Who makes WiFi?
Why do different makers matter?
What do barbeques and backyards have to do with the internet?
This book explores how WiFi is made from the ground up, or in this case from the backyard out. Forged around barbeques, made of found, adapted and off-the-shelf materials and installed in ordinary domestic spaces, this book documents the collective work of individuals committed to making 'Ournet not the internet'.
Drawing on rich ethnographic material, Jungnickel's research on community WiFi networking provides an overdue account of the innovative digital cultures and practices of ordinary people making extra-ordinary things. What make-do methods, mods and tales of resourceful ingenuity permit is another way of seeing how technologies come into being. It brings to life an Australian version of WiFi, enriching global studies of wireless technology by signalling the potential of comparative studies.
Critically, the book presents the first sustained study of homebrew high-tech backyard technologists who imbue a DIY ethos but do not do it alone - they Do-It-Together (DIT). This timely critique of collective DIT innovation in an increasingly networked society will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of maker culture.