Blisstunes

Homeless People Are Being Used as WiFi Hotspots at SXSW...

'Politically correct' wouldn't be the first association that springs to mind here, but organizers say this is helping homeless people.  And there they are, floating among the crowds at SXSW. Homeless people who are actually doubling as WiFi hotspots, a strange solution to an annual bandwidth crunch in Austin.

It's a program called 'Homeless Hotspots,' a controversial 'charitable experiment' concocted by marketing firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty.  Homeless Hotspots works like this: a homeless person is equipped with a 4G MiFi device, which becomes pay-per-use hub for bandwidth desperate SXSWi attendees.  A homeless man named 'Dusty' would wear a shirt that says the following:

Actually, there is a guy named Dusty in the program, and you might bump into him on the street.  And it sounds like he really, really needs the money.  So if you want to connect to his WiFi, the group asks that you make a donation via PayPal through his page (they recommend $2 for 15 minutes).  The page looks like this:

Actually, it sounds like everyone stands to gain here.  BBH partnered with the Front Steps Shelter to create something loosely modeled after street newspapers, which attempts to empower homeless people by having them create and sell newspapers on urban streets.  "We are doing this because we believe in the model of street newspapers," the group relayed.

Here are others in the program.

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  ricky Bautista
  Monday, March 12, 2012

  Airports-20 minutes free wifi

  Mcdonalds- Free Wifi water!!

  Starbucks- Free wifi water!!

  Tacobell- $.11 cents for water... those mofos

   

  As musicians we are cheap!

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