Turning Colleges into Hotspots to Investigate Impact of Wireless Technology on Social Groups

By: Margaret Grene

NOMAD (Next generation wireless software services: Modelling and Developing usable applications) is a forward-looking joint research programme between the Telecommunications Software Systems Group (TSSG), based at Waterford Institute of Technology, Dundalk Institute of Technology and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT).

As an important part of this programme the NOMAD trials are in fact a research exercise designed to shed light on how people will use wireless devices in the near future. Using advanced wireless technology to improve communication between students and their union officers at Dun Laoghaire IADT, one of the aims of the trials was to uncover the secrets of creating successful wireless solutions by carrying out research that brings together the expertise of psychologists, technologists and designers from the NOMAD group. The trials involved handing out 20 WiFi enabled PDAs (see insert for information on PDAs) to students in the college. A WiFi network was installed to cover the campus and using this, the students were given access to a range of services that were developed specifically for this trial.

Basically how wireless communications work is that using a WiFi card, which acts as a transceiver installed on their PC, their laptop or their Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), users can communicate using radio frequencies with wireless access points (sometimes called wireless hubs). Using the same frequency as microwave ovens but understandably, transmitting at a much lower power, ranging from 50 to100 milliwatts, the range is limited to about 150 metres with line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver. But with different power and antenna configurations this can be considerably extended.

Areas within the range of a wireless card and hub are called hotspots. And so Dun Laoghaire IADT became one of these hotspots for the duration of these trials, which were running from February 9th to 20th.

The three programme partners each had their own specific interests represented in the trials. The TSSG developed a platform to support the multiple services that were used for the trials such as Instant Messaging, SMS, Meeting Agendas, Newsletters and Online Reminder service.

Dundalk IT created a portal to house the services and a common login and interface and they have also gathered statistics related to software reliability. IADT have been looking at the psychological and social impact of the trials on the students. The idea was to try support the existing activities of the students and promote interactions between people who don't know each other. The Nomad Research team are optimistic that carefully designed technology can help establish allegiances between individuals and groups with the ultimate aim to develop systems to enhance social capital; a term used to describe the sense of belonging that individuals have within a group.

"This programme is very interesting because it examines the psychology and the actual social gains made from technology," said Andrew Betson, one of the researchers at the TSSG working on NOMAD.
A longer-term goal of this TSSG led programme is to run a second much larger trial with a wider range of technologies and some experimental technologies like location based services.