Ubiquitous computing Augmented reality Intelligent spaces Ambient intelligence Sensor networks Connected citizen E-government Smart cities Internet o f Things E-commerce Singularity E-anything Network Publics Google Glass Cloud Services Digital everything Responsive environments
Internet Reality in Milano
The main motivation for my thesis comes from increasing dissonance between the debates on smart cities, people’s aspirations and the real situation with internet access in Milano. I experienced this problem on my own when couldn’t get internet at home for two months, I have numerous cases from my friends both living here and visiting me and everytime I start to talk about this subject with anyone who has ever been to Milan and even Italy in general I always observe the same reaction confirming that the problem is experienced by significant amount of people.
PSSD Thesis Proposal by Yulia Besplemennova ybdesigning@gmail.com
THEORY
Being constantly connected is a need today and having public internet access can help both people and places.
1. Internet is claimed to cause alienation as people prefer to stay with their devices instead of making new connections 2. People tend to start communication online easier than in person ! Public WIFI spaces with shared virtual space could make this two factors compensate each other
FUTURE: smart cities with all their needs for ubiquitous computing, connected devices everywhere and growing role of online public participation
If you are very busy:
≈ 3 minutes To get the main points from the headlines
EXPO 2015 TODAY: city visitors are the most affected now as lots of hotels still fail to provide any acceptable bandwidth or internet access at all, but most of touristic planning today made by Internet including all the bookings and not even to mention simple communication needs.
+ 7 minutes To read through the content for further details
Locals seem to be a difficult audience as they appear to be less interested in internet access outdoors which can provide a vast research field on the cultural factors of technological adoption, the reasons of its present state and ways to change situation. At the same time shared belief is that providing more choices is always good for people and having good internet connection outside lets people to do their work, surf the web and go through their daily internet routine outside enjoying the city instead of staying indoors.
“If you do not care about networks, the networks will care about you, anyway. For as long as you want to live in society, at this time and in this place, you will have to deal with the network society. Because we live in the Internet Galaxy.” Manuel Castells (2001) Internet Galaxy.
“Most urban spaces lack digital connectivity, particularly the public spaces most highly valued by urban designers as components of healthy, open, democratic communities” “Like cafes, office building, and sidewalks, digital networks are but one of the critical support systems that facilitate interaction within (and between) cities.” A. Townsend
+ 5 minutes Relevant academic references are under the lines (Can be skipped... :))
THEORY
We get more and more devices affecting the ways we act in the cities
THEORY
3G in Italy is good, but new services and user demands can’t be sustained by it alone.
Costs of infrastructure are incomparable Telecom operators already search ways to offload the network in the heavy usage hours starting to offer WIFI services Getting new SIM card is always a bigger problem than signing in for a network Users’ behavior change according to different networks choices WIFI is embedded in space making, connecting tangible physical layer with intangible online world
“FaceTime, Netflix, and Pandora were built for the Wi-Fi network. It’s hard to imagine the phone bill if all this data was streaming over the 3G networks. These services, and others like them, have blossomed, thanks in part to the increasing ubiquity of the Wi-Fi network.”
Public wifi should work together with 3G using strenghts of both kinds of network for the best overall user experience. This networks shouldn’t be seen as competitors. This is already understood by operators in US and UK, for example, where they seek to introduce WiFi services accompanying mobile dataplans for mobile offload.
Therefore to be really used by citizens public WIFI service should offer some experience really different from that of 3G internet. E.g. easier access, higher bandwidth and less traffic restrictions, better usability, etc.
THEORY
On basic physical level any wireless connection is made of electromagnetic waves. They set specific constraints which should be understood for the best user experience
This level — Hertzian space — is in between online side of Internet and physical infrastructure of cables and hotspot routers. Imaginary hertzian landscapes:
Model of real wifi landscape in the city
Whereas ‘cyberspace’ is a metaphor that spatialises what happens in computers distributed around the world, hertzian space is actual and physical even though our senses detect only a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Images of footprint’s of satellite TV transmissions in relation to the surface of the earth, and computer models showing cellular phone propagation in relation to urban environments, reveal that hertzian space is not isotropic but has an ‘electroclimate’ defined by wavelength, frequency and field strength. Interaction with the natural and artificial landscape creates a hybrid landscape of shadows, reflections, and hot points. (Tuneable Cities (1998) by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby)
Physical visualization of hertzian space — wifi signal levels in the city
THEORY
Usually we don’t see those waves but they become evident through users and their behaviour patterns.
In the ideal space with strong signal this is not obvious, but when signal is low or temporary fails it make people move in the environment and start to communicate sharing this common inconvenience.
“...new technologies inherently cause people to re-encounter spaces. This isn’t a question of mediation, but rather one of simultaneous layering. The fascinating thing about the move from the systems we built on the wired internet to those that we experience through wireless and mobile networks is that we are creating not a virtual but a thoroughly physical infrastructure, and we need to think about it as one that is interwoven with the existing physical structure of space.” (Dourish)
Interest in hertzian space manifests itself for instance in wardriving and more importantly warchalking — making WIFi presence evident on the physical level by putting special signs on the walls — and other artistic and design practices.
THEORY
After the very basic physical level other things contribute to user experience: spaces affordance, built infrastructure and values that they all communicate. Each city should understand its own specificity and design system tailored for it.
LAURA FORLANO RESEARCHING SOCIAL ASPECTS OF MUNICIPAL WIFI: “By examining the affordances of wireless networks, we can begin to understand the possibilities enabled by the technologies, regardless of whether or not they are realized, as well as those that are discovered by users.” “Second, the concept of infrastructure as “relational and ecological—means different things to different groups and is part of the balance of action, tools, and the built environment, inseparable from them.” “Third, the concept of values is important for understanding the way in which community wireless organizations build on the affordances of wireless networks and embed a range of sociocultural, economic and political values into the infrastructures that they design.”
“Due to the properties of wireless technology, it is unlikely that cities will be fully-covered by the network’s signal and, furthermore, may not penetrate many residential or corporate buildings without incurring significant costs for repeaters and the like. Discussions about municipal wireless networks would appear to suffer from a lack of public understanding about the properties of wireless technology.”
On “Anytime, anywhere” connection concept: “citizens may have an incorrect perception of the network’s coverage. Finally, this language assumes that place is irrelevant and homogeneous i.e. one place is just the same as any other place, and therefore ignores social needs and usage patterns. The empirical data presented above illustrates a myriad of reasons why people choose specific locations where they can access wireless networks.”
“By reframing debates around municipal wireless networks in line with user needs and behavior, it might be possible to envision different business models, partnerships and policies for these networks. Municipalities have been eager to adopt the same models as other cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Instead, cities should consider their unique advantages, needs and cultures before embarking on projects to build municipal wireless networks.” “This might allow cities to plan network infrastructures that may not be ubiquitous but that focus on meaningful sites of everyday life rather than merely ‘anytime, anywhere’ connectivity. For example, a city might focus on public parks, churches, schools, cafes and other locations where people tend to congregate. However, it should be noted that these locations will vary substantially from city to city depending on political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and architectural factors. A better understanding of the city’s potential users would allow the city to design networks, applications and services that could be tailored to the user’s needs.”
THEORY
New spaces require special design, but then in turn they can influence city public life. Technology is just one part of the mix changing our interaction with the space and should be aligned with other factors.
HAMPTON & GUPTA OBSERVING USAGE OF PUBLIC WIFI, PEOPLE INTERACTING WITH EACH OTHER AND SPACE:
PAUL DOURISH ON EMBODIED INTERACTIONS AND IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT:
“Conventional considerations related to the design of public space to maximize for social uses (Whyte, 1980) must be reconsidered in light of the unique requirements of new media use, such as the provision of power outlets, flat surfaces for laptops, and shade to view digital displays. It is also important to encourage additional research on Wi-Fi use, in public settings like parks and plazas.”
“From these perspectives, we draw a number of conclusions. The first is that space is organized not just physically but culturally; cultural understandings provide a frame for encountering space as meaningful and coherent, and for relating it to human activities. Cross-cultural explorations of urban experience can draw attention to these issues.”
“The upsurge in Internet access in public spaces may reshape the public realm. Because of its location, it may revitalize, repopulate, and improve the safety of public spaces. Because of the electronic connectivity it offers, it may reduce social inequalities and increase the use of public spaces.” “The finding that young adults, who are, in general, less civically engaged than previous generations (Delli Carpini, 2000), use wireless connectivity in urban public spaces to communicate with broad reaching networks and to consume and create information, suggests that an infrastructure for wireless Internet connectivity within urban public spaces may have unanticipated and positive consequences for participation in the public sphere – including political and diverse social engagement –beyond what could have previously been afforded by urban public spaces that are free of Internet connectivity.”
“The second is that architecture is all about boundaries and transitions and their intersection with human and social practice. That’s really what we’re talking about when we talk about mobile computing and networking in urban settings. We need to think architecturally about the mobile and wireless technologies that we develop and deploy, the human side of infrastructures.” “The third is that new technologies inherently cause people to re-encounter spaces. This isn’t a question of mediation, but rather one of simultaneous layering. The fascinating thing about the move from the systems we built on the wired internet to those that we experience through wireless and mobile networks is that we are creating not a virtual but a thoroughly physical infrastructure, and we need to think about it as one that is interwoven with the existing physical structure of space.” “Finally, there is already a complex interaction between space, infrastructure, culture, and experience. The spaces into which new technologies are deployed are not stable, not uniform, and not given. Technology can destabilize and transform these interactions, but will only ever be one part of the mix. We need to design not simply for settings, but for the processes by practice and meaning evolve.”
THEORY
Numerous initiatives, institutional and bottom-up, commercial and non-profit, explore the importance of public WiFi and its connection to the city life.
BREAK OUT
YELLOW CHAIRS
CHAIR SHARING
FON
Breakout! is a festival of work in the city, that explores the dynamic possibilities of a single question: what if the entire city was your office?
Anab Jain performed a social design experiment sharing her wifi with the neighbours providing yellow chair to access it.
Chairsharing is a public service that offers people the free use of movable chairs that provide Internet connection.
Fon members share a bit of their home WiFi, and in turn get free access at millions of other Fon hotspots worldwide.
BRYANT PARK
JCDECAUX INITIATIVES
BERLIN TEMPORARY WIFI
NYC PHONE BOOTHS REVIEWED
Bryant Park is claimed to be one of the busiest hotspots in the world. Free wifi access was provided here since 2002 but its success can be explained by the well design environment.
JCDecaux tries to bring new types of urban furniture to Paris presenting first prototypes to public. Wifi access is essential for all products in series.
Wall AG has provided temporary free WIFI in Berlin: the strong, positive feedback from foreign tourists has confirmed our conviction that free WiFi in the public space is a key competitive factor for cities with a focus on tourism.
New York City and a company called City 24 x 7 announced that the city’s phone booths were finally going to enter the 21st century, with some being remodeled with Wi-Fi and touchscreens.
When respondents were asked where they desired additional Wi-Fi access, the top locations were parks and restaurants/cafĂŠs, followed by hospitals, grocery stores, subways, and retail stores/shopping malls. (Source: Cisco IBSG, 2012)
FIELD
Milan is in the very beginning of its way to normal WiFi access in the city
City governance is concerned with the situation and wants to promote lots of technological urban solutions for EXPO-2015, but currently citizens and guests struggle while the infrastructure is being built.
“Fare Impresa Digitale� Chamber of Commerce, 19 March 2013 with Carlo Ratti presenting all the abilities of modern technologies and its application to the smart cities
Cyclists counters installed in the city in 2013
Some new technological monoliths appear here and there in the city
FIELD
In its current state municipal WiFi offer is very similar to 3G dataplans sharing their problems but not advantages. In this way it can barely become really popular among users.
SOME OBVIOUS PROBLEMS: — not visible
meanwhile places like Triennale, Hangar Bicocca, etc. provide absolutely free unlimited access with no authorization procedure!
— people badly informed — serious access problems — only with Italian phone numbers, tourists have to pass authorization procedure going to ATM points with their passports — 300 megabytes or 1 hour a day can merely compete with 3G providers especially considering that 3G has advantage of being ubiquitous — no thoughts of usability — installed in some random places where it’s not going to be used (or it could be used if besides the waves there was also some physical structures) Can barely compete with 3G operators offers
Corner of my block with OpenWiFi Milano. Once I tried to call my parents from here just to find myself sharing space with several hookers holding their posts
FIELD
The whole fact of citizens’ reliance on 3G networks and municipalities trying to mimic exactly its model suggests that a huge part of internet usage behaviour is missed in the city. And it is neither sustained by commercial offers.
TAIPEI’S MUNICIPAL WIFI FAILURE VS. BRYANT PARK SUCCESS: “Several years later the practical significance of the city’s wireless network was in doubt. After two years in full operation, Taipei’s “WiFly” network was used by only 30,000 subscribers in a city population of 2.6 million (Kim 2007). More importantly, an ecosystem of free Wi-Fi hotspots in cafés (approximately 1,300 according to jiwire.com) throughout the city provided a reliable substitute for the citywide mesh.” (McKenzie)
Bryant Park’s patented chair for laptop users
One of the reasons for Taipei failure and general preference of audience to use wifi in caffes can be the poor physical environment design accompanying municipal wifi offers. To compare there’s a Bryant Park case study, where not only connection was provided, but the space designed in a way to make it comfortable to use (with even specially patented furniture) and now it’s one of the busiest hotspots in the world.
BUT IN MILANO even in caffes there are the same problems with Internet. One big flaw is always is the authentication procedure requiring registering in every place, in best case, in others — stuff can even ask for passports. And that could be just one issue, but there is another that in general caffes in Milan suggest different behaviour of only food consumption and communication, but not staying there for long. And the very concept of 3rd places so favorable now elsewhere is scarcely present in Milano
FIELD
Serious field research has to take significant part of work providing understanding of local internet culture, whether citizens are interested in it at all and how they should be addressed. And it will suggest framework for the further project strategy choice.
US
IT
Milano
1. Google 2 Facebook 3 YouTube 4 Yahoo! 5 Amazon.com 6 eBay 7 Wikipedia 8 Craigslist.org 9 Windows Live 10 Bing 11 LinkedIn 12 Blogspot.com 13 Twitter 14 Go 15 Pinterest 16 MSN 17 AOL 18 Tumblr 19 Netflix 20 PayPal 21 ESPN 22 The Huffington Post 23 CNN Interactive 24 Ask 25 Bank of America
1 Google.it 2 Facebook 3 YouTube 4 Google.com 5 Libero 6 Yahoo! 7 Wikipedia 8 Amazon.it 9 Windows Live 10 Ebay 11 La Repubblica 12 Virgilio 13 AutoSottoCosto 14 Subito.it 15 Il Corriere della Sera 16 Mediaset.it 17 il Meteo 18 Conduit 19 Babylon 20 Altervista 21 Adcash® Advertising Network 22 xHamster’s Free Porn Videos 23 Ask 24 AVG | Antivirus and Security 25 Alice
1 facebook.com 861,791 2 google.com 429,782 3 google.it 378,913 4 youtube.com 186,870 5 live.com 120,795 6 yahoo.com 103,919 7 wikipedia.org 98,754 8 blogspot.com 68,843 9 corriere.it 68,534 10 blogger.com 67,598 11 libero.it 63,340 12 msn.com 62,914 13 repubblica.it 55,499 14 virgilio.it 49,254 15 partypoker.it 40,084 16 wordpress.com 38,191 17 ebay.it 33,194 18 gazzetta.it 32,675 19 altervista.org 30,631 20 conduit.com 30,021 21 twitter.com 28,992 22 alice.it 28,512 23 megavideo.com 28,427 24 youporn.com 26,049 25 mediaset.it 24,655
Some insights can be provided already by simple statistics research of numbers of internet users, their age, device preferences and the most popular websites. Several services provide possibilities to map existing WIFi spots to understand patterns in the city. Observations and interviews with different categories of users (locals, people brought to the city by special events, tourists) should help to understand the real user needs and perception of current situation. But the special focus should be put on the specific italian communication culture, not only over the internet, but in general in the city to understand populations relations to the public realm and the way it is constructed by them. The following project aims to improve citizens interaction avoiding overly radical steps that can’t be accepted by locals.
PROJECT
On any level networked space cannot be designed as usual public spaces as the difference in their nature should be clearly stated and new user behaviours supported.
“PHYSICAL” LAYER OF DESIGN: Electromagnetic waves are intangible and invisible but the users are real and have their human needs (will to stay in a nice environment mainly) and interact with the real physical devices that have their own problems (screen invisible with the sunlight, running out of battery, etc.)
“LEVELS” OF USAGE: small handheld device (mostly smartphone, but ipod, game etc): numerous but short interaction sessions to navigate in the city, check email, reply text message, make a call (up to 15 min average); tablet/reader: longer interaction, involving websurfing, writing long emails, blogposts, watching videos, browsing photos with friends, etc (up to an hour); laptop: mostly used fro more serious things as working, but including browsing too (up to 2 hours and much more).
SOME OBVIOUS NEEDS:
small handheld device
tablet/ reader
laptop
shade for the screen places covered from the rain table place to interact and “share the screen” with others plugpoints some privacy (to talk) place to sit down
SOCIAL ASPECT: changing the space usage, adding the feeling of shared commons, building community based on that, bringing people to collaborate
But in Italy this raises a new side of problem of cultural influence on technological adoption, the research should be performed on the number of issues like public space usage in general to position the project deeply in social urban canvas of Milan
PROJECT
Besides the level of mere “user interfaces” all the other aspects of these new spaces should be taken into account as they represent complex points connecting different system levels.
Tangible people
SOCIETY
city devices
Intangible virtual
ENVIRONMENT
hertzian
Bringing together different aspects of urban life and studying their interdependece and effects on one another.
Creating the settings for balanced system in which all the actants communicate in proper order to produce integral urban space.
This probably cannot be done everywhere and for any settings, therefore it makes sense to focus on designing particular spots and understanding them deeply.
“If the electronic object has a role in humanizing hertzian space it is not as a visualization or representation of radio but as a catalyst, encouraging the poetic and multilayered coupling of electromagnetic and material elements to produce new levels of cultural complexity.” (Dunne)
WIFI should manifest itself through the affordance of physical space to which it is linked. Affordance is also important due to the new behaviours in the networked spaces. WiFI access in the city is a complex issue bringing together urban and social factors, user experience and service aspects and cannot be considered as a neutral entity, instead it should address deeply cultural background and communicate values being delivered to the citizens through this technology.
PROJECT
Institutional approach is possible, but it wouldn’t address the urgent already present needs.
This strategy would require improving municipal WIFI service model and designing settings to use it — wifi spaces and urban furniture — Revisiting the proposed open wifi milano service approaching it from user-centered point of view, analyzing its pros and cons and the ways to improve it focusing on visibility, accessibility, usability — Defining the real user needs and scenarios — Designing the physical connection of the service and the city — the new type of urban furniture especially suited for the new needs of digital city and specifically Milano with its own urban life. Taking in consideration the different “levels” of use (phone, tablet, laptop), different settings in the city and users. — Outlining the value proposition and business model All to make municipal WiFi really usable, facing people’s needs and competitive with 3G offers and WiFi cafes etc. And besides to make Milan more friendly for the new century needs and values.
PROJECT
Bottom-up approach could be more suitable to meet real needs. With community in its core it can help to build outdoor social hubs for different purposes: permanent and temporary for city visitors... A) temporary spaces for the events like Salone, Fashion Week, etc, also scaling up for the future EXPO: creating the spaces in the city with WIFI access and exclusive web-services aligned with each specific topic accessible only from this exact space
!
--> creating both virtual and physical hub for people from the same field to come together, make new contacts and collaborate. Social hub becomes linked to information pool in this way reflecting on the current state of the city and bringing indoor events outside for the best public access.
B) the same principle can be applied to permanent spaces for tourists providing internet and access to special services about the city as tourists, or better — travelers with different aims in Milan, experience the most urgent need already
Connected to the trends in tactical urbanism, spaces appropriation and DIY city collaborations. Starts with analysis of the social aspect of situation with simple prototypes and interventions.
Bottom-up approach starting with community research followed by creation of outdoor social hubs in the city involving wifi access and mediated/augmented space development. More specifically: merging together virtual and physical interactions and communication through development of special social online services accessible from assigned physical spots in the city. All the previous design concerns should be applied to this spaces, but in addition, hypothetically, interesting local service could build new connections between users and stimulate the usage of outdoor public spaces.
PROJECT
Or experimental spaces for locals, exploring the ways in which technology can enhance their interaction with one another and city environment. C) experimental spaces for locals probing the ways of involving them in public life attracting with internet access; can take form of:
!
- semipublic neighbours’ spaces for locals to hang out outdoors (like in the courtyards) and get to know people who live around with Nextdoor-like service. Stimulates building of both virtual and physical connections. Can be enhanced by local files sharing points like street book libraries to share valuable for locals data (could be not downloadable to protect copyright and make people come to the space) and other services - semipublic spaces for early adopters — young creatives for example, to meet new people and work together outside trending coworking spaces - public zones in parks or children/dog playgrounds — places where people already spend some time, exploring wifi influence on the citizens behaviour and environment and its capability to bring people outdoors and communicate
“But face-to-face encounters are only one level of human interaction: the Starbucks anecdote suggests that, for some reason, we still have an urge to gather together, even if in our solitude.” (Varnelis, Kazys) “The potential exists to create server applications that run locally over the wireless network to enhance the park’s ability to relax, fascinate, and connect people to each other.” (Townsend)
Enhancing the spaces and supporting the ongoing city trends — growth of social cooperation, opening of more coworking spaces, interest to the public sphere.
PROJECT
Recent urban design trends provide the vast field of possibilities to build the possible project upon:
chairbombing, city domestication
car and bike sharings, parklets, foodtrucks as social attractors in the cities
space appropriation and repurposing
temporary outdoor solutions