Open Wireless Movement

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What Does Open Wireless Movement Mean?

The Open Wireless Movement (OWM) is a campaign geared toward making the wireless Internet shared, open and accessible to all without compromising the security of Internet service providers (ISP) or individuals. It was initiated by a group of organizations, technology professionals and Internet freedom activists.

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OWM was launched in response to Hurricane Sandy, which disrupted Internet communication in affected areas in the United States.

Techopedia Explains Open Wireless Movement

OWM provides end users with the freedom to connect to any available wireless Internet. This means that any user has the ability to connect to and access a wireless network without subscribing, paying or entering a required user ID and password.

OWM also provides:

  • Security standards and recommendations through the use of Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) and other wireless security mechanisms
  • Implementation of transport layer security (TLS)
  • Enabling/disabling sharing.

The primary organization behind OWM is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Related groups include the Open Rights Group (ORG), NYC Wireless and the Open Technology Institute (OTI).

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.