What do you think of the recent controversy over the SXSW using the homeless as wi-fi hotspots? For the March weekend of the SXSW Interactive Festival, homeless individuals were paid at least $50 a day for a minimum of 5-6 hours of work. The program generated outrage for objectifiying the homeless as something less than human, but not everyone agrees with that. Where do you stand?
Was BBH Labs experiment perfect? No, but we should applaud them for trying something new in a population that is so difficult to garner support for. People like opening their wallets when they see kids who are suffering. However, they don’t when it is for something like homelessness, mental illness, or adults with disabilities. People have misconceptions that for a person to become homeless they have done something wrong and that is far from the truth in many cases
Debra R. Borys 