The Neighborhood Network Watch
The Neighborhood Network Watch (NNW) is a simulation of a fictitious community organization dedicated to carrying out domestic eavesdropping operations upon public networks in order to safeguard them, the community and the nation from terrorist threats. This simulation acts as vehicle to localize and engage the public into critical discussion about some often distant and or overlooked issues that affect their everyday lives. These include the embedded politics and power within everyday technology and networks. The ways in which entities that own, control, access, and exert power over networks use the data that we transfer everyday over them. As well as why there are not more questions being raised by the public about these issues and power itself.
The group is modeled after the neighborhood watch programs, which enlists citizens to look out for the community, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) goal to “safeguard” our nation by any means necessary, legal or extralegal. The group’s history is intertwined heavily with the DHS’ own history as well as current events. They see themselves as a progressive government affiliated group that has the flexibility to adopt new emerging technologies, such as Web 2.0 for strategic purposes. Their methods and tactics are rooted in guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency warfare, substituting arms for off the shelf electronics to carry out network eavesdropping to identify networks that maybe being used by terrorists. There primary targets are publicly accessible and publicly used wireless networks. They have also begun to call for people to monitor their own home networks in order to identify potential neighbors who may actually be terrorists.
The Neighborhood Network Watch can be broken down into five components:
In addition some of the byproducts of the five components are manifested as printed materials or objects, they can be viewed here.
During the course of the project the website has had over 20,000 viewers with over 500 referring sites, most of which are blogs with their own interpretations and takes on the project. The performances have been great successes with people taking the time to talk and discuss at length about the various issues raised by The Neighborhood Network Watch.
Selected Press
More coming soon.