"building empathy through first-hand perspective," reinventing 'documentary'

Extreme Living: Techy Hipsters Want To Help Solve Homelessness By Strapping Electronics Onto Distressed Human Beings

by Abby Zimet

Dubbed an experiment in "building empathy through first-hand perspective," a Silicon Valley  “entrepreneur and sociologist passionate about our common humanity" has begun Homeless GoPro, wherein a $300 camera usually used for filming extreme sports is strapped onto poor people on the streets to record their own rugged outdoor sport of having no home, on the app-and-other-gizmo-happy premise that the only way for well-meaning people who have homes to understand that reality is to livestream it, even though they argue that in fact technology has created the same empathy gap they are now trying to address with more technology, but okay. 

The project by Kevin Adler follows in the wake of earlier, much-lampooned efforts by the tech community that include creating homeless hot spots, providing homeless bitcoin, and teaching the homeless tocode, albeit on the street because they still don't have a roof under which to practise their new skill set. Homeless GoPro is working with Adam Reichart, a longtime homeless man who "has had his share of tough breaks and losses," but says the young GoProteam are "decent people," even if they do say things like technology provides the "opportunity to elevate our digital communities into our reality (and) our actions into greatness." Before we achieve greatness, alas, problems remain. For the poor and homeless in the Bay Area and elsewhere, they too often include a lack of shelter, shower, food, clothes, mailing address, job prospects and, as a result of those lacks, dignity and hope. To help with any or all of those worthy causes, go here or here or here or here.

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2014/04/17

Homeless GoPro outfits homeless volunteers with 
donated high-definition personal cameras, which 
they use to capture the world as they see it.

http://www.homelessgopro.com/