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‘Homeless Hotspots’ at SXSW stir controversy

The South by Southwest Music, Film + Interactive Festival has taken over Austin, Texas with lots of innovative ideas. But not all of those are being welcomed with open arms.

A major public outcry has begun against Homeless Hotspots, a program that turns homeless people into access points for 4G service at the festival.


As Wired reports, 13 homeless people in Austin's downtown were given t-shirts by BBH Labs that read "I'M [FIRST NAME], A 4G HOTSPOT. SMS HH [FIRST NAME] TO 25827 FOR ACCESS. www.homelesshotspots.org." As visitors to the interactive part of SXSW meet these Homeless Hotspots managers, they can access the hotspot by donating to the individual's PayPal account, accessible through the Homeless Hotspots website or via text. The website recommends a donation of $2 for every 15 minutes of access, but the program is purely "pay-what-you-want."

Each of the participants, found through the Front Steps Shelter in Austin, is carrying a MiFi device which creates a mobile hotspot.

BBH Labs says in their blogpost that the project was an attempt to modernize the street newspaper, papers sold by the homeless as a means to support themselves and spread awareness about homelessness. They go on to say this is a way to modernize the street newspaper in the age of smartphones.

Yet the criticism against the project has been swift and vocal. The New York Times called the project "a little dystopian." The most frequent question amongst bloggers and Twitter users, though, seems to be why the t-shirts read "I am a hotspot" rather than "I manage a 4G hotspot" or "ask me to access a 4G hotspot," effectively dehumanizing the participants in the project.

BBH Labs has defended the project on their blog, saying that the Hotspot Managers keep the money they earn, which effectively encourages the participants to sell more in order to earn more (depending on how generous the users are, of course). They also say that this is only a brief test program, not meant as a long-term project.

BBH Labs acknowledges that it removes the content creation opportunities that print street newspapers provide, but say that they would be open to seeing iterations of this project that allow the homeless to share their stories, too. BBH Labs ran a project to just such an end last year called Underheard in NY, which gave four homeless individuals cell phones to let them tweet about their experiences.

What are your thoughts on this project, Right Click readers?