Laura's+Wild+and+Wacky+World+of+WiFi

**Thursday, March 11, 2010**
I chose to explore this project further due to my lack of experience with WiFi outside campus buildings and my apartment. I thought it might be fun to step outside the box and explore new environments, looking at how introducing WiFi to various spaces in the city has changed the way we interact with spaces and with each other. I haven't narrowed my topic down too specifically as of yet, as now that the weather has been nicer I've enjoyed frolicking around just taking things in about the culture and observing the people, spaces, and technologies used throughout Madison. I've also done some research about the topic from home, here's a few things I've found....

[|WiFi Hot Spots- Madison] -pretty self-explanatory- spaces that supposedly offer WiFi, pay and free.

These spaces of course vary in quality of connection and speed. Given that, I decided to look into the matter by searching reviews of cafes and restaurants around the area. I found it really interesting how the reviews have changed over the years with the introduction of wireless to public spaces. Before 2007 reviews seem to be based solely on the food and environment, while after 2007 //many// reviews use the wireless connection as a criterion for evaluation. Some examples....

__**Electric Earth Cafe- 546 West Wash**__ Not that great: Slow service, slow wi-fi, By [|Jolene] - Feb 27, 2009 This **cafe** touts it "free- wifi" as a benefit for customers. The wifi is an exercise in frustration and dial up might be faster! After having to plug the parking meter for a max of 25 minutes, meaning I will have to interrupt my lunch to feed it again, I entered the **cafe** and found the atmosphere pleasant. I wanted to order something quick. So when I noticed the sign advertising fresh soup daily, I was intrigued. I inquired after the soup of the day and was given 2 options. I chose the white bean and kale. Well, this soup was most definitely not fresh! In fact it was frozen and took over 10 minutes to reheat. So much for honest advertising and for quick service. So while I am waiting I attempt to bring up a website for the **Electric Earth Cafe**, no success. No easy way to contact the owner to give feedback. So instead here is my review. Slow service, slow wi-fi, false advertising.‎

Good Food, Good Drinks, Awful Wi-Fi ‎ By [|Michael] - Aug 18, 2008 Come here with friends and family for the excellent food and excellent espresso. Don't come here if you're planning on getting any work done online. The Wi-Fi is about as slow as dial-up was back in the early 90's.‎

__**Michelangelo's- 114 State street**__ Good WiFi Connection ‎ By [|Oshuma] - Jun 16, 2009 Decent **coffee**, but a great, free WiFi connection. Good bandwidth ranging anywhere from 400 - 600 kb/s.‎

**Tuesday, March 16, 2010**
Just a quick entry, I found this interesting as it looks like it’s been abandoned for quite a few years judging by the aesthetics ( and the fact that it says it was last updated in 2007)…maybe a good thing? You decide…… Also, I’ve had an interesting time perusing the local cafes; I’ve found it to be kind of an awkward game approaching people to ask them about their Wi-Fi usage…..(especially those who have their laptops and are Google chatting while listening to their IPods and texting their BFF.)
 * __Madison community wireless advocates__**

**Saturday, April 24, 2010**
So I haven’t updated this in a while, but I have made a lot of progress. Hope to give you a taste of what I’ve been up to here as there’s a lot of interesting sites, observations, and interactions I’ve come across…so here we go…

I found a great [|blog] that has basically functioned as the primary motivation for project. It’s called Gumption and is written by Joe McCarthy. The blog explores all different aspects of sociality, looking at different mediating factors, including the influences of new technologies and internet access in social spaces and within our interaction. He introduces the term place-centered sociality, the idea that //social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared place////,// expanding on the idea of object-centered sociality.

In this I got the idea/question for my project deciding to look at how the introduction of wireless changed how we interact with the environment and thus also how we interact with one another within a given environment

As I wrote about in my first post, the introduction of wireless has changed how we evaluate the spaces in which we interact, adding another element beyond food, service, and ambiance to look at in deciding where to go.

Similarly, I found it interesting when I came across this shout out on the Badger Herald website //“Nothing but respect for Mac users...but HSO to PC users. You guys are dope, so flaunt those PCs on campus!”//

Again, having wireless brings a new evaluative element into play within our environment; classifying people by the technologies they use, in this case a divide between PC users and Mac users. It also rang with incredible relevance to me as, as I’ve been traveling around with my laptop I’ve felt like I’ve been lugging around a dinosaur. A) because it’s a 16 inch screen, far larger than what most students have these days and B) because it’s a PC, also somewhat of a rarity among college students here. Beyond being an evaluative measure, this also brought to mind participation gaps we discussed this semester. Although this in itself, doesn’t technically “disinclude” anyone, it still divides people by brand and by operating systems, possibly creating a divide in skills as well as evaluations….just something to think about. Also this made me ponder the fact that although these days many more people have access to computers and internet access, quite a few still do not have laptops. Being on campus it pretty rare to find a student who doesn’t have one, but the fact of the matter is there are still many desktop users, perhaps many that can’t yet afford to upgrade to a laptop. In this I saw another divide in that these users without laptops are put at a disadvantage, unable to use the internet in the many public spaces where it’s now available. This is more an issue of inconvenience and sociality than anything, but I think it’s still important to consider. Especially with the internet becoming an important means by which people mobilize and its use/function in group meetings.

More to come….after a much shorter break between entries than the last time...

**Sunday, April 25, 2010**
In all of this I’ve also been trying to figure out exactly what Madison’s wireless plan has been/is. Results: It’s been kind of hard to figure out…..It seems the original goal was to operate under a municipal model, but the technicalities of this are a bit confusing to me and I’m having a hard time finding what this really involves. It sounds flowery and nice and all, but there has to be more involved….something to keep looking at…But, in other news, I found [|this] which at least provides information about the foundation of a more broad based wireless network here in Madison. A quick briefing in case you don’t care to scour the article:

“Starting in Fall 2005 Cellnet will begin deployment of phase one of a Wi-Fi network to support users in the downtown region of the City of Madison. The network will be installed at no cost to the city, and Cellnet has secured its initial revenue from service agreements with Internet Service Providers (ISPs)…” …something I’ll continue to try to look into to gain a better understanding of it all I guess….

Now for something completely different…and back to my original question:

In looking at how wireless has changed our interactions with our environments and each other I took to the streets. I’ve primarily visited coffee/sandwich shops between campus and the capitol, the area which has become well known as having a vast amount of opportunities for free wireless. These areas also were of particular interest to me as they have traditionally been considered central to social interactions and particularly important to fostering intellectual conversations. Although it is important to also look at the shortcoming of wireless in Madison, I’ve found it most important for my project to focus on areas that advertise as offering free wireless (also noting that this doesn’t necessarily meant the quality/speed is always top notch). This area also serves as interesting insight into the business model of offering free wi-fi in the Madison area. I’ve found that if a business does not provide free access, it potentially puts them at a great disadvantage. In this area internet access has almost become to be expected in these venues and has thus transitioned access into being seen as more of a utility. One reason for this demand, as you can imagine in the college town/ population that demands access in order to complete much of the work they need to do in these venues. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this it’s how much being a college town has influenced Madison’s wireless model and how it differentiates it from other populations. The importance/ influence of the college population can be seen in the early development of a plan for the area, as can be seen in this campaigner’s statement in 2005:

“The entire Madison community would benefit from Wi-Fi, whether you are a direct user or not. Transit users waiting for the train and students are the most obvious beneficiaries, but the implications for Madison are broader. Among Madison’s challenges is the need to better integrate the college communities into Madison. With Wi-Fi, students, faculty and staff from the local colleges would be able to come downtown with their laptops and use Madison’s businesses while “surfing the net.” The interests of Madison’s downtown businesses are advanced, and the college population will feel more welcomed and ultimately become more involved in the life of Madison.”

It’s pretty obvious the college population demands this service, and having this service provided also helps to have students linger longer and thus spend more, helping businesses. In my experience in these coffee/sandwich shops most people who brought laptops with them stayed AT LEAST an hour, and in many cases went back to the counter for another coffee or bakery item during their visit.

The uniqueness of Madison’s wireless culture became even starker after my spring break trip to Arizona. I’ll admit that I’ve had some troubles in this project as I have had a hard time really finding anything really enlightening to share with the class, as most of us are pretty avid users of wireless. I feel like most of what I’ve said /observed isn’t all that astonishing, but I think that’s because we’re immersed in it. I know my project was “wi-fi in Madison” but it really took getting out of the area to see how different Madison’s wi-fi culture really is. In this I turn to what is kind of a case study of wireless culture/capabilties in Surprise, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) to further demonstrate the contrasts with wi-fi culture/capabilities in Madison. I went on vacation thinking that the technological seclusion of the home we stayed at in a gated retirement community might be refreshing. The owners of the home, like many home owners in the area, are not permanent residents of the area and thus don’t have wireless access. This became a huge inconvenience, however, when a member of my family experienced a health emergency. From everything from not being able to research doctors and medical care to not being able to send frequent updates to family members, it presented a huge challenge and left us with an uneasy feeling as the absence of wireless access left us with a lost sense of control in a sense. I’m so used to just having access whenever/wherever I am, but I was left with my dad’s work laptop, without internet connection.

I figured that at least after we got to the hospital wireless would be offered. I had talked to my sister ( a nurse at UW- Children’s hospital) about wi-fi in the UW hospitals for the purposes of this project earlier and when I asked her about it she presented a sort of, “duh, of course they have wireless response.” Her response and my knowledge of the accessibility made me assume that ah, yes, finally we’d have wi-fi, but much to my dismay, when I asked the nurses about it I was met with “I don’t knows” and finally, after much delay, the discovery that no, they did not have public wireless access. This being the case, with much to research and many to contact, my mom and I set out around the town looking for places that offered wireless. Unlike Madison, this was NOT an easy task. I found myself thinking something I never would have thought possible “let’s go to Starbucks.” Working on this project before I went on vacation I had a really hard time grasping how/why in the heck Starbucks has a business model of paying for internet access through AT&T. If I can go to any number of places in Madison and not pay for access why would I go to Starbucks and pay…I now had my answer, not every Starbucks is in Madison. Like all other things Starbucks it has become part of their brand recognition. So, when in a jam, finding myself desperate for Wi-Fi, I came back to Starbucks, knowing how their system works and more than willing to pay the small fees that go along with it.

After we got our immediate concerns addressed, and we found out that we had to cancel out flights home, I figured I spend some of my extended “vacation” time further exploring the world of wireless in Surprise Arizona…..to be continued.

Monday, April 26 2010
I couldn’t bare paying for internet access anymore so I looked further in to where wireless was offered in the city, much to my surprise I only found an handful of public spaces in which Wi-Fi was offered free of charge. The one place I found nearby was called “Paradise Bakery” and was almost exactly like Panera. Sitting there (which I did on 6 or 7 occasion at various times of the day I found it interesting to watch how Wi-Fi was used differently and the same as in Madison. I found that the aging retirement population profoundly affected use as many of these individuals came in just a few times a week to read and answer e-mails and such; this population rarely used Wi-Fi to simply “surf “ the web, there use was much more task based. I also found similarities however in that around the lunch hour Wi-Fi was used much the same as in Madison at a Panera as it filled with business people and group meetings. All of this was very interesting as it made me reconsider the participation gaps we’ve covered in class and take note of the profound differences in Wi-Fi across geographic locations.

**Saturday, May 1, 2010**
Now that my presentation has been made and I have received feedback from Liz making some suggestions I’ve begun to think more about my project and the concept of the “Third Space” (places we seek out other than work or home bars, cafés etc.). Steinkuehler and Williams talk sabout this in regards to alternative spaces in the virtual world, but the introduction of Wi-Fi in public spaces has had a profound effect on physical third spaces. The use of a variety of technologies simultaneously and their ability to isolate the self (whether that be via headphones or via chat or social networking sites) changes the sense of “community” within public spaces. Much of the time it seems that people are in their own virtual worlds within the real world and I think this could hold profound effects on the future of our conception of the word “community.” Could the community in coffee shops come to become simply public privatism?