Homeless people used as Wi-Fi hot spots at SXSW

As Wired points out, this publicity stunt sounds like "something out of a darkly satirical science-fiction dystopia".

Marketing agency BBH Labs is drawing the scorn of the normally-panhandler-ignoring Internet for its "charitable experiment" called Homeless Hotspots at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.

According to the New York Times, BBH thought it was a good idea to pay homeless people US$20 a day and outfit them with Wi-Fi devices and T-shirts bearing text like "I’m Clarence, a 4G Hotspot". Wireless addicts could make a donation in exchange for Internet access.

ReadWriteWeb hits the nail on the head:

Honestly, anyone worried enough about connectivity at SXSW enough to pay someone on the street for it has a longer list of problems than first-world guilt. But this conference is so hugely, expensively over the top as a monument to the privilege of Internet access that I didn't think it could top itself. It just did.

If you follow lots of social-media types on Twitter, you've probably been annoyed by #SXSW tweets since the conference got underway on March 9. Thankfully, it wraps up today (March 13).

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.