An eco-friendly hybrid urban computing network combining community-based wireless LAN access and wireless sensor networking

Computer-enhanced smart environments, distributed environmental monitoring, wireless communication, energy conservation and sustainable technologies, ubiquitous access to Internet-located data and services, user mobility and innovation as a tool for service differentiation are all significant contemporary research subjects and societal developments. This position paper presents the design of a hybrid municipal network infrastructure that, to a lesser or greater degree, incorporates aspects from each of these topics by integrating a community-based Wi-Fi access network with Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) functionality. The former component provides free wireless Internet connectivity by harvesting the Internet subscriptions of city inhabitants. To minimize session interruptions for mobile clients, this subsystem incorporates technology that achieves (near-)seamless handover between Wi-Fi access points. The WSN component on the other hand renders it feasible to sense physical properties and to realize the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. This in turn scaffolds the development of value-added end-user applications that are consumable through the community-powered access network. The WSN subsystem invests substantially in ecological considerations by means of a green distributed reasoning framework and sensor middleware that collaboratively aim to minimize the network's global energy consumption. Via the discussion of two illustrative applications that are currently being developed as part of a concrete smart city deployment, we offer a taste of the myriad of innovative digital services in an extensive spectrum of application domains that is unlocked by the proposed platform

Multidimensional Participation in Hybrid Wireless Communities

Wireless communities have been long considered an interesting approach to provide mobile Internet, but the key issue is whether they are able to attract and retain a critical mass of active members. It is therefore crucial to understand what motivates and dissuades people from joining and participating in them, especially with the development of mainstream 3G technologies, in order to evaluate their potential development. This paper analyzes motivations and barriers influencing participation in a large wireless community – Fon – based on a survey of 268 members. Two distinct forms of participation driven by different motivations emerge: a ‘participation by sharing’ driven by idealistic motivation and a ‘social participation’ driven by social motives and technical interest. Utilitarian motivations do not play a major role for active participation despite being crucial in attracting members to the community. Accordingly, the way hybrid wireless communities are currently designed (hardly offering occasions for a social usage experience, experimentation and with decreasing utilitarian benefits due the development of 3G technologies) is casting serious doubts about a possible potential development above the status of a niche complement to the dominant cellular technologies

Limits of the Federal Wiretap Act\u27s Ability to Protect against Wi-Fi Sniffing

Adoption of Wi-Fi wireless technology continues to see explosive growth. However many users still operate their home Wi-Fi networks in unsecured mode or use publicly available unsecured Wi-Fi networks, thus exposing their communications to the dangers of packet sniffing, a technique used for eavesdropping on a network. Some have argued that communications over unsecured Wi-Fi networks are readily accessible to the general public and that such communications are therefore excluded from the broad protections of the Federal Wiretap Act against intentional interception of electronic communications. This Note examines the Federal Wiretap Act and argues that the current Act\u27s treatment of Wi-Fi sniffing might protect unsecured Wi-Fi communications under some circumstances, but that any such protections are incidental, unsystematic, and uncertain. This Note further argues that the current statute\u27s readily accessible to the general public language should be interpreted in a way that addresses concerns about Wi-Fi sniffing and users\u27 expectations of privacy. Users\u27 current expectations stem from their limited understanding of the underlying Wi-Fi technology and the accompanying security risks and, more importantly, from the fact that private communications cannot be intercepted without specialized tools and knowledge not readily available to the general public. Finally, this Note advocates for amending the Federal Wiretap Act to remove uncertainty regarding protections against Wi-Fi sniffing. Clear protections against Wi-Fi sniffing would avoid the private and social cost of data theft resulting from sniffing and could close the gap between users\u27 theoretical ability to protect themselves by using security mechanisms and their reduced practical ability to take any such protective measures

Wireless Networking in Libraries

Since the turn of the 21st century, libraries of almost all types have been providing clients with access to the Internet through wireless networks. In the process, wireless networking has become an important part of the continuing effort to extend access to library services through networked information technologies. The expansion of the wireless access offered by libraries, now approaching ubiquity among academic and public libraries, has been driven by a number of factors, not the least of them being the tremendous growth in the numbers of so-called “smart” devices capable of connecting to wireless networks and the parallel increases in the bandwidth available via wireless networks. Looking to the future, wireless access as provided libraries is vital to their function as public computing centers. The continued development of and improvements in mobile applications is also essential, but the construction of mobile-friendly Websites is probably far more important, given the evidence that mobile users are accessing content with increasing frequency and in progressively larger numbers. Similarly, the security and privacy of mobile applications and services must be ensured with the greatest possible vigor, inasmuch as the confidence of users is closely aligned with their continuing use of digital library resources

Social dimensions of public large-scale wi-fi networks: the cases of a municipal and a community wireless network

Wireless networks play an increasingly important role in today’s mobile and interconnected society. People use mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or portable game consoles on a regular basis to interact, retrieve and share information, and to orient and entertain themselves. However, in order to be fully performant these devices need to be connected to the Internet. Thanks to very good broadband penetration in Switzerland, this is not so much an issue in private homes and offices where local Wi-Fi networks allow mobile devices to connect to the Internet. Nonetheless, in public spaces, good working wireless networks, even though increasing, are still not very frequent and generally cover only limited areas. Alternative, provider- centered mobile data (3G/4G/LTE) is still expensive especially for visitors because of high roaming rates but also for Swiss people, whose majority still did not have unlimited data contracts in 2016. Public large-scale wireless networks can thus play an important role in providing Internet connectivity to people on the go. This dissertation studies two different approaches to the provision of Wi-Fi broadband connectivity in public spaces: on the one hand, municipalities providing Wi-Fi access in some areas of the city through so-called Municipal Wireless Networks (MWN), and on the other hand, communities with members sharing part of their home broadband connection with other community members, building so-called Community Wireless Networks (CWN). Wireless communities can either be purely self-organized (pure wireless communities) or have a for-profit company managing the community (hybrid communities). While existing studies have analyzed business and ownership models, technical solutions and policy implications of public wireless networks, this research is interested in their social dimensions, focusing on the role of individuals using and contributing to these networks. To do so, two main research goals are addressed: 1) understanding what motivates people to join and actively participate in a hybrid CWN and what hinders them from doing so, and 2) understanding who the users of a MWN are and how they use the network in order to identify various user types and usage practices, which will in turn help municipalities design networks that address the needs of various users. In order to study users’ motivations and concerns for joining and actively participating in a hybrid wireless community, the Fon community (Fon, 2018b) has been analyzed, which at the time of this study was the largest worldwide hybrid CWN. A mixed research approach has been applied. First, an existing model on motivations in pure communities (Bina & Giaglis, 2006a) has been adapted with the help of semi-structured exploratory interviews of 40 Swiss Fon members and then refined through a quantitative online survey addressed to Swiss and foreign Fon members. The resulting model shows which motivations attract members to the community, and which concerns have a dissuasive function. In a second step, 268 valid survey answers have been used for structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to assess which motivations actually result in a higher level of active participation. In order to analyze usage and users of a MWN, the “WiFi Lugano” MWN of the city of Lugano has been chosen. Lugano is located in the Italian-speaking southern part of Switzerland, is a popular tourist destination and the region’s economic capital. In collaboration with the electricity company in charge of implementing the Wi-Fi network (Aziende Industriali Luganesi – AIL), technical network data (log-data) and user-provided information – users were asked to fill-in a short survey after they logged-in to the network – have been collected and analyzed in combination (the two data sets have been merged). In a first step, usage profiles of leisure tourists, business travelers and residents have been created and described applying descriptive statistics to data of three summer months (June – August 2013). In a second step, cluster analysis has been applied to one-year data (June 2013 – May 2014), in order to identify relevant groups of users. Outcomes suggest that in a hybrid CWN, members are motivated to join the community mainly by a mix of utilitarian (e.g. getting free Internet access) and idealistic motivations (reciprocity and altruism), while intrinsic and social motivations are less important. This confirms that motivations are similar to those in pure CWNs but have different weights. In fact, in pure CWNs, intrinsic and social motivations seem to be stronger while in hybrid CWNs, utilitarian motivations prevail. Two types of active participation have been identified in the Fon community, each one driven by a different mix of motivations: “participation by sharing” – putting effort into actively sharing one’s own Internet connectivity – is mainly driven by idealistic motivations related to community values and reciprocity, while “social participation” – being socially involved in the community by interacting with and helping other community members – is driven by social (communicating, learning from each other) and technical reasons (experimenting with technologies). Surprisingly, utilitarian motivations do not have a significant effect on either of the two participation types, even though they are the most relevant ones in attracting new members. With regard to the MWN “WiFi Lugano”, five different usage practices have been identified: two business-oriented ones (“E-mailer” and “Mobile-worker”), two tourism-oriented ones (“Tourism information seeker” and “Always-on traveler”), and one corresponding to the practices of locals (“Local social networker”), each one having different characteristics. The “WiFi Lugano” network thus acts as a business, tourism, and social inclusion enabler, actively favoring various eGovernment relationships: government to business (G2B), government to visitors (G2V), and government to citizens (G2C). Based on these outcomes it has been possible to define a series of suggestions to help cities take advantage of their MWNs and improving them accordingly. Cities could for example provide different landing pages to different publics in order to promote the city in a targeted way, ensure a high quality service of their MWNs, use the Wi-Fi networks to promote tourist attractions and vice-versa (e.g. mark Wi-Fi areas on city maps, build Wi-Fi areas near to tourist attractions, and provide a description of the attraction on the Wi-Fi network’s landing page), share the network with small businesses in the area and extend the reach of the network to relevant areas

Sustainability and Community Networks

Community networks are IP-based computer networks that are operated by a community as a common good. In Europe, the most well-known community networks are Guifi in Catalonia, Freifunk in Berlin, Ninux in Italy, Funkfeuer in Vienna and the Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network in Greece. This paper deals with community networks as alternative forms of Internet access and alternative infrastructures and asks: What does sustainability and unsustainability mean in the context of community networks? What advantages do such networks have over conventional forms of Internet access and infrastructure provided by large telecommunications corporations? In addition what disadvantages do they face at the same time? This article provides a framework for thinking dialectically about the un/sustainability of community networks. It provides a framework of practical questions that can be asked when assessing power structures in the context of Internet infrastructures and access. It presents an overview of environmental, economic, political and cultural contradictions that community networks may face as well as a typology of questions that can be asked in order to identify such contradictions

Companies Positioned in the Middle:Municipal Wireless and Its Impact on Privacy and Free Speech

When a city institutes a municipal wireless system, it is building a new communications infrastructure on behalf of its residents. Like our rights to privacy in our public telephone communications, individuals have the right to a municipal wireless network that respects privacy and free speech, allowing users to explore all that the Internet offers without worrying where information about their online activities will end up or how it will be used or abused. Cities have a duty to protect the privacy and free speech rights of their residents, and safeguards for these rights must be priorities, not afterthoughts