On October 8th WHOOSH! Cleans Up New York City

John Lennon said of New York City, “There might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening.”

And nowhere is it happening more, and a little dirtier, than at the new LinkNYC wi-fi kiosks. 

Set up by the city, the kiosks accomplish a lot more than the payphones they’ve replaced. Gone are the days of looking someone up in giant phonebook hanging from a chain. Now you can charge your phone, get directions, access city services, and make totally free calls using VoIP.

The stations include a built-in tablet—which originally let you browse the web.

Until minor chaos ensued. 

People were seen throwing impromptu dance parties using YouTube and the kiosk speakers, which is awesome if it wasn’t in the middle of the night and below your apartment window.

The other big issue was New Yorkers reporting seeing people watching porn, and not the 50 Shades of Grey, socially acceptable kind, which really isn’t cool at all unless you’re the one watching it, and not on a street corner.

Even with all of this I still love this idea. Revolutions don’t happen in a day, and there are always bumps in the road when you’re introducing people to new things that could change their behaviors. 

I applaud the city for deciding to keep the kiosks, even if they’re removing the web access on the tablets. Giving everyone in the city access to maps and city services, make free calls, or even jump on the Wi-Fi on your own phone is a big deal and very forward thinking.

This got us thinking, since the city is starting fresh with version two of this beta project we want to make sure people appreciate how lucky they are to have these kiosks, and a great way to appreciate them is to have no fear of touching them. So, with that in mind, WHOOSH! is taking to the streets on October 8^th to Clean up NYC! Okay, not the whole city, but we are going to try to clean as many kiosks as we can.

We see this as doing our civic duty, wiping down the city one Wi-Fi kiosk screen at a time.

If you happen to see me or any members of my team that day, make sure to say hi!

Remember: What gets on your hands, gets on your phone.  So, if you get your own device dirty while watching things you wouldn’t watch in public, there’s always WHOOSH! to clean things up again. Keep it clean, guys.

-JG

Visit www.whoosh.com for more info on Whoosh.