17 ms·

If technologists shouldn't try to change the world, who should? I guess we should just roll over and do whatever the politicians and bankers want, they've done

by panzagl 11y ago

If technologists shouldn't try to change the world, who should? I guess we should just roll over and do whatever the politicians and bankers want, they've done such a brilliant job so far.

djcapelis 11y ago
I absolutely think technologists should try and change the world. I just think far too many of us aren't doing it. We're focused on things like... growth curves. You sure we haven't already started to roll over and do whatever the politicians and bankers want?
0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
Clearly, chefs and concert pianists. Edit: journalists.
rayiner 11y ago
It wasn't technologists that overthrew King James II and declared the supremacy of Parliament, founded the United States, freed the slaves, pushed for universal suffrage and civil rights, etc. It won't be technologists that end the war on drugs, bring marriage rights to everyone, implement universal healthcare and basic income, etc. Having gone to engineering school, I used to have the same arrogance for superior role of engineers in society. As I have gotten older, I have come to realize that while engineers are important, other people play very important roles in progress.
- reagency 11y ago
  The internet has been incredibly powerful in giving isolated queer folk a place to come together and organize.
worldadventurer 11y ago
A technologist should absolutely try to change the world for the better, just like anyone else in other professions. As responsible humans, I feel that we have an obligation to help others, especially those in need. I believe that us techies have this powerful skill to leverage technology to make change at greater scale and more cost effectively than possible ever before. But, we need to careful in wielding this powerful skill and make sure that we're having lasting positive changes; RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials) are a great way of measuring and verifying the impact of our work. We're a team of techies who believe that we can change the world. We've built engageSPARK.com (a not-for-profit social business) to help organizations on the ground amplify their work through the use of Voice IVR, SMS Text, and Missed Call campaigns by making it super easy for non-techies to build interactive campaigns in just minutes in any country; think of us as "Twilio for non-techies". We spent a lot of time on our UX making it simple. As an example of our work, we did a large program with Mercy Corps to help 20,000 survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines learn how to budget and save money through interactive soap operas with quizzes (to measure comprehension at the end of each episode) delivered via Voice Calls and via SMS. They did an RCT and found amazing results for the people who received the campaigns via Voice Calls: 106% increase in use of savings products. The response rates for quizzes were 4.5% for SMS vs. 48% for Voice Calls. There have now been a few RCTs that show that Voice is a powerful medium in developing countries for behavior change (unlike in the west, people in most developing countries are not robocalled regularly and actually pick up most phone calls!). If you're a technologist and want to use your powerful skills to help alleviate poverty, come join our team! Our stack is JS, Python/Django, Java, and we're converting the back end from Java to Go microservices. And I strongly recommend reading Kentaro's book (from the nytimes article) as a necessary introduction when thinking about bringing technology to people in need. The world is littered with failed tech projects that were meant to alleviate poverty; let's make sure that we're not adding to the pile.

by panzagl 11y ago

If technologists shouldn't try to change the world, who should? I guess we should just roll over and do whatever the politicians and bankers want, they've done such a brilliant job so far.

djcapelis 11y ago

I absolutely think technologists should try and change the world. I just think far too many of us aren't doing it. We're focused on things like... growth curves. You sure we haven't already started to roll over and do whatever the politicians and bankers want?

0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago

Clearly, chefs and concert pianists. Edit: journalists.

rayiner 11y ago

It wasn't technologists that overthrew King James II and declared the supremacy of Parliament, founded the United States, freed the slaves, pushed for universal suffrage and civil rights, etc. It won't be technologists that end the war on drugs, bring marriage rights to everyone, implement universal healthcare and basic income, etc. Having gone to engineering school, I used to have the same arrogance for superior role of engineers in society. As I have gotten older, I have come to realize that while engineers are important, other people play very important roles in progress.

reagency 11y ago
The internet has been incredibly powerful in giving isolated queer folk a place to come together and organize.

worldadventurer 11y ago

A technologist should absolutely try to change the world for the better, just like anyone else in other professions. As responsible humans, I feel that we have an obligation to help others, especially those in need. I believe that us techies have this powerful skill to leverage technology to make change at greater scale and more cost effectively than possible ever before. But, we need to careful in wielding this powerful skill and make sure that we're having lasting positive changes; RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials) are a great way of measuring and verifying the impact of our work. We're a team of techies who believe that we can change the world. We've built engageSPARK.com (a not-for-profit social business) to help organizations on the ground amplify their work through the use of Voice IVR, SMS Text, and Missed Call campaigns by making it super easy for non-techies to build interactive campaigns in just minutes in any country; think of us as "Twilio for non-techies". We spent a lot of time on our UX making it simple. As an example of our work, we did a large program with Mercy Corps to help 20,000 survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines learn how to budget and save money through interactive soap operas with quizzes (to measure comprehension at the end of each episode) delivered via Voice Calls and via SMS. They did an RCT and found amazing results for the people who received the campaigns via Voice Calls: 106% increase in use of savings products. The response rates for quizzes were 4.5% for SMS vs. 48% for Voice Calls. There have now been a few RCTs that show that Voice is a powerful medium in developing countries for behavior change (unlike in the west, people in most developing countries are not robocalled regularly and actually pick up most phone calls!). If you're a technologist and want to use your powerful skills to help alleviate poverty, come join our team! Our stack is JS, Python/Django, Java, and we're converting the back end from Java to Go microservices. And I strongly recommend reading Kentaro's book (from the nytimes article) as a necessary introduction when thinking about bringing technology to people in need. The world is littered with failed tech projects that were meant to alleviate poverty; let's make sure that we're not adding to the pile.