What is your network called? Or: a religious wireless network war?

By: Anne Helmond

On: June 15, 2007

Comments »

About Anne Helmond
Anne Helmond is Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture and Program Director of the MA New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. She is a member of the Digital Methods Initiative research collective where she focuses her research on the infrastructure of social media platforms and apps. Her research interests include digital methods, software studies, platform studies, app studies, infrastructure studies and web history.

Website
http://www.annehelmond.nl

I recently worked at a friend’s house and I was trying to connect to their wireless networked called “GORGONZOLA.” I thought that was a pretty funny name until I noticed the names some neighbors had given their networks. One was called PAKISTAN and another was called Jesus Christus is Heer (Jesus Christus is Lord) which made me laugh out loud (OK it actually it made me LOL.) I had previously imagined a network names flame where one neighbor would name their network something provocative and another neighbor would respond to this with an even more provocative name. I wonder if this happened in this neighborhood (notice: pretty good protected neigborhood).

Bos and Lommer is a rather diverse neighborhood with a lot of muslims. “Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and is the second most populous country with a Muslim majority.” (Wikipedia) Did this cause a christian neighbor to name his network “Jesus Christus is Heer?” Whether or not this was a provocation it made me wonder about naming networks.

Network Names