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The Big Hangup At Burning Man Is Cell Phones
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "L. J. Williamson writes in the LA Times that with no running water, no plumbing, and no electrical outlets Burning Man isn't the kind of place to expect full bars on your smartphone and for many of the participants that's a big part of its charm. 'If you want to partake in the true Burning Man experience, you should leave your phone at home,' says Mark Hansen. In past years, the closest cellular towers, designed to serve the nearby towns of Empire (population 206) and Gerlach (population 217), would quickly get overwhelmed each August when Black Rock City (population 50,000 or so) rose from the featureless playa. Although Burning Man attracts a sizable Silicon Valley contingent including tech giants like Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin — the feeling of being 'unplugged' has become an integral part of the Burning Man experience. But another part of the event is an intrepid, DIY ethos, and in that spirit, David Burgess, co-creator of OpenBTS, an open-source cellular network software, brought a homemade in 2008, an 'almost comical' setup that created a working cellular network that routed a few hundred calls over a 48-hour period. In each subsequent year, Burgess has improved the system's reach and expects to have about three-quarters of this year's event covered. Burning Man proved an ideal test bed for development of Burgess' system, which he has since made available for use in other areas without cellular networks. 'People who have a lot of experience in international aid say Burning Man is a very good simulation of a well-organized refugee camp,' says Burgess. 'Because there's no infrastructure, it forces us to contend with a lot of problems that our rural customers have to contend with in very remote places.'"
"The big hangup are"?
What good is it going to "Burning Man" if nobody knows you're there? People can't survive a week without facebook and twitter, that's just being unreasonable. People need validation! And likes! And the fact that it's hard to get cell service just makes you even more special to have gotten your photos out! Imagine the look on your workmates' faces when you call..."Guess where I am!" If this were an underground event, nobody would bother attending. Where's the fun in nobody knowing that you're there?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
And so as it becomes yuppified and "me too!" and too popular, there will be a sub-sub-culture for the folks that really know what is going on and why they should be there.
The same has happened with Rainbow Gatherings, and will happen with events like DefCon.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
If you have tethering you should turn it on, so others can mooch off your service. That way you can lower the cell traffic, and use your cell phone as a hand warmer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Trust fund rebels can't get a signal on their iStuff.
I enjoy [x] and you should enjoy [x] the way I do if you really want to enjoy [x], man.
at Burning Man, you're a fucking poser and really shouldn't even be there.
when all you're wearing is a feather boa?
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Actually, "The big hangups are cell phones" or "The big hangup is cell phone connectivity"
Nah; it's really "The big hangups are cell +++ATH0#$*(SD^F&*^ --NO CARRIER--
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I always heard that Burning Man was off the hook....
Burning Man is a very good simulation of a well-organized refugee camp
I always wondered why Burning Man seemed uninviting to anyone with a real job. If I want to go camping, I turn off my phone and throw some gear in my car and head out of town. What exactly is good about going camping with 50,000 random [drug|STD|paranoia]-ridden strangers?
be a killer application for a 60k person party spread out over 7 square miles. They're too focused on the ways the technology can detract from what they're doing instead of finding ways to enhance it.
Today's burning man is about as counter-culture as a midnight madness sale at Walmart. The only difference is Walmart doesn't charge admission.
Do these guys have a license to transmit in the cellular bands?
This article is so horribly written that it makes my head hurt.
First off, the Tech Titans that go to Burning Man fly in private jets and stay in "Pay to Play" camps. Not to be a Burning Man snob, they are not getting the Burning Man experience. Also, most of them stay a day or so and then leave.
The OpenBTS network that is setup is a closed private Cell Phone network (This is covered in the FAQ). You have to have a GSM phone, type in special codes to get it to work and there are a number of restrictions to using the network. As the article stated, calling out is limited and calling in very limited. It's great for sending TXT messages, but the coverage is spotty at best.
OpenBTS only supports GSM, not CDMA (Verizon and Sprint), so that means not everyone can use it. Verizon kinda works out there, but TXT is the only thing flowing in or out (With long delays) since there are still too many people out there for the local cell phone infrastructure.
There is wireless at Burning Man, but really only at Center Camp and after about 8:00a, it gets crushed with users. Trust me, no one is checking Facebook or Instagram at Burning Man.
This whole, "OMG, CELL PHONES AT BURNING MAN IS GOING TO RUIN BURNING MAN" is completely over blown. Just about everyone turns off their phones at the gates and leaves them off all week. Burning Man was and still is a completely different world for one week.
Linux O Muerte!
I agree, people rely on their phones too much, but it is a good thing to have for 911 capabilities and such at an event like this.
911's not really going to be all that useful at an event like this. Better to rely on the security mechanisms already available in meatspace, tuned over the past decade of burning man, that takes into account states of altered reality, drunken orgies and performance art.
Really... a 911 dispatcher would be completely at a loss as to what to do if they got a call from Burning Man, I think. Unless they set up a local cell and all 911 calls got redirected to site security. Most likely, based on location data, any 911 call will just get a "911 is not available in your area" message.
And cellphone coverage spotty. The teenagers nightmare. You have to talk to the peole you are traveling with then or read a[n] [e]book.
I've never attended and I'm not in that "demographic", but some of my friends are. The word I've always heard is that it's now overrun with cops, curiosity-seeking yuppies, and even the organizers have taken the revenue-generating route.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Really... a 911 dispatcher would be completely at a loss as to what to do if they got a call from Burning Man,
Modern cellphones that have GPS receivers transmit GPS coordinates when calling 911. This has been the law for quite some time now.
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BMO
Really... a 911 dispatcher would be completely at a loss as to what to do if they got a call from Burning Man,
Modern cellphones that have GPS receivers transmit GPS coordinates when calling 911. This has been the law for quite some time now.
Really... a 911 dispatcher would be completely at a loss as to what to do if they got a call from Burning Man, I think. Unless they set up a local cell and all 911 calls got redirected to site security. Most likely, based on location data, any 911 call will just get a "911 is not available in your area" message.
I think that was already covered...?
the entire point of my post is that if the call actually made it to the closest 911 dispatch office based on location data, they'd have no clue how to respond other than "that's not in my area". When you're in the middle of nowhere, you aren't covered by anyone's 911 service. If the dispatcher didn't know about Burning Man, they might call out search & rescue I guess.
You're not experiencing the act of unplugging. You're just going to an organized event in the desert. Even if YOU personally unplug, people can still send you "emergency" messages that the Black Rock Rangers will try to deliver to you, just like the desk attendant at a hotel/spa/resort.
Burning Man is for people who like the idea of roughing it, but are either too lazy, or too afraid to take the risk of cutting themselves off completely. If you're not going for the drug culture or "to be seen," I can't really see the attraction - you can get a much cheaper experience unplugging if you go backpacking in a national park.
Right this moment I could get more "off the grid" than your average Burner by turning off my cell phone and computer. If you tell everyone where you're going and leave them a point of contact, that takes the fun away!
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Hang Up and Get Down!
And in case you didn't know... Juggalos do not like wi-fi: (#10)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/things-i-learned-at-the-gathering-of-the-juggalos
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
> When you're in the middle of nowhere, you aren't covered by anyone's 911 service.
But that's not true.
As long as you're covered by a tower or repeater, you're on a 911 service as long as you're in the US. Even if you don't have GPS, the law says that the wireless services need to be able to triangulate.
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/wireless-911-services
Using your logic, it would be impossible for anyone stranded on Mt. Washington (the middle of nowhere and high up in the sky) to get 911 service, which is blatantly not true.
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BMO
Burning Man doesn't rely on the 911 system for any of its EMS issues. There are two large aid stations that are staffed by professional doctors, nurses, paramedics, etc. (people who are certified to be able to provide Basic Life Support services at a minimum), which are open 24/7 while the event is taking place, and before and after for all of the people who volunteer their time to construct and deconstruct the city.
On top of that, there is a fully functional Advanced Life Support facility (called Rampart) that is established in the center of the city and is meant to handle the very serious cases, of which there are of course a few every year. They have the ability to radio for air transport to Reno (the nearest large city with a real hospital) at a moment's notice. Rampart is airlock-sealed to keep the pervasive dust out and provide an environment that is as sterile as can be expected.
Emergency services are taken very, very seriously at Burning Man, and they have a history that goes back a long, long way.
Not really the same anymore, is it?
Nothing is ever the same. Get used to it. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
When you're in the middle of nowhere, you aren't covered by anyone's 911 service. If the dispatcher didn't know about Burning Man, they might call out search & rescue I guess.
First of all, I don't know anywhere in North America where you aren't covered by some sort of government agency that provides emergency services. The Burning Man festival in particular has the attention of the local sheriff's office as well as area medical clinics and even hospitals that are... well at least "nearby" so far as any real emergency services are concerned. Some parts of North America might require a couple hour response and the dispatcher might just say "live with it" in some cases, but if a real life threatening emergency happened even in the remote Yellowstone wilderness or northern Alaska, you had better believe that somebody can get to you sooner or later.
Furthermore, the festival itself has its own security and medical corps (mostly volunteer) who are there to help out and can resolve most emergencies. It is utter bullshit to say that those who would receive such a call (and it is covered by the OpenBTS guys who do respond to 911 calls made on the system... they have made provisions just for that situation) would have no clue where to send those emergency services. I also promise that the local dispatchers who are there for the other 51 weeks of the year know exactly where the Burning Man festival is located at, and even know the major areas of the festival.
911 made on the OpenBTS systems goes to volunteers who dispatch the appropriate response, usually with the festival security guys. 911 made on the commercial services goes to the sheriff's office, who then usually contacts the festival security as well to coordinate a response. When you get 30,000 people together anywhere, the local law enforcement damn well knows what is going on and how to get there, especially for an annual event like this, even if it is what you might call "in the middle of nowhere". "That is not in my area" would not be said at all, ever.
The OpenBTS blog goes into some details about their system, although it will take some reading.
Thank you. I hope people won't reply to you with "but of course 911 service works at Burning Man!" like they've been replying to me.... The point is that there's already an extremely good and tested system in place that doesn't depend on cellphones.
Thank you. I hope people won't reply to you with "but of course 911 service works at Burning Man!" like they've been replying to me.... The point is that there's already an extremely good and tested system in place that doesn't depend on cellphones.
That is not what you were bitching about. Your complaint was that the local Sheriff's office wouldn't have a clue about the location of Burning Man, which was a flat out lie and you needed to be called out for fabricating that lie.
Yes, of course you don't "need" to use a cell phone. Police and EMTs got to places and helped out well before cell phones were invented, heck even before telephones or radios were invented. I'm impressed that the Burning Man organizers realize that when you get 30k people together, sometimes shit happens and you need some help. Frankly the whole thing is amazing in terms of organizing any sort of event with that degree of logistics in one of the most inhospitable places in the world that might as well be on Mars. In fact, I think working out the logistics to set up a colony on Mars might even be easier.
If you hate the cell phones, state that and be on your way. I think you are full of it to think that way, but I will let you have your opinion on the matter and not try to convince you otherwise other than to state I have come to another conclusion about the matter. The Open BTS guys think that way too and don't give a damn about what others think other than to stay out of their way at the Burning Man.
Burning Man is now a sold out event. Has been for the last three years. Even though you have to pay $650 for a ticket to camp out. And now these $650 tickets are given out in a lottery system. There must be free alternative events? Anybody keeping a list?
How do they interconnect their local GSM network with the other operators? Anyone can inject calls into mobile operator networks?
It seems to me that in a city of 50,000 there is a need for local and 911 calling services.
What would it take to truck out some local towers with very limited links to the bigger world but
with local calling functionality? The value is people could find each other and also be notified
if needed. Local DNS and local event only hosted web services....
I have yet to see this as an interesting "diminished service" strategy but it
makes sense as a local and regional disaster planning resource plan. In
the case of earthquake, hurricane, tornado, etc. longer haul bandwidth can follow.
SMS could live as a store and forward method (if it is not now) and could prove easy to throttle
through a thin straw (and ration on a per phone basis).
It is the rare event like Burning Man where this type of technology could be tested
in the "real world" so it would be ready for "the big one". It also has an advantage
of a solar friendly environment for those that think emergency equipment should be
solar friendly.
Some of us remember calling on Mothers Day and other holidays.... and get the message
"all circuits are busy" try later, a lot later".
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
When you're in the middle of nowhere, you aren't covered by anyone's 911 service. If the dispatcher didn't know about Burning Man, they might call out search & rescue I guess.
First of all, I don't know anywhere in North America where you aren't covered by some sort of government agency that provides emergency services.
I actually did the totally brilliant move of rolling a pickup truck on a dirt road about 20 miles away from where Burning Man is held (but at a different time of the year) and broke my arm in two places including a compound fracture.
We were about 10 miles away from cell phone coverage. We had one of those emergency satellite-based emergency things which we activated and I hitched a ride on my boss's rental SUV. When we got within range, we were able to make that 911 call. Shortly, thereafter I got to chat with a friendly deputy sheriff about the accident and picked up by volunteer first responders (they aren't licensed paramedics) traveling by ambulance. About 20 miles later, we switched to an ambulance which drove the rest of the 120 or so miles to Reno.
So emergency services may be somewhat problematic, but I don't think it'd be too hard to work something out for a week long thing. I seem to recall that the event organizers have organized some degree of basic infrastructure (for example, they have clean up crews that work for a few weeks after the event to effectively scrub the lake floor clean and there's some rudimentary zoning in the camp).
Every single person that I've ever met that has attended burning man has been an insipid, self absorbed, liberal yuppie that thinks living in a straw bail house would be great, though they've never actually been in one.
Odds are they can spell the common four-letter word "bale" correctly. Why don't you go do what you wrote?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Years ago, when everybody had a feature phone that couldn't connect to WiFi, OpenBTS would have been interesting. But now, every smartphone can connect to high-speed WiFi and run a VoIP app.
OpenBTS doesn't do the connectivity back to the rest of the world... "The kind folks at the Burning Man NOC provide us our Internet connectivity." Those are the guys we should hear from. The rest is just a matter of putting a dozen $40 DD-WRT routers on poles, acting as bridges, or in a mesh routing configuration, and everyone is set. All the cellular work is a waste, unless you really want to start manufacturing cellular base stations to compete with Siemens, Huawai, etc.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Thank you. I hope people won't reply to you with "but of course 911 service works at Burning Man!" like they've been replying to me.... The point is that there's already an extremely good and tested system in place that doesn't depend on cellphones.
That is not what you were bitching about. Your complaint was that the local Sheriff's office wouldn't have a clue about the location of Burning Man, which was a flat out lie and you needed to be called out for fabricating that lie.
My complaint had nothing to do with not knowing where Burning Man is. It had to do with not knowing how to deal with the call:
Yes, of course you don't "need" to use a cell phone. Police and EMTs got to places and helped out well before cell phones were invented, heck even before telephones or radios were invented. I'm impressed that the Burning Man organizers realize that when you get 30k people together, sometimes shit happens and you need some help. Frankly the whole thing is amazing in terms of organizing any sort of event with that degree of logistics in one of the most inhospitable places in the world that might as well be on Mars. In fact, I think working out the logistics to set up a colony on Mars might even be easier.
Exactly. And 911 would be just as useful on Mars.
If you hate the cell phones, state that and be on your way. I think you are full of it to think that way, but I will let you have your opinion on the matter and not try to convince you otherwise other than to state I have come to another conclusion about the matter. The Open BTS guys think that way too and don't give a damn about what others think other than to stay out of their way at the Burning Man.
I have absolutely no problem with OpenBTS being at Burning Man; I'd actually give them kudos for handling 911, which someone mentioned that they do in response to one of my earlier comments.
To bring back perspective: the original comment I was responding to was
. I agree, people rely on their phones too much, but it is a good thing to have for 911 capabilities and such at an event like this.
Once again, the designed system works, works well, and doesn't rely on 911.
That joke was like when AT&T was considering using a talking goat as a mascot.... ....baaaaaaaaad
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Just like all your other friends, eh?
Individuals need approval And up-mods! Think about the look on your workmates' experience when they see that you published a statement in reaction to a technological article! If there weren't a statement website for technical information, nobody would hassle studying it! What's the fun of studying technical information if no one knows you're enthusiastic about it. If you don't publish feedback on slashdot to demonstrate everybody how amazing you are for being enthusiastic about technical news! Individuals can't endure per weeks time without slashdot, that's just being irrational. Cheap flights To Harare | Cheap Umrah Packages
That joke was like when AT&T was considering using a talking goat as a mascot.... ....baaaaaaaaad
But impossible to pass up when people are passionately discussing trammatical errors regarding cellphones and hangups.
I am glad I don't have signal on my phone there, although I know where to go if I must do a little drunk-texting, for example, the deep playa via art car. But I tell the world I have no signal there and I refuse to even try to look at my email if I'm sitting in a camp with wifi. But I keep my device with me. The iBurn app for iPhone and Android is amazing. During whiteout dust storms, I was able to help several people figure out where they were going. I could always look down and see where I was on the map, and because it lists all the camps and all the scheduled events, I got so much more out of my time there.