Futel: For Whom The Dial Tones
Karl A
FMH Room 204
At Futel, we believe in the preservation of public telephone hardware as a means of providing access to the agora for everybody, and toward that goal we are privileged to provide free telephone calls, voicemail, and telephone-mediated services. We do not judge the motivations of our users, or who they choose to call; if they don’t have someone to call, we can provide a presence on the other end. Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic used against undesirable populations, and our devices will counteract that. But more importantly, we will help to establish a new era of communication, one in which reaching out is not only desirable, but mandatory. I will describe the motivations behind the Futel project, how we attempt to make it sustainable, and how these strategies might be applied by others who want to use their powers for righteousness.