Comment 1
Comment 2
References:
Title: Exploring Mobile Technologies for the Urban Homeless
Author: Christopher A. Le Dantec
Venue: CHI EA 2010, April 10-15, 2010
Summary:
In this paper, Le Dantec describes a study he performed to examine the effects of technology on the homeless. He executed two studies: one on the homeless directly and another on nonprofit agencies that assist them. From his studies of the homeless, he determined that technology made for the homeless doesn't only need to be designed cheaper; it also needs to be designed specially for them. From his second study, he discovered that nonprofit organizations had trouble keeping stable workforces because of their volunteer nature as well as how they needed to be tailored to their environments. Finally, he describes a system he is building utilizing smartphones called the Community Resource Map that should help the homeless find shelters, soup kitchens, and other services that can help them in their daily lives.Discussion:
I'm not really sure how to feel about this paper. On one hand, it is important to bring technology to all people, regardless of status; however, as of now his method using smartphones seems impractical given that most homeless wouldn't be able to afford such devices.This isn't to say that in another 10 years this design would be feasible, but I just feel that there is probably a better answer that could be implemented sooner.
Additionally, I am curious about the methodology of Le Dantec's studies, as they are never really mentioned at all outside of their results. I would assume this is because of limited space, but it would have lent credibility to the paper if we could have seen how these conclusions were found.
(Image courtesy of The New Digital Divide)
This is an interesting idea, but I also wonder when we could actually put such a thing into practice. I especially like the idea of the Community Resource Map, but maybe rather than developing it for phones they could set up and maintain several displays throughout the city to help get the word out, because as of now I can't see the benefits of the smart phones outweighing the cost when there are more important things to spend the money on.
ReplyDeleteYeh I thought the CRM was cool too. I have to question the author though and how he did his ehtnographical fieldwork, I wonder if he became homeless for a while.
ReplyDeletehttp://ledantec.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Massimi-Dimond-LeDantec-CSCW12.pdf
ReplyDeleteI found this article quite nicely sums up the strengths found in Le Dantec's final research published after that article- which I think was to serve more of a preliminary study.
I guess a huge benefit to being without a home and having a phone (over just displaying information around the city) is the additional feeling of connectedness and the idea of being able to actively seek information rather than the feeling that it has to passively find you.
Quite empowering.
As a public policy though I can already hear the outcries of "but they'll just sell smart phones for drugs, they'll just use the phones to call dealers blah blah blah", when most homeless people are not substance abusers and even the ones who are, a phone means you source your goods quicker and have time to do something else with your day! The people who complain about "why can't they just get a job and pull themselves together?" think about it this way- when do they have the time for that? They are spending all day looking to source their fixes, get food, find warm places etc. all things a phone could help quicken.
Considering the rapidity people go through phones nowadays, the constant upgrading, the old phones we have lying around. Why not a charity initiative dedicated to distributing old smart phones phones to homeless?
potential implications of phones-to-homeless initiative= closing the gap of social distance between "the homeless class" and "homed classes", have a permanent contact for employers to get in touch, shelters reach out easier, sharing of information about dry, warm areas etc.