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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."
The homeless person doesn't keep the money for the same reason that the cashier at McDonald's doesn't get to keep the money... The profits will be donated to a homeless shelter in Austin.
All homeless people are criminals? Part of this program is about raising awareness -- and clearly you could use some awareness raising....
maybe because you're making the unfounded assumption that homeless == dishonest.
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
For some strange reason, I really want one of those T-shirts.
Once all the homeless people are put in jail for the torrents that were shared on their hotspots, they won't be homeless anymore!
That's actually a very complex question with a variety of answers. Some people are homeless because they refuse to work within a system. Some are homeless because they're addicted to drugs and alcohol to such an extent that they have ruined their lives. Some because they have mental illness that prevents them from functioning clearly in the modern world. Some because they fell on hard times and had no safety net. For the last one, yeah, they'll be reasonable and try to work within the structure to maintain a roof over their head. The other three, not so much. And if you treat them like they just need a job and a home and 2.5 kids and a dog then you won't get the results you seek.
Ooo "risking capital". Forming a limited liability company is about the least risky venture on the planet. For no other activity can one compartmentalise and get into a spiral of debt or misbehaviour while minimising personal consqeuences for debt or tort. Shareholders are even luckier, "owning" the company and creaming the profit while having no obligation to pay debtors in the company folds.
I started a business with a few thousand dollars about a decade ago. Went well. Sold it. Least risky thing I've ever done. Even if I'd invested ten times as much and e.g. mortgaged my house as security, I'd still have more protections than the average worker whose *house and everything else* are risk if he can't find a job. Even though I was working up to 18 hour days, the material rewards for succeeding as a business owner... woohoo... incomparable to every other poor sod who has to work two jobs same hours yet will enjoy a fixed pittance.
Succeeding in business is easy. Building a humane society is hard.
This is the most exploitative, ignorant, inhuman scheme I've ever heard of.
Clearly you haven't travelled much or read any history.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
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!
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