5 ms·

I like the idea, but it kind of feels like taking advantage of the homeless. Sure, some money is better than none, but only five bucks for a 5-minute interview?

by atgm 16y ago

I like the idea, but it kind of feels like taking advantage of the homeless. Sure, some money is better than none, but only five bucks for a 5-minute interview? It almost feels demeaning.

amock 16y ago
$1/minute is $60/hour, which isn't bad. People work on Mechanical Turk for a few cents per minute.
- warrenwilkinson 16y ago
  Actually, I also thought the $1 per hour thing sounded low until you wrote it's $60/hour --- a fantastic rate. Funny how numbers play on your senses...
- burgerbrain 16y ago
  Or think about it this way: buy me a pizza, and I'll talk to you for as long as it takes me to eat it. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
evansolomon 16y ago
I'd gladly accept $1/minute to do interviews (probably less if I actually thought about it, but $1 is a no brainer).
liedra 16y ago
I have to agree with you. There's a whole area of study when it comes to research ethics and vulnerable people. Especially when you start publishing such interviews to the internet. It also bothered me that the project owner mentioned that it was for our "entertainment", which is just awful. Noone should ever be our entertainment by societal position alone. One of the highest ethical principles is of human dignity, and this project strips that away from these vulnerable people.
marcamillion 16y ago
It can seem that way on the surface, but remember that the person receiving the money can also donate it to charity - if they so desire. Not all the interviews will be of homeless people - but many will. The intent really wasn't demeaning - in the sense that homeless people are going to be taken advantage of, for 'your' entertainmment. More, I am really interested in the stories of homeless people - for instance, look at what happened with the homeless guy with the golden radio voice - and rather than just interviewing them, why not compensate them (fairly, as someone else pointed out, $60/hr isn't a bad wage) for their time. Disclaimer: I am not doing the interviews, however the guy doing it is a friend of mine, so I am kinda close to the project.
- liedra 16y ago
  I'm sure the intent wasn't to be demeaning, but surely you can just go down and talk to people, if you're interested in this sort of thing? Do you have to video them and publish them to the world? My recommendation would be to interview them, but then anonymise and write them up as a series of blog entries rather than have a series of published videos.
  - marcamillion 16y ago
    I hear you liedra, but I respectfully disagree. I am sure there are many others that would be interested in learning their stories too. Who knows, maybe one of them might go viral and it can change their lives. Who knows? It would be kinda selfish to hear their stories and not share them, don't you think?
    - liedra 16y ago
      Sure! This is why I suggested writing them up :) But I think it's also very important to respect the people you're interviewing. They're a vulnerable group for a reason, and you need to take particular care with vulnerable people. Here are some useful articles on the subject: * http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_sciences/report-60656.html http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_scienc... (homeless young people suggest that offering cash incentives is not a good way to go about research) * http://www.homelesshub.ca/(S(yoldjoie4yd15x45fir1sn3t))/Resource/Print.aspx?id=48837&g=printtopic&t=2147483647&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 http://www.homelesshub.ca/(S(yoldjoie4yd15x45fir1sn3t))/Reso... (a set of research guidelines for dealing with homeless people) If you really want to help homeless people out, share their stories, and contribute to improving their quality of life, you should respect that there are some serious ethical principles that you need to be aware of and keep in mind. Otherwise, all you're doing is "entertainment".

by atgm 16y ago

I like the idea, but it kind of feels like taking advantage of the homeless. Sure, some money is better than none, but only five bucks for a 5-minute interview? It almost feels demeaning.

amock 16y ago

$1/minute is $60/hour, which isn't bad. People work on Mechanical Turk for a few cents per minute.

warrenwilkinson 16y ago
Actually, I also thought the $1 per hour thing sounded low until you wrote it's $60/hour --- a fantastic rate. Funny how numbers play on your senses...
burgerbrain 16y ago
Or think about it this way: buy me a pizza, and I'll talk to you for as long as it takes me to eat it. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

evansolomon 16y ago

I'd gladly accept $1/minute to do interviews (probably less if I actually thought about it, but $1 is a no brainer).

liedra 16y ago

I have to agree with you. There's a whole area of study when it comes to research ethics and vulnerable people. Especially when you start publishing such interviews to the internet. It also bothered me that the project owner mentioned that it was for our "entertainment", which is just awful. Noone should ever be our entertainment by societal position alone. One of the highest ethical principles is of human dignity, and this project strips that away from these vulnerable people.

marcamillion 16y ago

It can seem that way on the surface, but remember that the person receiving the money can also donate it to charity - if they so desire. Not all the interviews will be of homeless people - but many will. The intent really wasn't demeaning - in the sense that homeless people are going to be taken advantage of, for 'your' entertainmment. More, I am really interested in the stories of homeless people - for instance, look at what happened with the homeless guy with the golden radio voice - and rather than just interviewing them, why not compensate them (fairly, as someone else pointed out, $60/hr isn't a bad wage) for their time. Disclaimer: I am not doing the interviews, however the guy doing it is a friend of mine, so I am kinda close to the project.

liedra 16y ago
I'm sure the intent wasn't to be demeaning, but surely you can just go down and talk to people, if you're interested in this sort of thing? Do you have to video them and publish them to the world? My recommendation would be to interview them, but then anonymise and write them up as a series of blog entries rather than have a series of published videos.
- marcamillion 16y ago
  I hear you liedra, but I respectfully disagree. I am sure there are many others that would be interested in learning their stories too. Who knows, maybe one of them might go viral and it can change their lives. Who knows? It would be kinda selfish to hear their stories and not share them, don't you think?
  - liedra 16y ago
    Sure! This is why I suggested writing them up :) But I think it's also very important to respect the people you're interviewing. They're a vulnerable group for a reason, and you need to take particular care with vulnerable people. Here are some useful articles on the subject: * http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_sciences/report-60656.html http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_scienc... (homeless young people suggest that offering cash incentives is not a good way to go about research) * http://www.homelesshub.ca/(S(yoldjoie4yd15x45fir1sn3t))/Resource/Print.aspx?id=48837&g=printtopic&t=2147483647&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 http://www.homelesshub.ca/(S(yoldjoie4yd15x45fir1sn3t))/Reso... (a set of research guidelines for dealing with homeless people) If you really want to help homeless people out, share their stories, and contribute to improving their quality of life, you should respect that there are some serious ethical principles that you need to be aware of and keep in mind. Otherwise, all you're doing is "entertainment".