Below is my presentation made to the Making Media Public Conference. It outlines some of my ideas for a project to publicize broadband data. In the future, I hope this site will use this website for greater collaboration. [gview file=”http://fenwickmckelvey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Making-Broadband-Public-final.ppt”]
Category: Making Traffic Public
Why rely on the broadband data provided by the industry, when citizens can research the Internet themselves? Much of the initial findings about traffic shaping came from hackers who analyzed their traffic to find the invisible hand of their ISP. Vuze, a major bittorrent application, surveyed it’s users traffic to find the worst ISPs in terms of traffic shaping. These initiatives illustrate how the Internet might support new approaches to public policy based on citizen research. My research will explore the feasibility and scope of a public project in Canada to observe network traffic. Further, my speculations speak to how we might re-imagine communication activism through open data projects.