Social use and encryption practices on wireless (802.11) networks in Lexington, Kentucky: a GPS/GIS research methodology

The present study analyzes the early stage diffusion of 802.11 networks in a relatively small and self confined American urban area: Lexington, Kentucky. Our methodology takes advantage of a novel method of monitoring and locating wireless networks, which combines GPS location of wireless access points, Geographic Information Systems location and identification of land parcels on which the access points are found and data provided by the US Census bureau about the neighborhoods in which the networks are found. The goal of the study is to estimate relative proportion of residential vs. business networks, patterns of geographic diffusion, and to explain, at the macro-level of analysis, using neighborhoods as cases, what socio-demographic factors explain the emergence of such networks. Preliminary results indicate that of the 776 wireless access points identified, 66% were found to be located in residential, 21% in business and 13 % in publicly owned land parcels. We also found that more than 2/3rds of all the networks identified are "open", not using WAP encryption. In addition, there are only small differences in encryption rates between residential, business and public networks. Although at a rate of 24%, business networks are the most likely to be encrypted, this is not statistically different from the encryption rates observed on residential (18%) or public (17%) networks. Classic and spatial statistical analysis results indicate that, overall, access points tend to be more numerous in areas where a larger proportion of the residential population works in a professional field (law, medicine, education, etc.) and in the mixed-use areas, situated closer to the urban core. Analyzing the same issue by looking separately at the specific predictor factors for residential, business or public access points we found that all three are more likely to be present where single households are more prevalent or where family households are scarcer (relatively speaking). In addition, residential access points are more likely to be found in suburban neighborhoods, business networks in the downtown areas, and public networks in higher population density neighborhoods. Re-examining the encryption issue at the neighborhood level, we found that encrypted networks are more likely to occur in the higher populated, downtown areas. One of the most interesting finding is the fact that wireless networks, like other "hip" technologies, do live up to their fame as "agents of freedom," since single households are more likely to adopt them. Singles are culturally more in tune with the idea of "personalized technologies" and love fashionable devices, since they are younger and they enjoy more disposable income. Presence of business and public networks in the higher density, central areas, of the city suggests, on the other hand, that newer communication technologies tend to concentrate in the urban core, which is an indirect evidence of the fact that space has not "died," as some researchers suggest, and that geographic clustering still matters. Environments with a lot of pre-existing business and financial investment are still preferred for the development of newer technologies. These findings are tentative and they only give a glimpse into how wireless network technologies evolve. We will pursue this research line with new locations and improved sampling methodologies. More important, we will repeat the monitoring exercise in Lexington, to better understand the evolution of this technology over time.