App Could Aid Migrant (and Illegal) Workers Crossing the U.S. Border
Cell phones -- and for that matter, app-enabled smartphones -- have typically been aimed at the middle class, containing software designed to help balance meeting agendas, check a flight's status, and the like. But what about the potential for cell phone apps to help a notoriously under-served section of the population?Well, there's an app for that. The 'Transborder Immigrant Tool,' which is currently in development, aims to aid illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. This month, the app's creator Ricardo Dominguez, who works in the Visual Arts department at the University of California - San Diego, did a long interview with Vice Magazine, in which he spelled out the purpose of this potentially illegal software and the probable public anger it will cause:
"I would imagine [anti-immigration militias] won't be too happy with us, but again we're not trying to hide. It's a safety tool. It's not trying to resolve the political anxieties of these communities or resolve the inadequacies of a fictional border for a so-called free-trade community. Again, our position is that it's not a political resolution; it's a safety tool. That, at the core, is what we're attempting to do."Using the cheapest cell phones possible (specifically the under-$30 Motorola i455, which comes with a GPS applet), Dominguez and his team were able to create a hack that added navigation functionality and the ability to locate water and highways. Although the app is still only in the alpha phase of development, Dominguez hopes to roll it out soon.
Read the whole interview for more information, and be sure to leave your thoughts on this in the comments section. [From: Vice Magazine, via: BoingBoing]
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