logo.
The iconic sign in a storefront window along downtown San Francisco's busy
Folsom Street is there to alert passersby to the presence of an available
802.11b wireless network. Its double-curve symbol is one of the few physical
manifestations of this year's fastest-spreading tech fad: warchalking.
Warchalking, it seems, is so cool it doesn't even matter if anyone is really
doing it or not.

London information architect Matt Jones proposed and named the concept last
month. Wireless wanderers who stumbled across open networks, Jones
suggested, should mark their location with a recognizable symbol on nearby
walls. That way, others following in their footsteps would find them even
with laptops closed.

The idea, he said, was to "put something in the right place to add some
visibility to this invisible nervous system that's growing around us. You
don't have to have four walls and a roof around you to tap into it."

Jones said he envisioned the marks as a modern version of the hobo sign
language used by low-tech kings of the road to alert each other to shelter,
food and potential trouble.

WiFi veterans say they don't see much use for the signs.

More at http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,53638,00.html



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