“We’re a group that wants to use technology for social change”

That was the description that I read on meetup.com for a newly formed group. I signed up right away.

With my Imagine Cup project winding down after the world finals, I was wondering where to take my interest in using the web for social good. There were certainly a lot of directions in which it could go, from social media campaigns to building platforms for NGOs. To be honest, though, nothing really compelling caught my eye. Even after a week in Cairo seeing the projects from some of the brightest students in world, I still wasn’t convinced that the web was as powerful of a platform for change as I had hoped. Or rather, I have become more aware of just how challenging changing the world really is.

Changing the world is hard (no kidding)

Vaguely, the Internet is about connecting and spreading information quickly. From that perspective, the possibilities for doing good seem endless: helping coordinate search and rescue efforts, getting crop disease information in the hands of 3rd world farmers, or microfinancing entrepreneurs from halfway across the world. Twitter saw some really interesting activity during the recent Iranian elections and subsequent protests. Despite this smattering of success stories, I still feel that there is a lot more power to be tapped from the Internet medium.

I should back these next thoughts with some evidence, but unfortunately I haven’t done the hard research to back them up. They are general observations as I have explored the medium of the Internet as a device for social change in the last year.

Technology isn’t the challenge using it well is. Reading Steven Levy’s Hackers convinced me of this point. In it, the MIT model railroad club, who would later become the worlds first hardcore programmers, were writing code in the 60s to do things that I didn’t even think were possible with today’s hardware. Cleverness goes a long way, and I don’t think sufficient energy has been put in tailoring solutions to the problems that change makers face. Rather, most efforts that I have encountered seem to consist of throwing up a database behind some dataset, hoping that magic will happen simply because data is catalogued. I have also noticed the disappointing trend of mediocre social networks cropping up with little more inspiration than the vague desire to do “good”.

Going hand in hand with that point is this: we need more people that understand the world’s problems. We geeks need to start embracing our social side and start talking to people on the front lines of the battle against malaria, hunger, and AIDs. It’s easy to get caught up in the technology. For instance, I got called out by a Microsoft ADE at Imagine Cup, trying to impress him with the code underlying our application. He told me, “look, the judges aren’t going to care about the complexity of your code. They’re only going to care if it works.” To make real impact, it is going to take a deep marriage between engineering competence and startling insight. Interestingly, though, that might mean that the solutions are neither elegant nor complex, but instead slightly ugly, like IDEO’s MoneyMaker Deep Lift Pump, a micro-irrigation pump that helps boost the profits of 3rd world farmers.

Stepping into the beehive

All that being said, I am very excited the chance to meet groups in Paris that are working for social good and that are interested in incorporating technology to serve their goals. I sat down with WiserTuesday’s organizer–Camilla Burg–a few Fridays ago and discussed the direction for the event over some sushi. She had great insight into the ecosystem of groups in Paris doing charitable work right now. I was able to offer some perspective from the technical perspective on the issues these groups faced. Now, I am an assistant organizer for the event.

The next step is an informal meetup, which will take place in a cool space called La Ruche. The name is French for “beehive,” since it is a space dedicated to providing resources and networking for aspiring social entrepreneurs.

There’s no telling who will show up to Wiser Tuesday–entrepreneurs, programmers, engineers, or artists. I can’t wait to see what problems can be solved with smart application of technology. This, I think, is the start of an answer to the misgivings I voiced earlier. Technology, especially web technology, brings something to the table, but it requires insight and competence to use it successfully. The words “conversation”, “engagement”, and “discussion” don’t really mean much unless they’re placed in the context of a meaningful problem. Perhaps at the global crossroads that is Paris, we’ll find that context.