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Topic: Marketing Agency Uses Homeless As Wi-Fi Hotspots (Read 4782 times)

legendary
Activity: 3598
Merit: 2386
Viva Ut Vivas
November 07, 2014, 09:14:23 AM
#28
Create a mobile Bitcoin wifi app that you can put on a cheap phone.

Charge bitcoins for wireless access and anyone, including the homeless can make money as a node.
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1047
Your country may be your worst enemy
Just in case nobody noticed, this topic is 2 years old.

Time to make better the concept now. How about giving a homeless $5 for being a free WiFi hotspot for a day? He will just have to spend a day in a public place.
vip
Activity: 1428
Merit: 1145
This is really intriguing! About two years ago, a questionable test was run at Austin, Texas' South by Southwest festival last year, called “Homeless Hotspots.” A marketing business gave a number of homeless people mobile wireless hotspots, which people could use for a recommended donation and compensated them for doing it. It brought on controversy as people cried “exploitation,” but 11 of 13 participants were able to get off the roads with the money it made.Do you think it is a form of exploitation or are these people trying to help the homeless and increase awareness?


Clever little bastard, aren't you, hanna?

I see you've done the same over here: https://forums.butterflylabs.com/off-topic/4630-who-lives-florida.html#post66095

Via Google, it looks like you travel East to West and West to East, jetsetting the globe one website at a time. Do you ever get tired?
newbie
Activity: 1
Merit: 0
This is really intriguing! About two years ago, a questionable test was run at Austin, Texas' South by Southwest festival last year, called “Homeless Hotspots.” A marketing business gave a number of homeless people mobile wireless hotspots, which people could use for a recommended donation and compensated them for doing it. It brought on controversy as people cried “exploitation,” but 11 of 13 participants were able to get off the roads with the money it made.Do you think it is a form of exploitation or are these people trying to help the homeless and increase awareness?
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
The Verge had a very good take on this:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/13/2866786/homeless-hotspots-sxsw-bbh-smartest-dumbest-idea

And no, I don't think Bitcoin should be advertised with homeless people.

I just about 1,000% agree with you that Bitcoin should not be advertised via the homeless. That said, it's now a given that advertisers do recognize a POV by using (not a negative connotation) the homeless. I do advocate though that Bitcoin should somehow take part in this lucrative, previously untapped resource.

~Bruno~
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.

Because they have the least chance to make money.

(Except the ones in Laguna Beach, CA which can make upwords of $100 a day just begging to tourists, which they throw away on alcohol nightly. The $100, not the tourists.)

Many moons ago, when I use to deliver pizza to a beach island resort on the east coast, I met a bum at a gas station an gave him some change. Months later I did a pizza run to beachfront home ($400-800k area) and met the same bum. He invited me in as he when to get money. All I see are piles of bags and rolls of change from the door to the kitchen and to the living room. He paid me in change.
Nim
member
Activity: 67
Merit: 10
The Verge had a very good take on this:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/13/2866786/homeless-hotspots-sxsw-bbh-smartest-dumbest-idea

And no, I don't think Bitcoin should be advertised with homeless people.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Homeless in America Solved

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States
Quote
The United States government determined that somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 Americans were then homeless.

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#numcong
Quote
Hartford Institute estimates there are roughly 335,000 religious congregations in the United States.

I've done the math so you don't have to. If every US religious organization took in only 2 (max) homeless people, this issue would be solved in a week.

I now ask: Who's working on this?

~Bruno~
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Hero VIP ultra official trusted super staff puppet
Been to Laguna Beach lately? Throw away as many tourists as you want, there will be more in the morning.

Not lately. I lived there and managed some retail businesses there in the last decade though.
sr. member
Activity: 574
Merit: 250
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.

Because they have the least chance to make money.

(Except the ones in Laguna Beach, CA which can make upwords of $100 a day just begging to tourists, which they throw away on alcohol nightly. The $100, not the tourists.)

Been to Laguna Beach lately? Throw away as many tourists as you want, there will be more in the morning.
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Hero VIP ultra official trusted super staff puppet
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.

Because they have the least chance to make money.

(Except the ones in Laguna Beach, CA which can make upwords of $100 a day just begging to tourists, which they throw away on alcohol nightly. The $100, not the tourists.)
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.

I would imagine anyone can take it. It's just that homeless people just happen to be the ones that have the most free time and gain the most marginal value from money. And there is no such thing as a "normal worker"; each job has its own required set of skills and its own supply/demand curve so you can't really say one kind of work is more exploitative than another.

Take a moment to view this video. Perhaps you, the reader, will gain a different perspective on this important issue. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1503882449001/homeless-turned-into-4g-hotspots

~Bruno~
sr. member
Activity: 330
Merit: 397
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.

I would imagine anyone can take it. It's just that homeless people just happen to be the ones that have the most free time and gain the most marginal value from money. And there is no such thing as a "normal worker"; each job has its own required set of skills and its own supply/demand curve so you can't really say one kind of work is more exploitative than another.
hero member
Activity: 529
Merit: 500
Why does this job need to be given only to homeless people? If they are paid less than a normal worker would be (and they are, since they aren't paid anything at all), I'd say this is profiteering off the poor.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
thats a great idea. Do the homeless make any money from this or just the organization?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/13/homeless-people-turned-into-walking-wifi-hotspots-in-charitable-experiment/

Quote
"I'd do it in a second. Out of every 20 people who sit down at my stand, at least six are on their iPhone or their BlackBerry or something trying to get Internet. I see it as a business opportunity. And you're giving me a shirt, too? I have no problem with it."

You know that this brings a whole new meaning to B2P. Maybe B2N: Bum 2 Net.

Please don't tell me that Homeless people are smarter than we are:


Text 1Danny1 to bitcoin Danny 1 BTC. (used as a verb)
newbie
Activity: 49
Merit: 0
thats a great idea. Do the homeless make any money from this or just the organization?
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Quote
you images depict a bubble if all bums did that lol

Bubble, hell! Up, up, up! Like a rocket. Look at pic again.

As you can clearly see in the bell curve, the tipping point for Bitcoin occurs when companies start advertising on the Homeless.



~Bruno~
hero member
Activity: 980
Merit: 506
Quote
Wow....now let's get some bums to advertise bitcoin! lol

Duh! Sure as hell wasn't twunkin' 'bout "coinvertising" (thought you'll like) them delicious Girl Scouts cookies (price increased to $.20 USD per cookie this year).

To make it truly more profitable for these less fortunate souls, they can put their FirstBit addresses on their signs, thereby allowing them to amass a nest egg for their retirement.

They can go from this:



To this:



In the matter of a couple short years, all thanks to Bitcoin.

~Bruno~


you images depict a bubble if all bums did that lol
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Quote
Wow....now let's get some bums to advertise bitcoin! lol

Duh! Sure as hell wasn't twunkin' 'bout "coinvertising" (thought you'll like) them delicious Girl Scouts cookies (price increased to $.20 USD per cookie this year).

To make it truly more profitable for these less fortunate souls, they can put their FirstBit addresses on their signs, thereby allowing them to amass a nest egg for their retirement.

They can go from this:



To this:



In the matter of a couple short years, all thanks to Bitcoin.

~Bruno~
hero member
Activity: 980
Merit: 506
Boy, did I have an excellent idea after viewing this: http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html

Then discovered that one of Matthew's cousin already stole the idea from me: http://www.bumvertising.com/

Therefore, I needed to brainfart a hybrid idea.

1. Normal Bum Sign
2. Ad Sign
3. Free WiFi Hotspot
4. Rinse/Repeat
5. Profit



Wow....now let's get some bums to advertise bitcoin! lol
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