It is SXSW time again, and if we get interested about the event because it is about music, we can’t ignore it is also about technology. The Austin festival attracts tons of people, and it can become a real challenge for them to get a connection in this media-hungry crowd.
The marketing firm BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty) got an idea and launched a campaign with Austin homeless advocacy group Front Steps: They have equipped homeless men as ‘Homeless hotspots’, and let them hang around the conference center, while wearing t-shirts saying ‘I’m ……., a 4G hotspot’. These men are in fact carrying a wireless internet device and are offering to anyone an access to the Internet in exchange of a PayPal donation.
And this turned out to be a big controversy! New York Times’ David Gallagher called the plan ‘a little dystopian’, ReadWriteWeb's Jon Mitchell said that ‘The digital divide has never hit us over the head with a more blunt display of unselfconscious gall’, Content Magazine editor Erin Kissane tweeted ‘Last thought before sleeping: the difference between 'I'm running a hotspot' and 'I am a hotspot' is a difference that matters’, and many called it a dehumanizing idea,….
But Saneel Radia, the Head of BBH, has defended the idea:
‘The worry is that these people are suddenly just hardware, but frankly, I wouldn't have done this if i didn't believe otherwise, we're very open to this criticism.’
‘We have very few tools to help homeless, and one is rooted in print media. The printed media just seems outdated — the basic model seems to work. The street news model is very well praised by homeless organizations.’
He added they wanted to help the homeless during SXSW, ‘to reinvent the newspaper model’, to modernize it, as the most important thing in this story is that these homeless men actually own this small business during SXSW time, and the money they receive from people ($2 per 15 minutes are suggested) directly goes to them.
So what’s wrong with that? It seems like a wonderful thing, why are these SXSW people so attached to semantics? I’m a hotspot, I’m running a hotspot, at the end, does it matter for this homeless guy as along as he can make money? I am aware it is a temporary help, but it is better that nothing.
I have never been to SXSW but I bet it is full of bloggers, celebrity stalkers, Indie kids, groupies looking for attention, people obsessed by gadgets and apps,… What have these SXSW snobs ever done for the homeless?
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