Being homeless in the wealthy parts of the world seems to be different than being homeless elsewhere. At least I dont imagine that a homeless guy in Nigeria has access to a computer and the internet, let alone blogging. But thats actually whats going on in places like California and Tennessee.

In Wired, there is an article with the title "Laptops Give Hope to the Homeless", which describes how some homeless people are trying to use technology to keep them floating or get them back into mainstream society. One example is Hellerich, a woman from Sacramento, who became homeless for a while, but through a women shelter started a blog and came back into not only the high tech stream but into work-life as well. On Hellerich's blog, there are also comments to the Wired interview, which constitutes an interesting circular argument. More famous is Kevin Barbieux from Nashville Tennessee who started bloggin in 2002 and is writing regularly at the blog "The Homeless guy".

Surprised that some homeless can be high tech'ers? Well I admit I was. But what does it mean - or rather - what does it say about these peoples lives or the society we live in, that people with no home still have access to the internet? It is showing that homeless people are extremely different and that being poor in rich countries is different from being poor in poor countries. Not that it is easy in any way - but at least different. Another observation is the omnipresence of technology - blogs are not first and foremost a technological fix og gimic of the internet, it is ordinary way of communicating (in rich societies).