Noderunner is a new game where teams race to find the greatest number of open wireless access points in town, within a set time limit. Equipped with wireless units (laptops), digital cameras (to record their physical presence at identified points), and transportation (to zoom around town), teams identify nodes, sometimes using warchalking, then record their scores digitally. According to Rhizome’s story, “game designers Yuri Gitman and Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena with help from NYCwireless and Eyebeam turned the act of node seeking into a playful scavenger hunt.” Although first run in New York, Noderunners hope to unleash the game on the rest of the world.

Game supporter Eyebeam also mounted “We Love New York”, an August 2002 public-awareness, GIS+ mapping of NYC.

(via Rhizome.org)

Noderunner is a team-based game played on a city’s open wireless network. As individuals and businesses put WiFi, or IEEE 802.11, networks into their homes and offices excess wireless signal spills over onto the street. Noderunner turns this distributed wireless spill-over into a playing field.

Before the game starts, a starting point and ending point are agreed upon (both points must have stable and reliable wireless hotspots), and a time limit is set (typically two hours). Teams race each other to connect to as many open hotspots as possible before the time limit. At each open hotspot they must take a photo of their team and upload it to the Noderunner Website. By keeping a live photo log of the teams’ progression through the city, the Noderunner site acts as a living scoreboard through which the teams and spectators track a live the game.