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Homeless hotspots

By Rosie Perera | March 13, 2012 at 11:30 pm

There’s a bit of controversy surrounding this idea that a marketing firm had of turning homeless people into wireless hotspots during the SXSW technology conference in Austin. They go around selling wi-fi access to attendees of the conference, techies who can’t stand to be away from the Internet.


[Image source: The Daily What]

Some folks think it’s exploitation of the homeless:
Forbes
FOX News
ReadWriteWeb

Others think it’s a pretty good idea, better than the alternatives, etc:
CNN
Mashable
The Verge

Others have looked at “the homeless cloud” from both sides now (apologies to Joni Mitchell):
NPR
Vancouver Sun

I think it’s brilliant. Perhaps not as well executed as it could have been, but it sounds like the people involved as mobile hotspots enjoyed it and felt honored to be part of this experiment. I hope it gets tried again.

What do you think?

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