February 28, 2008
SF Homeless are Cooler Than the Homeless in Other Cities
When first reading the headline, "Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail" on our Digg feed, we didn't get it. Why the heck would the homeless want free voicemail? Aren't there more vital things the homeless need?
Perhaps in our over-cellular phone'd society, we overlooked the importance of having a way for people to reach us. Google recognized the need for the homeless to have some connection to loved ones and plan to do something about it. According to the Chron:
Internet giant Google announced on Wednesday a plan to partner with all the homeless shelters in San Francisco and offer free phone numbers and voice mail accounts to homeless individuals, giving people the ability to distribute their own phone numbers and retrieve voice mail messages left for them whenever and from wherever they choose.
The plan is to help those who are homeless get back on their feet by giving potential employers and family a way to reach them and get their life on track. Hopefully, this'll be a way to get them started.
Photo by Ohad*.
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People have been giving the homeless free voicemail for decades. Some of them must have 5 or 6 accounts by now.
lotta good it'll do, without any payphones.
Ha! rageahol beat me to it!
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9827860-7.html
Hope the public library gets some skype phones so the homeless can check their email and voicemail at the same time!
where is the delicious specimen of a phone booth shown in the photo located?
i need to make a call.
Why should Goggle get all of the credit?
Glide Memorial Church has been giving free voice-mail for a while.
I think they need new accounts pretty often. Their inboxes get filled up with messages like "Take your meds!" and "Get off my steps!".