Homeless Hotspots

Now heres a real interesting intersection of computers and society. On one hand, we have 4g network devices that are quite useful in today's world where people constantly want to be connected to the web. On the other, we have a group of individuals that live without income on the streets, the homeless. What happens if you put the 4g devices in the hands of these individuals? You get the homeless hotspots experiment.

This 'initiative' (I personally would call it an experiment) is funded by BBH New York, an advertising agency. They are trying to "modernize the street newspapers model employed to support homeless populations".

The idea is to have the homeless provide a service that's always in demand in today's tech savvy world. So instead of begging for change, the ones with these devices can charge (a recommended) $2 / 15 min, although the customers are allowed to pay as much or as little as they want. For those that do not have cash on hand, the website facilitates payment through paypal and all proceeds will go to the respective person providing the 4g hotspot. 

I really like this sort of experiment. We are always constantly checking our tweets, messages, emails as often as we can and this provides a way for those without 3g or 4g a service they want, and can help the homeless at the same time. 

There are thus far, 13 participants that have been enlisted in this experiment (as of this post). The experiment is taking place in Austin near the SXSW convention center.

My thoughts on Don Tapscott's 2nd point

First, the article.

His second point talks about the remodeling of the music recording industry. With the advent of the internet, digital distribution is among us. The music industry, however refuses to change and "Instead of clinging to late-20th-century distribution technologies, like the digital disk and the downloaded file, the music business should move into the 21st century with a revamped business model that converts music from a product to a service."

Don notes certain services like Spotify.

Spotify is a cloud music service that provides unlimited access to any song they provide, legally. Spotify enlists artists and they get paid depending on how many times their songs are streamed. There are currently two models to use Spotify, free-by-ads and pay per month. Rdio provides a similar service for Canadians.

Spotify and Rdio are the perfect examples of how the music industry should embrace digital distribution. Rather than fight the consumers, work with them and give them a medium that is easily accessible and directly contests with piracy, because from my experience many people pirate out of ease of access (of course that may not be the only reason but is a big part of it). Spotify and Rdio provides that ease of access for a very minor fee.

Spotify helped increase digital revenues for the music industry by 36 percent. Learn a lesson from this and they will prosper.

I personally have used the free-by-ads version and cannot recommend the service enough. You have unlimited songs at your fingertip, with the ads being very infrequent. The one downside is you need a constant internet connection, however that downside is removed if you subscribe to pay per month.