serving our community since 1997
TEXT GIVELOVE to 85944 and reply YES to help us provide shelter $10 donation will be deducted from your phone bill Does not work with Metro PCS
www.HomelessVoice.org Helping the Homeless Help Themselves
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Don-8r the panhandling robot-could it really help the homeless? Kevin Fubar
Props to robot designers for finally coming out with stuff that can make a difference, not that robotic factory arms and mechanized food processing and and and… Whatever man, this thing is cute. It’s designed on the principle that many organizations depend on charitable contributions for their operating budgets. Usually it takes legions of volunteers to collect these donations, but in our modern world such tasks can be done with robots just as well. Not to mention that
people get annoyed with panhandlers. Enter DON-8r bot, designed by Tim Pryde. DON-8r is constructed from smooth plastic panels, it glides along the ground for a set length and then stops to ask passersby for donations. The coinage deposited into the slot on his back helps to power the bot, and he won’t roll on without the continued support from passersby. This little robotic panhandler is designed to be branded with any charity of choice. He says “ow” if he bumps into something and after receiving a
donation, says “thank you!” On one trip out he made $25. Tim Pryde is a student of the University of Dundee in Scotland in his final year. He teamed up with the Dundee Science Centre and produced this cute little bot to raise awareness for the center and to collect DON-8tions. People don’t seem to mind handing donations to a cute little robot, so don’t be surprised if you see one in your future.
iHobo app returns, adds social sharing and SMS donations to help support the homeless
Matt Brian To better connect with the issues, the app also iHobo, the iPhone application that puts “a homeless encourages users to name their homeless person. person in your pocket” has today returned to the App Building the focus on personalisation, Depaul UK Store, bringing with it features that help users better allows users to enter their details to contact them in understand the issues homeless people are suffering, the future, opening up a way to donate by enabling integrating social support and easy ways to donate to SMS donations via the app. homeless charities. Facebook Connect has been implemented, sharing The free application, which originally launched in user progress and their experiences with friends on May 2010, let users take care of a virtual homeless the social network. young person for a period of three As part of the launch Depaul days, requiring their decisions to For an easy way to donate, has partnered with PeerIndex, determine the iHobo’s future. Text GIVELOVE to 85944. the popular marketing platform, Users could offer food money or Reply yes and $10 will be to target “influential social netemotion support, striking a chord workers and opinion leaders deducted from with the British public to become during the launch” of its new your phone bill. the UK’s most downloaded charapp. PeerIndex created a list of Does not work with Metro PCS. ity iPhone application with over the most respected, well-con600,000 downloads to date. nected Tweeters which will be used by Depaul UK Wanting to build on the extraordinary success of the to target key social media individuals to spread the original app and to increase awareness amongst new word about the iHobo app. iPhone owners, homeless charity Depaul UK has reiHobo version 1.1 can be downloaded from the launched iHobo to include hidden ‘truth’ items, reApple App Store vealing facts and information about the issues young homeless people face.
Our Purpose: To Help the Homeless Learn How to Help Themselves
iHobo helps users better understand the issues homeless people are suffering, integrating social support and easy ways to donate to homeless charities