Fluid Nexus

Fluid Nexus is an application for mobile phones that is primarily designed to enable activists to send messages and data amongst themselves independent of a centralized cellular network. The idea is to provide a means of communication between people when the centralized network has been shut down, either by the government during a time of unrest, or by nature due to a massive disaster. During such times the use of the centralized network for voice or SMS is not possible. Yet, if we can use the fact that people still must move about the world, then we can use ideas from sneaker-nets to turn people into carriers of data. Given enough people, we can create fluid, temporary, ad-hoc networks that pass messages one person at a time, spreading out as a contagion and eventually reaching members of the group. This enables surreptitious communication via daily activity and relies on a fluid view of reality. Additionally, Fluid Nexus can be used as a hyperlocal message board, loosely attached to physical locations.

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Here are some documents that describe more about the project. Thanks to Mónica Sánchez for the original idea for the system diagram.

Paper presented at ISEA 2008: Reinterpreting networks of people as fluid for political purposes

System Diagram

Poster

Flyer

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Fluid Nexus on Android from Nick Knouf on Vimeo.

I will write more about the Android version soon. For now, you can download the application or the 0.01 version of the source code, released under the GPLv3.

Also available is a detailed project document that describes how I implemented the Bluetooth simulation, how to use the application, as well as the conceptual motivations for the project.

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At the moment, the installation of Fluid Nexus is not easy nor quick. We recommend that if you do not have experience installing and using third-party software on your phone that you wait for a later release of Fluid Nexus. Additionally, Fluid Nexus can only run on Nokia phones running some version of Series 60 Symbian.

Check to see what edition of Symbian your phone runs: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

Download the source code archive and (for editions 1 and 2) the SIS installation archive. The software is licensed under GPLv2. The source code is also available from the SVN repository.

And now to the install!

1. Download both the Python interpreter ("PythonForS60_") and the Python Script Shell ("PythonScriptShell_") for your particular mobile phone, depending on what version of Symbian you use (1st, 2nd, or 3rd Edition): http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/pythonfors60/
2. Install these programs on your phone using your favorite method: Bluetooth, data cable, etc.
3. Download the Fluid Nexus archive.
4. Transfer the files "FluidNexusClient.py" and "FluidNexusServer.py" to your phone. If using the Bluetooth to transfer the files, install them as "Python Script" not "Python Library Module".
5. The next steps are different based on what type of phone you are running:
   * For 1st or 2nd Edition: install FluidNexus.sis.
   * For 3rd Edition: install the rest of the scripts in the archive.
6. To run the application:
   * For 1st or 2nd Edition: Select "Fluid Nexus" from the menu
   * For 3rd Edition: Start the "Python" application. From the "Options" menu, select "Run Script". Navigate to a file called "my\default.py". Select this script to start the application.

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You can contact all of the members of the project at fluidnexus {{@}} fluidnexus [[.]] net

Nick Knouf can be contacted at nknouf {{@}} zeitkunst [[.]] org

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Many thanks to everyone in the 2° Inclusiva-net workshop for their help on the project. Also, thanks to Medialab-Prado for their support and assistance throughout, as well as Phoebe Sengers.

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