TFG Ten: reclaiming the internet, making the makers and mapping out tech nonprofits
1st April 2015
Welcome to this week’s Tech For Good Ten, where we share the best 10 links in the Tech For Good world from the past week.
We’re aiming to share a wide range of links, meeting people behind the latest digital innovations, showcasing the greatest tech for good products
We’re also encouraging debate around “What exactly is Tech For Good?” Join the debate in the comments below. We’re here to discuss all things Tech For Good.
Got a link to share with the Tech For Good Team? Tweet us at @techfotgoodtv or leave a comment on our Facebook page.
Tech For Good Ten: 01.04.2015
1. Let’s reclaim the internet
The power of digital can be harnessed to serve the needs of everyone in our society, not just the few. Building an awesome cohort of female coders, designers and creators would help make the UK the most digitally successful country in the world.
2. Podcast: making the makers
In 20 years time manufacturing will once again be a big part of British industry thanks to increasing accessibility to technologies such as 3D printing, so how do we empower the children of today with the tools of the future and why is this term ‘maker’ suddenly echoing from all corners?
3. How tech will enable social change
“It’s not about the technology – it’s about what it enables us to do.”
4. Mapping out tech nonprofits
Tech nonprofits look like a typical tech startup – they build a product using technology – and have selected a nonprofit structure because they’re building for impact instead of profits. Like startups, they come in different sizes from different sectors, but their product is core to their theory of change.
5. Google.org making tech for good a reality
“I get excited when I see technologies that can help you find the best pizza place or brewery be adapted to solve our biggest problems.”
6. London cycling community unites to recover stolen bikes
Taking on bad with good, @StolenRide has an ever-growing community of 'seekers' on Twitter.
7. Social-good gaming will only reach its potential when women do too
Gaming isn’t just for entertainment anymore. It can make us smarter. It can make us safer. It can make us better citizens of the world.
8. An action plan for getting more women into tech
The problem of gender imbalance in tech is systemic and societal in Western nations. This is not a question of ability or talent, given that countries such as China and India have far higher proportions of female engineers. This is about expectations and aspirations.
9. 6 ways technology is breaking barriers to social change
We all know that technology is changing the world from artificial intelligence to big data to the ubiquity of smart phones, but many of us working to change society are just starting to understand how to harness tech forces for good.
10. 51 Breakthrough Technologies To Defeat Poverty
"They represent breakthroughs because they have to be dramatically different from existing technologies in industrialized settings: available at a fraction of the cost, requiring only a fraction of the energy, significantly less reliant on technical skills to operate, not needing elaborate infrastructure, and being generally robust and maintenance-free.”