Warchalking is the drawing ofsymbols inpublic places to advertise an openWi-Finetwork.Inspired byhobo symbols, the warchalking marks were conceived by a group of friends in June 2002 and published by Matt Jones who designed the set of icons and produced a downloadable document containing them.[1][2] Within days of Jones publishing a blog entry about warchalking, articles appeared in dozens of publications and stories appeared on several major television news programs around the world.[2]
The word is formed by analogy towardriving, the practice of driving around an area in a car to detect open Wi-Finodes. That term in turn is based onwardialing, the practice of dialing many phone numbers hoping to find amodem.[3]
Having found a Wi-Fi node, the warchalker draws a special symbol on a nearby object, such as a wall, the pavement, or a lamp post.[2] Those offering Wi-Fi service might also draw such a symbol to advertise the availability of their Wi-Fi location, whether commercial or personal.[4]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: Cites establishing either A) warchalking was actually used in the field, or B) the opposite. If it was never actually used, this article may be miscategorized. You can help byadding to it.(June 2013) |