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Homeless People As Wifi Hotspots
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status:
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
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As it's been depicted on TV, I think it's great.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status:
Offline
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I can't decide how practical it is. Surely homeless people will just pawn the equipment for food? Or get robbed for it?
That aside, its certainly an ingeniously novel idea.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: South Korea
Status:
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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If the people being paid to do advertising with the portable hot spots were being paid to wear sandwich boards advertising a local restaurant, would there be an uproar? I don't think so. In fact, the advertiser is working with an Austin homeless resource center to find the folks doing this, and I think it's a good thing for them. The money DOES go the the homeless people doing the work.
The old idea of "homeless" equaling destitute and decrepit is laughably false today. Lots of people lost their homes and jobs without losing their dignity, let alone their humanity. And the people hired for this task are hardly the folks you'll see at freeway underpasses panhandling, competing with each other to see who can look the worst. They are working in a very public place (that already had plenty of extra security because of the SXSW crowds anyway), they are screened for reliability, and they are interested in doing this job. The furor is a whole lot of hyperventilation over nothing that warrants it.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: May 2001
Status:
Offline
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Are the advertising 'Bum Fights'?
You can now watch Bum Fights on our 4G hotspot.
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Bush Tax Cuts == Job Killer
June 2001: 132,047,000 employed
June 2003: 129,839,000 employed
2.21 million jobs were LOST after 2 years of Bush Tax Cuts.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Netherlands
Status:
Offline
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I still don't understand the model well enough..
An agency equips a homeless with a wifi accesspoint. But how does the homeless make money?
1-By selling a voucher with a code and keep (part of) the earnings?
2-Do they get their pay from the agency afterwards?
3-They get no pay at all
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{Animated sigs are not allowed.}
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: South Korea
Status:
Offline
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If the company can discover a way of converting the homeless into biofuel, they could use some of the profits to instal wifi routers at certain strategically chosen locations and thereby completely circumvent the controversy.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
Status:
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Netherlands
Status:
Offline
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If they can keep (part of) the earnings I have no problem with this model. It makes them work for a living, by doing honest work that is easy to master. And as the article claims, they do get into positive contact with more fortuned people, which can only be a good thing.
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{Animated sigs are not allowed.}
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Back in the Good Ole US of A
Status:
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I don't understand how anyone could oppose this. What if the homeless person were to get a job as a mobile hotspot? Wouldn't that be a good thing?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status:
Offline
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I heard about it on the radio. Apparently not only did they apply for the job, but they're getting paid in addition to any donations or tips people give them to use the wireless. So I don't see any problem with it. Some would argue that they're exploiting the image of homeless people to sell a product, but how is that different than exploiting women to sell clothes and makeup?
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
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They get $20 and a free 4G hotspot (for the duration of their contract).
Cue some retarded liberal whining about living wage.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Status:
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Soylent Hotspots ARE PEOPLE.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
Status:
Offline
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Who says you need an address to have a cell phone? There are plenty of very low cost options for cell phones. Not smart phones, but not Jitterbug phones, either.
I think the issue is more about the wording on the shirts ("I am a hotspot") than the actual situation.
The people selling access get a fee AND the proceeds, so they have an incentive to sign up lots of people. This is called a "commission" anywhere else.
Why does the press (and some people here) act like "homeless" implies "drunk/druggie with poor sanitation and an evil mind"? The people working on this are out of work, not "untouchables".
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2013
Status:
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This is a good idea but not safe for the users. Furthermore, a debatable test was run at Austin, Texas' South by Southwest festival last year, called “Homeless Hotspots.” A marketing business gave numerous homeless people mobile wireless hotspots, which people could use for a suggested donation and paid them for doing it. It caused controversy as people cried “exploitation,” but 11 of 13 participants were able to get off the roads with the cash it made.
(
Last edited by Thorzdad; Apr 29, 2013 at 09:43 AM.
Reason: removed link to payday loan site)
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
Status:
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: 46 & 2
Status:
Offline
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If they made enough $$ to get off the streets, then they'd no longer be homeless... would they then lose their jobs?
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by Shaddim
If they made enough $$ to get off the streets, then they'd no longer be homeless... would they then lose their jobs?
The skill is to find that magic $$ number that keeps them happy, but still ON the street ;-)
-t
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: 46 & 2
Status:
Offline
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Ahh, the so-called "happy homeless", I can't say I've met many of those.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by Shaddim
Ahh, the so-called "happy homeless", I can't say I've met many of those.
Because right now, they don't enjoy free WiFi whereever they go
-t
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