![]() ![]() I have previously detailed my personal story on my personal blog,, and introduced my situation to a wider readership with my ApHopes & Fears article, “Trapped in the Kafka-esque Revolving Door of the NYC Shelter System.” 3 Briefly, I have been unable to find work due to a mixture of overqualification, including a master’s degree in a liberal arts field, and a serious physical challenge (excruciating pain in standing in my lower back, legs and feet, that gets progressively worse resulting in spasms and falls the more I stand as well as shooting pain when sitting in a confined space such as a car for long periods, and overactive bladder as the result of scoliosis, multiple herniated discs, sciatica, and plantar fasciitis) that the Social Security Administration does not consider a disability because I can work a desk job, in spite of a lack of interviews (0.3987% of my applications resulted in interviews prior to my hire on August 17, 2015). Recently I turned in a job search log to my case manager detailing the 289 jobs to which I had applied since my most recent layoff on June 3, 2016, prior to which position I had applied for 3,010 jobs. I have been a resident of the New York City Shelter system since May 25, 2012. I’d like to use my personal story to demonstrate the problems with the internet access options available to help the homeless, when digital access is a seriously important commodity for job searching and, one hopes, and ending personal homelessness. Unfortunately, Bartle Bogle Hegarty Labs’ initiative exemplifies the all-too familiar disconnect of projects and programs to help homeless with the actual resources that the homeless need. Part of the problem was that many of the homeless participants did not have the mobile tools to use the Wi-Fi hotspots for themselves. 1 There are numerous issues with BBH Labs’ use of the homeless people, as documented most caustically by Tim Carmody in Wired, 2 who wrote that they were essentially walking billboards for the company on a mere donation basis. ← index Arachne Cyberspace Without Living Space Scott Andrew Hutchinsīartle Bogle Hegarty Labs outraged the mainstream press with its 2012 experiment at the Austin, Texas, South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festival in which it equipped homeless people with portable Wi-Fi hotspots on T-shirts.
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