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Marketing Agency Uses Homeless As Wi-Fi Hotspots
An anonymous reader writes "Marketing agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) has launched a controversial charity scheme at this year's South by Southwest festival, in which homeless people are being used to provide Wi-Fi hotspots. The project, Homeless Hotspots, seeks to address people's need for a high-speed data connection at the festival in Austin, Texas, by issuing the homeless with T-shirts that say 'I am a 4G hotspot.' Passers-by may then pay what they wish either in cash or by PayPal to get online 4G networks via the Wi-Fi device that a homeless person is carrying and the proceeds go to the Front Steps Homeless shelter in Austin."
Why don't the proceeds go to the homeless person carrying around the equipment!?
OK, it is quite a dumb idea. Do they carry batteries?
^(oo)^pig~
And why wouldnt these homeless folk try to immediately cash in, sell or trade the hotspot device for money or a nice bottle? They are $100+ devices, nevermind 4g service for a day or so.
It's basically an updated version of the street newspapers that homeless people have been selling for decades. Micro-business like this can be the first step and getting out of poverty.
Giving jobs to those people in need instead of just some spare change is exactly the thing that can help them.
Most likely they take the money through a browser at the time of login.
At least that's the way I would do it.
(and IF this is sarcasm then you're right on that the first thing the right-winger would say is "smelly," and if you ARE a right-winger then you sure showed your true colors)
It's the CC company that takes the hit, albeit there's a minor hastle with canceling your credit card and getting a new one.
You *do* have a throw-away CC, don't you. One you use for internet and other dodgy enterprises, not the one that is only used at reputable establishments. You can ask the CC company to put just about any name on a 2nd card.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Suggest you guys check out the actual blog post, answers a lot of the questions asked.
http://bbh-labs.com/homeless-hotspots-a-charitable-experiment-at-sxswi
Everything you need to know about marketing and advertising
Not sure why this is "flamebait." "Smelly" is a favorite ad hominem putdown.
This is the most exploitative, ignorant, inhuman scheme I've ever heard of.
He is not a wifi hotspot. He is not a thing. He's not something for you to graffiti-tag to market your shitty pay-per-use wifi. He is a human being, and entitled to dignity.
If you're interested in helping, do so. Don't come up with some bullshit scheme to allow you to profit at the same time as you pretend to be helping.
Hey I plan too! Let's use battered women as sparring partners! We'll partner with Golds Gym, give them a t-shirt that says "I'm used to it!". We'll make a fortune off of all the misogynist muscleheads who hang out there. Then give the proceeds to, oh I dont know. We'll make up some "dont beat women" charity or something, make ourselves directors.
For some strange reason, I really want one of those T-shirts.
Smelly? They screen out the ones smelly. Are all homeless smelly? A lot of them use public bathrooms. Also you can stay downwind of them.
Alternatively, punch them in the face and steal their device.
There will be a sharp increase in the mugging of homeless people
Once all the homeless people are put in jail for the torrents that were shared on their hotspots, they won't be homeless anymore!
Becuase that is right where the homeless guy is headed once you hand him some cash.
It's not just taxes as Luckyo suggested, but also labor laws. Suddenly minimum wage comes into the picture as well. So you have minimum wage, FICA compliance (is the homeless man an employee or "self-employed") and similar nonsense. Pretty soon, a homeless guy who might have been content to just make a few bucks and pass a few bucks on to his homeless shelter is getting to experience the joys most of us go through every year with the IRS.
This is one of the reasons why minimum wage laws hurt the poor. As noble as creating a society that is intolerant of wage exploitation is, drafting laws that cover edge cases is at least as hard as doing software that does that. However, unlike software, failure to properly plan for edge cases like this means parties may be fined or jailed.
and when people start mugging the homeless, what then?
Is to give those jobs to people who aren't homeless but merely out of work. Unemployment is crazy these days and I'm sure lots of not-bums wouldn't mind doing this for a little extra cash.
Actually, what we should probably do is bring back indentured servitude for homeless or unemployed people, and introduce slavery for people who are in prison for serious crimes. "Got a life sentence for raping and killing 19 little girls? Enjoy working in the plantation/factory/sewers forever, buddy." It would certainly solve the issue of people outsourcing jobs to other countries because the labor is cheaper...
The wireless antennas will be placed near the reproductive organs and work at full power on as many channels as possible. All that in order to decrease the future homeless population.
"So Mr. Smelly homeless person offering 4G, do you take Via, Master Card, or American Express? It's not like I carry cash around you folk."
As the saying goes:"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to phish, and he'll clean out your bank account. "
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Upwind. Downwind is where all the smell goes. It's like upstream/downstream.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
"I am a wifi hotspot" probably qualifies as a demotion from "human being." I suppose it's not as bad as paying the homeless to fight, but it's hardly a charitable sentiment.
This is volunteering to earn their keep at a shelter.
Raising awareness? Maybe we should all wear ribbons? Puh-leese. Last time I checked, homeless people are self-evident and don't need their awareness raised. If anything, I'm a little too aware of them when I enter my local grocery store. Yes, people are homeless often because they cannot follow rules, whether criminal or otherwise. A huge number of them are addicts, and most shelters have rules about sobriety. That's a major reason why many still live on the streets - they'd rather imbibe than have a roof over their heads.
So hell yes it's a legitimate question that they might keep the money or pawn the device. Anything else is political correctness, just as is the term "raising awareness."
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
You get modded informative for an incorrect, stereotypical, insulting generalization of "right-wingers"?
I suppose I should be kicked out of the party for actually caring about homeless people. I imagine all those other evangelical charities, missions, etc should as well, since clearly they all view homeless people as rubbish.
Does the hotspot come with attachments so the homeless can strap them to their rickshaws?
I a'm homeless have cash and telecom equipment on me.
I a'm unarmed as well.
if I fight back they will fire me.
The assumption that someone who is unable to work due to being mentally ill would be unable to "spend money the right way" is disgusting. Most mentally ill are capable in many aspects of their lives, some just have certain limitations that keep them from working. (eg. PTSD, extreme phobias) Assuming that, just because they are mental ill in some fashion, they will not try and keep food on the table/roof over head is just.. wrong. Would you assume someone who had an arm or leg removed would fall in to the same category? What about a pregnant woman? The stigma associated with mental illness is terrible and, like most, largely inaccurate. Yes, you will have some people that are unable to "work within the structure," but don't assume that unable is the same as unwilling.
Using humans as high-tech signboards makes perfect sense to those who prize wealth above all else. But why stop there? Let's chain them to garbage cans and charge pedestrians a dime apiece to throw away their hamburger wrappers. Or, better still, have an auction for the rights to run and maintain the concrete under sidewalk.
Wifi should cost the same as a library card. But Verizon pay its CEO $37.5 million a year to make sure that it doesn't.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/12/ceo-compensation-11_Ivan-G-Seidenberg_NBWH.html
.
I know when I'm on the lookout for wifi, the first place I want to bring my laptop is in an alley full of homeless people!
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Churches and political affiliation has no (true) connection. Actually, in some cases churches do actions that are oddly "left-wing" or as some "right-wing" call it, socialist commie bullshit.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
FTFA:
I don't get why that's a worry. The homeless are providing a service, which makes the productive members of society, and should provide them with a little self-respect. So what if the program doesn't care anything at all about them or their future? How is that different from the situation that almost every wage slave on planet earth - they're all providing a service for a company that pays them for it, and I don't think there are many employees that are under the impression that the company they work for is doing because the "care about them."
This program just does for the homeless the same thing that almost every company and government employee does to people: turns them into human resources.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Have gnu, will travel.
Homeless often means desperate, with few resources. You then give him/her a device worth $100-200, that brings no immediate benefit to him/her, not unlike giving a $100 watch. Now maybe if you reward him with a full meal and a night's stay for each day he brings back the device, I could see that begin to work. But otherwise, under those conditions, it seems more likely that he will try to trade that device for something much more useful to him, and I WOULDN'T blame him, nor consider it "dishonest". It is no more dishonest than you being in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and rummaging around other people's houses for food, supplies, water, etc. You wouldn't feel it to be dishonest -- not to the point of not doing it... its about survival, not ethics.
I think it's perfectly reasonable. This could be a great service in larger cities and especially during events like sxsw. Have a place at the homeless shelter that maintains the equipment and keeps it charged. The homeless person just checks out a fanny pack with the equipment and gets paid upon returning it. In the meantime they go about their daily lives, except now they have a t-shirt and a gimmick. I would eliminate the cash donation part in favor of a premium text charge or being redirected to a donation page upon connecting. You could even serve up ads if that model works better for you. Apart from preventing a rash of homeless muggings, taking cash out of the equation helps eliminate any confusion over who you're giving the money to (Am I giving this homeless dude money or paying for WiFi? Feel free to give the dude a dollar if you would normally). However you do it, the donations go back to funding the program (maintaining equipment, paying the homeless), and anything left over goes to the shelter. Odds of this being profitable would be greatly improved with any advances to make the equipment cheaper and more durable. People get Wifi, a homless dude makes a little money to get by, shelters gets donations, advertisers get to slap a label on it. Everybody sounds happy to me.
What, no Seinfeld rickshaw references? Slashdot I am disappoint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSgpHQO-J4&noredirect=1
If you pay the homeless directly, the money would just get wasted on buying crack or MD 20/20.....better it goes to some clearer heads that will spend in on food and shelter for them....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Ohhhhh noooooo.
Someone is giving homeless people a legitimate simple job that they can do even while they sleep instead of handing them money for nothing. How dare you make a homeless person productive?
MUST TAG tackyexploitation.
Wearing one of those shirts has to be a real chick-magnet.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Homeless often means desperate, with few resources. You then give him/her a device worth $100-200, that brings no immediate benefit to him/her, not unlike giving a $100 watch. Now maybe if you reward him with a full meal and a night's stay for each day he brings back the device, I could see that begin to work. But otherwise, under those conditions, it seems more likely that he will try to trade that device for something much more useful to him, and I WOULDN'T blame him, nor consider it "dishonest". It is no more dishonest than you being in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and rummaging around other people's houses for food, supplies, water, etc. You wouldn't feel it to be dishonest -- not to the point of not doing it... its about survival, not ethics.
Right... and how much do you really think that wifi hotspot is going to go for at a pawn shop? Seriously. If it retails for $100~200, you could probably expect $10~20 dollars.
Selling this thing isn't going to get them off the streets. Meanwhile, collecting tips in addition to the paid access for the hotspot itself would easily make them enough money to cover how much they would get from trading in the device...
The whole matter that you equate this to the zombie apocalypse level of survival is crazy. Homeless people aren't THAT close to the edge of survival. No bills, no demanding payments or anything like that... so something that is generating money for them (tips... don't try and tell me they won't collect some tips) would be valuable, especially when they don't particularly need a whole lot of work to accomplish it.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
It is only socialist or communist when done by the government. By definition a private citizen or organization cannot be socialist or communist. Those two words imply a governing body forcefully taking resources from some and giving them to others.
It is only socialist or communist when done by the government.
Huh, I must have missed the part where government welfare programs were actually state control of the means of production. OHHHH, you don't know what the words "socialist" and "communist" mean! Now it makes sense. Carry on.
I don't deal with "dodgy enterprises" and a do have a specific card for internet dealings)
Can't seem to get permits for your 4G towers? .. just build shopping cart sized versions and get people to wheel them around all day. Let them sleep at the recharge point and you kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
Group-think. /. is full of it.
Om, nomnomnom...
Will Hotspot for Beer
You're thinking long-term. Homeless people I doubt think that far ahead. If some nerd comes up and says 'Hey, I'll give you 50 bucks and a bottle of vodka for that shirt', I'd put good money on that shirt very quickly belonging to the nerd.
People aren't going to be giving these homeless hotspots tons of money when it first rolls out. When it first rolls out, it will be little more than added weight to have to carry around. Unless there's an immediate AND constant benefit to him personally, that device is going to be traded to whoever happens to have what the homeless guy needs at the time, be it a sandwich, a new pair of pants, a new shoe, a blanket, whatever.
You would be surprised what some homeless won't do for money.
Again, you're presuming people are seriously more desperate than they typically are. However, your example is almost meaningless. How many home-having people wouldn't trade their shirt for $50 and a bottle of vodka? I mean, unless you're wearing a crazy expensive-to-replace shirt, it's an incredibly good deal.
that device is going to be traded to whoever happens to have what the homeless guy needs at the time, be it a sandwich, a new pair of pants, a new shoe, a blanket, whatever.
Again... people are not THAT desperate. Being homeless doesn't make you retarded (although, sometimes the converse however is somewhat more likely), and it doesn't make you exceedingly desperate. Homeless people will not trade a good that they've been given unless it is a substantial trade that benefits them. At that point, who is going to make that trade?
Just think of it this way. No matter how much you give the homeless person for the hotspot, you're not going to make them not-homeless anymore. So, why should they feel justified in just giving it away to you? Seriously, homeless people do have morals just like the rest of us. They're not petty scavengers who will do anything for a buck. (Some are, but not all of them.)
The hotspot can get them tips. Hell, I've heard that people are expected to tip Sonic waiters, and all they do is carry your food from the counter to your car...
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
I'm "arrogant" for stating my opinion on a message board soliciting comments. That's interesting, since you seem to have a lot of strong opinions on much of the world and existence. You also seem unable to do so without calling people names, so I guess I got off easy in your comment policing.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Phillip K. Dick might not have come up with this idea, but it certainly would be worthy of him.
Most evangelicals end up being on the right; part of thinking that all men are fallen and naturally evil is thinking that government isnt the solution to all problems and is itself subject to our corrupting influence.
It also doesnt help that the left generally aligns itself with the pro-abortion side of things, while most evangelicals tend to be distinctly anti-abortion, and see it as an issue of utmost importance.