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MIT Mapping Students WiFi Access in 3D
GuitarNeophyte writes "Ever wished that you had a way to just look at a map and find your friends across campus? Or wanted to find an open study lounge without having to foot it on over? Well, with MIT's new WiFi Mapping project, you can. They've set up large plexiglass maps, projecting dots over a campus map, allowing you to know the concentration of WiFi users in various parts of the grounds. With over 2800 access points, locations of individual students (if they have opted to reveal their information) can be found with accuracy as close as the individual classroom (even in multi-story buildings). It's also had the affect of providing some interesting research on study patterns, '[R]esearchers also found that study labs that once bustled with students are now nearly empty as people, no longer tethered to a phone line or network cable, move to cafes and nearby lounges, where food and comfy chairs are more inviting.'"
FTA: "(if they have opted to reveal their information)"
Did you even read the article? Students have to opt in. Not opt out. Which means they arnt automatically displayed, they have to use their hands and do some typing to be shown on this grid. I dont see any privacy problems when its up to an individual if they want to be shown.
Here's another two: OPT-IN. Nobody's forced to participate here, and in fact, you're not even in by default, so there really should be no privacy problems.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
also had the affect
You mean 'effect'?
So how much did tuition increase by with the new Wifi? Isn't it already $40,000 a year at MIT after room, board, books, food.
As one of the student developers I can say that that is one of our primary concerns, and part of Phase 2 of iSPOTS is a way to keep the logged data safe from unscrupulous admins, and law enforcement.
Here is the iSpots (MIT's WiFi mapping and tracking) home page @ MIT with great pictures and more information
http://ispots.mit.edu/
Enjoy!
Sig
With or without explicit consent you can always track any person's movements but their wireless card's MAC address. This is has serious implications and is a violation of personal privacy and its reasonable expectation. Something should be done about that from a legal as well as from a technical perspective e.g. anonymizing access.
On a sidenote, MIT is one of the largest polluter of the Cambridge airspace with hundreds of not exactly open access points that interfere with open ones nearby. They should at least open them and get rid of the controversial and privacy violating registration procedure and tracking of people.
Don't log in. Really if you don't want to be found don't long onto the network. This isn't all that new or scary. Anytime you are logged on to a network somebody could tell where you are. What is really funny is since this can only track you in public places it isn't like you really have privacy to loose. Think about it even in your dorm your room really isn't private. What is next for the privacy nuts. Will they want everyone to have blindfolds so that none one can see you and report that you went to Circle K for a Mountain Dew and a snickers? There is no privacy protection in public space! It sort of violates the idea of public.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
MIT is an interesting institution. People think it does everything from low level compiler optimizations, to multi-terrabyte optical network multiplexing, and accelerated particle small galaxy creation. And some of that is certainly true. But everyone I know at MIT is working on things like displays that track your eyes and project the correct image onto your cornea to create 3D. Or social networking software that has pervasive independent intelligence to optimize a person's life. Or carbonated ice cream.
Ultimately, MIT leaves normal computer science programs to do their "we make code faster" thing, and creating amazingly technical feats of oddly comprehensible geekery. Some friends are trying to create the worlds highest-bandwidth network by catapulting a ball full of terrabyte network drives over the Charles River from BU to MIT. Others have used their time in the MIT media lab to synthesize and create music generation programs. There is even a full lego lab.
MIT is just perfect if you need a story right away. Just look at some of what they do. Sure, some of it is hardcore geekery, but basically all of it is accessable. It is a bottomless fountain of weird, original ideas that make people think about things in different ways. UCSD has a nice computer program, but the volume of MIT stories is proportional to the volume of weird, interesting stuff the school generates.
UCI, my alma matter, has a good Comp Sci program too. But in my 5 (Ok, ok. 5 and 1/2) years there, I never once saw a wearable computing fashion show, let alone one that contained self-inflating clothing, mood rings that exchanged genetic material with other people's mood rings, jackets that were happy when touched, etc. And MIT has enough material to do odd, amazing stuff like this every week.
And yes, they're buried in work the whole time. Don't expect to see your MIT friends very often. But what they do is more often than not quite fun and easy to write stories about.
Oh, and it is convieniently next to Harvard. And the W3C is there. And it is next to Harvard. And Noam Chomsky, Tim Berners-Lee, Edward Lorenz, Marvin Minsky, and Richard Stallman are there, amongst other great interview sources. Did I mention Harvard?
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