( (( ((( Spectropolis 2004 ))) )) ) Building a Community Wireless Hotspot

Spectropolis workshops: Building a Community Wireless Hotspot by John Geraci and Dana Spiegel

About Building a Community Wireless Hotspot: In this workshop, you will learn how to assemble your own Community Wireless Hotspot using a spare PC and a Wireless Access Point. Security issues and setting up a Captive Portal page will be explained. We'll also show you how to provide software on your Hotspot that engages your local community, and links it into the network of other NYCwireless Community Hotspots, and Hotspots from around the country and world. The software will include: sociableCHAT, Wi-Fi Thank You, LocationServer (for location based services), and Neighbornode. Neighbornode is a project that merges the location-specific nature of the neighborhood with the universal, networked nature of the web, allowing strangers who live on the same street to post messages to each other and engage in dialogue via a web bulletin board. Residents access these common web spaces via an open wireless node placed on their street that directs them to the boards. Date and Time: Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2 at 2:00 pm
About John Geraci: John Geraci is currently studying at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program with a focus on using technology to bridge social gaps between people located in common spaces. He spent the past summer working with the Social Computing Group at Microsoft Research, examining ways to enhance group interaction in public settings and develop community awareness with the use of wireless and mobile computing. Prior to attending NYU, he lived in San Francisco and made interactive art installations. His background is in cultural studies and video/computer art. Some of his recent projects can be seen at www.subfuzz.com.
About Dana Spiegel: Dana Spiegel is a distinguished software consultant in the fields of social software and emerging wireless technologies. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for NYCwireless. He is the producer of Spectropolis, a Wireless Art exhibition and public airwaves celebration. In September 2003, he produced America's first Wireless Art festival, the Wireless Park Lab Days, to critical acclaim. The event showcased up-and-coming new media artists whose work explored the convergence of wireless technologies and public spaces. He is president of sociableDESIGN, a New York based software consultancy.

For more information about Spectropolis, please contact dana@nycwireless.net.

Spectropolis thanks these organizations for their help: Bway.net, Wiselephant, Justin T. Molloy and jtmdsgn, B Squared Design, Starworks, and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation