[OSM-talk] Automatically adding open wireless access points

[Gregory]

I think you would need a separate database for the collection.
Then every week or so you have a rule that estimates the access point
location and says where a few people have seen this network, and it has been
seen recently, then add it to OSM and update your db with the OSM node id.

Some information might be best kept in your database, some might be good in
OSM. It is helpful to be able to add the osm tags operator (e.g. T-Mobile,
BT OpenWhatsit,  or LocalTon Free Wifi), url, and maybe something to say if
it is free or not.
How do you deal with nodes(tags and/or location) being changed in the OSM
data not by your tool? What if your tool adds a node which is already there?
I know of a village that has a free wifi setup (by residents) that I would
like to know the points of but you have to give an e-mail address to 'log
in'. I suppose I would have to login and then use your tool if I wanted it
recorded.

I think a possible objection is like the legally-grey use of open networks.
Home routers usually come open as default(it aids installation), you have
not been authorised to use them but maybe the settings being left open is
authorisation(so you tell yourself). Well more worse that you taking their
bandwidth, is you plotting a  big X on their house (yeah, I know their fault
for not closing the network).


On 26 March 2010 03:34, Gaz Davidson <gaz at bitplane.net> wrote:

> On 25 March 2010 19:13, Claudius <claudius.h at gmx.de> wrote:
> > Am 25.03.2010 15:09, Gaz Davidson:
> >> (...)  at some later time the positions of all
> >> known access points can be estimated and imported into OSM's database.
> >
> > I think WiFi are too temporary a feature to be added to the main OSM
> > database. Why not keep it in a seperate project database?
>
> I suppose I could keep it separate, but it sucks to have all kinds of
> city geo-data split across multiple databases in different formats. It
> makes using them more awkward. Also, I've not seen any evidence that a
> large number of open wireless networks are temporary, unless you mean
> that the technology ages fast? All the ones I've found are
> deliberately open and belong to businesses, at least in the UK it's no
> longer the open wifi free-for-all that it was several years ago (all
> new routers come with WEP enabled by default, access points are used
> until the hardware dies).
>
> Perhaps store the last seen date, then we can auto-purge them from the
> database. Maybe have the site collect complete user traces so that we
> can see when people went past a now dead hotspot (though users may not
> like this, specially if the data is PD!)
>
> > Besides: Nice idea. But will it be needed in times of 3G access?
>
> Well, you could say the same about amenity=phone_box, I can't remember
> the last time I used one of those. Open wireless networks are of
> interest to me personally, probably lots of other people too. When I'm
> out and about and realise I need a 700MB file it doesn't make sense to
> use 3G for this. On my old prepay plan it would have cost me £14 to
> download 700MB, on my current contract it would eat a week's worth of
> data allowance.
>
> Gaz
>
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-- 
Gregory
osm at livingwithdragons.com
http://www.livingwithdragons.com
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