Homeless people to be hot spot

 

An “experiment” which involved using homeless people as mobile wi-fi hotspots has attracted criticism, forcing the advertising agency behind it to defend itself.

A division of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) equipped 13 homeless people with 4G wifi devices in Austin, Texas.

It suggested the public pay $2 (£1.30) for 15 minutes access to the net.

Comments posted to the BBH’s site accused the project of being “unseemly” and “wrong”.

Members of Twitter asked “what has this world come to?” and accused the project of being a “gimmick”.

However, others praised the idea as being “inspirational” and a chance to create a “positive interaction between the public” and homeless people.

The firm noted that its project had raised the issue of homelessness at the South by Southwest tech festival which it had been timed to coincide with. It also noted that each of the “hotspot managers” would keep the money that they earned.

The firm had earlier pitched the idea as being a modern take on street newspapers such as the Big Issue. It said many people would “buy” a paper but never take it.

“The model isn’t inherently broken, It’s simply the output that’s archaic in the smartphone age,” it reasoned.

Instead it proposed users buy 4G net access from a homeless person, spending what they wanted via a Paypal link so that the firm could track finances. It described the move as a “beta test” which might later be “adopted on a broader scale”.

The Bis Issue

John Bird, co-founder of The Big Issue, expressed mixed feelings about the project.

“If all BBH are doing is turning these people into an aerial and asking them to stand still then they are just treating homeless people the same way the Victorians did when they asked them to hold posters,” he told reporters.

“But if BBH is honest about the idea that this could ultimately lead to them becoming content creators providing material to a platform, then that’s different – but the jury is still out.”