Introducing the Digital City Audit (DCA) Project

1. 3011: Geographies of Cyberspace Introducing the Digital City Audit (DCA) Project Martin Dodge (m.dodge@ucl.ac.uk) Practical 4, Friday 29th October 2004 http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/cyberspace

2. The emerging ‘digital city’ - remaking urban space and cyberspace“By the year 2050, everything around us will be some form of computer. … As planners we are accustomed to using computers to advance our science and art but it would appear that the city itself is turning into a constellation of computers.”Michael Batty (1995)

3. Objectives of the DCA • getting you thinking about the diversity of infrastructure in the streets around us. think about how people are using the infrastructure • what is the geography of cyber infrastructure at the micro scale? how is it distributed? • who owns urban cyberspace? • how dependent is city on cyberspace? how vulnerable are people if something goes wrong? • you will be contributing useful baseline data on geographies of cyberspace • team working skills and project management • surveying skills • mapping, design/graphics, extending website building skills

4. What is the Digital City Audit project? • a group project for practicals after reading week • survey and map all the visible digital infrastructure in local urban environment • work in teams of 3/4 • 1 x practical carrying out a detailed street survey • 2 x practicals to do mapping and make a website • 1 x presentation of your findings • this forms the assessed course work and is a compulsory part of the course. It is worth 50%

5. Assessment of DCA • based on the performance of the group and your individual activity in the group • fieldwork attendance : 10% • practical attendance : 10% • website and presentation : 40% • individual report : 40% • ------------------------------------------------ • total : 100% • you all write an individual report summarising the work of your group. maximum 1,500 words • submission of this report is Wed. 12th January 2005

6. Time schedule of the DCA • Friday 29 Oct. : this introduction • Friday 5 Nov. : DCA fieldwork • [Reading Week] • Friday 19 Nov.: DCA mapping • Friday 26 Nov.: CCTV control centre visit • Friday 3 Dec.: DCA mapping / website • Friday 10th Dec.: presentation your DCA findings

7. Things you need to audit • 1. phone boxes - ordinary phone boxes; broken phone boxes; new broadband/email phone boxes (they have a keyboard); info kiosks • 2. bank ATMs • 3. CCTV security cameras • 4. traffic cameras (CC, speeding, red-light) • 5. satellite dishes (small Sky ones on side of buildings, also bigger white telecommunications dishes on roofs) • 6. microwave dishes on roofs • 7. mobile phone antennas on roofs • 8. digital bus information screens

8. Cyberspace is all around us • Its very easy to ignore local environment • not just ground level. look on lamp posts, on walls, in door recesses, above street height, • look up - stuff high on buildings, on roofs • note, we are only surveying public space • obviously we can’t tell where all the stuff is underground • think about the relationship between infrastructure and local environmental settings and social geography of the area

9. What does this stuff look like? • typical mobile phone antennas, tall, thin • typical microwave dishes

10. CCTV camera spotting • try to get as detailed and accurate survey of cameras as possible • survey 4 key criteria : • position (x,y location, plus height) • type (fixed, movable, dome, with light) • purpose (door way monitor, car park, street) • ownership (according to the type building they are mounted on) • plus any evidence of warning signs? what do the signs say?

11. Types of cameras to look out for typical fixed, doorway monitoring camera panning & swivel cameras cameras inside dome

12. Urban environmental context • think about the the type of streets • is it retail, residential, commercial • what is the traffic level (vehicle, pedestrian)? • does it feel safe? any signs of graffiti / vandalism? Ethnography of technology use • focus on mobile phone use • try to note the types people and where they are • also, do you see anyone using a phone box?

13. DCA survey areas - 8 groups each group gets a different area

14. Size of your survey area • 1/4 km square chunk of Bloomsbury • detailed printed base maps on the day of the survey

15. Optional - take some photos • if someone in your group has a digital camera and would like to take photos for the DCA survey • can used on your groups’ website • of course, you’ll need to note where the photos were taken and what they show

16. Some fieldwork guidance • most of Bloomsbury is pretty safe, but be alert & wary • stay on public streets. do not go into any buildings or onto private land (e.g. court yards, beer gardens) • wear warm clothing, be prepared for rain • stay together at all the times • carry your UCL id. If asked, tell people politely you are doing a small survey for a geography course • if you get any hassle, make a polite excuse and walk away • don’t trip over or walk into a lamp post; don’t get arrested; don’t fall under a bus

17. Rest of this practical • form into team and signup on the sheet • read and sign the risk assessment form • then working in your team, undertake fieldwork preparation

18. Fieldwork preparation • download the base map for your area • think about how to do the street survey, in particular the coding scheme you will use during the fieldwork and labelling the map to go on the web • evaluate approach in some CCTV mapping projects • look for any traffic cams or webcams in your study area • try to find any ATMs in your study area • see if there are any mobile phone masts in your study area • check out pollution data websites for local area • look for useful contextual socio-economic data on Bloomsbury • try to find a aerial photograph of your study area

19. Download base map

20. CCTV camera mapping projects

21. Evaluate CCTV mapping schemes • go to: • NY Surveillance Camera Players - www.notbored.org/scp-maps.html • Amsterdam map - www.spotthecam.nl • Institute for Applied Autonomy, iSee interactive map for Manhattan (‘Routes of Least Surveillance’) www.appliedautonomy.com/isee/ [use IE, not netscape for this site]

22. Take a look at this guidewww.notbored.org/map-making.html

23. BBC London's Jam Camswww.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/jamcams/ try out this site

24. ‘Real-time’ visual monitoring of London from cyberspace • webcams (near-real time) • personal (fun); tourist promotional; business promotional; traffic cams • some sources to look for cams in central London try to find webcams in the Bloomsbury area • www.londonwebcam.com • www.bbc.co.uk/webcams • www.camvista.com • can you find any more (Google??)

25. Any ATMs in your study area? • Use the ATM Locator, www.multimap.com/clients/places.cgi?client=link • VISA ‘Find a cash machine’ www.visaeu.com/main.html

26. Sitefinder, an interactive map of mobile phone antennaswww.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk • see if you can find any mobile phone antennas in your survey area. they are shown as little blue triangles • who owns them? how high are they? • be sure to look for them when you do the fieldwork

27. Contextual data sources • what might be the relationship between cyberspace infrastructure and other socio-demographic characteristics? E.g. is there more CCTV in ‘rich’ or ‘poor’ areas? • there are quite a number publicly available (free) sources on the web that might be useful • but need to think at what spatial / temporal scales is the data collected and released? • do any of these sources provide data specific enough to your team’s survey area? • think about how you might incorporate some of this data into your DCA website?

28. UpMyStreet provides useful socio-economic and geodemographic data for small areas. searchable by postcode (www.upmystreet.co.uk)

29. Find an aerial photograph for the area • from www.multimap.com and GetMapping

30. Pollution and noise data • some sources to look for pollution in or around Camden. try them yourself • www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/home.asp • www.londonnoisemap.com/

31. Next steps • background readings for this practical, • they are available from the 3011 website • Mike Batty’s article on the ‘Computable City’ • Mark Monmonier’s article on webcams • Monday’s lecture in on surveillance