As a Star Wars fan, I swear that one of my favorite moments was when I was walking through a street fair in Lima, Peru and saw a trash can that had been modified to look like R2D2. I know I have a picture of it *somewhere* but unfortunately we still need a way to create a search bar that sorts your photos and detects the objects/people you are looking for. Or perhaps I just need to go back through my collection and create a better organizational system.
Regardless, this image keeps popping into my mind whenever I think about the new proposal by a NYC waste collection company that is aiming to transform public garbage containers into wi-fi hot-spots. This is just another sign that we are in a digital age that is pushing each day closer to an open-access society. Of course, questions should be raised about what type of data may be collected or what types of advertisements present for the company to make revenue from their investment. I also hope that the signal is strong, because the image of folks cuddling up against trash cans to get a strong signal seems a bit rough in NY of all places. However, I really appreciate the benefits of this proposal on the city's residents and the millions of tourists that pass through each year. The use of public space would be further encouraged if individuals have wifi access on the city streets. A number of questions arise though. Would connection to these hotspots be automatic and seamless? For example, would someone riding a bus be able to continuously connect to each hotspot as they pass by, maintaining somewhat continuous access or just have short periods of access as the bus came to each stop?
I am excited to see how this turns out!
I concur with your wish of a photo file search!
ReplyDeleteThank you for telling us about the garbage can initiative. How interesting. Is the goal, like you said, to make the whole city "hot?"
Now I have to poke fun just a little at the concept. When you first mentioned the concept, I imagine a bunch of suits circled around a garbage can with their cell phones pointing in, like the old-time image of bums warming fingers in cut-out-gloves, circling a garbage can alit with flame.