[wsfii-discuss] Collecting Field Notes on local WiFi projects

[Alison Powell]

Hi everyone,

Sascha Meinrath from CuWin and I are putting together a special issue of the
Journal of Community Informatics ( http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej)
on Community Wi-Fi.  We are especially looking for 500 to 1000 word "Field
Notes" that describe community Wi-Fi projects in different contexts. I hope
people on this list will contribute to help share their projects with a
wider audience, and exchange best practices.  We would love to see short
summaries by around April 15 and final writing by June 1. More details
below.

Alison Powell
Île Sans Fil, Montreal

_________

Wireless Networking and Social Justice: CALL FOR PAPERS - Journal of
Community Informatics.

New wireless networking breakthroughs have inspired communities to build
their own communications infrastructures and develop innovative applications
and services. Around the world, these projects have developed, appropriated,
and integrated emerging wireless technologies to provide access to local
media, promote digital inclusion, solve communication problems, and promote
civic engagement. In India community-based wireless projects are
"leapfrogging" over expensive wired communication infrastructure. In the
United States, community wireless networking (CWN) projects have
demonstrated that local telecommunications networks can be produced and
provisioned inexpensively at the local level. These success stories are
contributing to the global explosion in the number of municipal WiFi
projects and are having important impacts on the social fabric of civil
society.

Yet these local projects are rarely discussed in their wider context. This
special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics
(http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej) takes a global perspective on
Community Wireless projects, aiming to broaden our understanding of the
technologies, organizational structures, and policy implications of projects
developed by communities around the world. This issue assembles reflections,
works in progress, and analysis of CWN projects. In addition to academic
articles that describe and analyze the political and social implications of
community wireless, we welcome "Field Notes" from practitioners that
introduce local projects to a new and interested audience.

This special issue broadens the discussion of Community Wireless in two
ways: first, by opening a space to exchange "best practices" and
"instructive failures" between practitioners; and, second, by soliciting
academic articles that empirically or theoretically discuss the cultural,
social, economic, and policy impacts of Community Wireless projects.
Academic discussion of these projects has evolved over the past several
years, along with the projects themselves, and Community Wireless Networking
has arguably become accepted as a form of community networking. Yet what are
the long-term impacts of community wireless projects? How do they fit into
the wireless industry now that governments at various levels are investing
in connectivity via WiFi? What is the relationship between community
wireless networks and wireless markets in different locations? Where do CWNs
contribute to the policy-making process? What are the policy decisions that
effect them -- and how do policies differ?

500 word abstracts of submissions to this special issue (both academic
papers and field notes) should be sent to joci at saschameinrath.com by April
15, 2007 and include the author's affiliation and contact information. Full
paper submissions are due by June 1, 2007.

Full Paper Details:

Field notes should be between 500 and 1500 words, written for a
non-technical audience and describing community wireless projects in
progress.

Academic papers should be no longer than 8000 words, and include a 100 word
abstract and a 25-word biography of the author including affiliation and
e-mail address. They should treat a social, cultural, or economic aspect of
Community Wireless Networking. The Journal of Community Informatics uses the
APA reference style.

Alison Powell Department of Communications Concordia University Montreal,
Canada

Sascha Meinrath Institute for Communications Research University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, USA