8 Things You Need to Know about Technology for Change

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Mary McGrath of Small Change Fund Discusses Net Change 2010

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uploaded by Ruth Richardson

Last week was Net Change 2010, a week-long event dedicated to exploring the intersection between social technology and social change. Powered by MaRS Discovery Centre in downtown Toronto, it was a magnet for anyone working in the space of online change-making for good. Here's a synopsis of the top 8 things we heard about using technology to change the world.

1. Old Structures don't work so well anymore. The old model of institution-building doesn't allow the necessary nimbleness, flexibility, and adaptability needed to mobilize people, create effective networks, and tap into the right expertise. Lucy Bernholz used Crisis Commons as a great example of this. Overnight, 3 guys in Washington mobilized techies all over the world to create solutions to the Haiti earthquake "for the cost of pizza" - no office, no budget, no business plan. Just networked people keen to respond to a global crisis inspiring new ways to think about how we un-structure our work.

2. Open up! Not only do old structures have their limitations, so do old processes and operating principles. We can all propel our work forward by opening up our organizations, companies, and businesses to harness the power of collective thought. Think about where you can benefit most from crowd-sourcing. Feedback on a project strategy? Troubleshooting a project management challenge? Socialactions.com crowd-sourced their logo as a contest. Civicfootprint.ca is exploring open source learning. Matt Thompson of the Mozilla Foundation says that "the game-changer will be small organizations whose core competancy is executed by efforts of a very engaged community."

3. Don't just produce information. The sheer volume of content online is mind-numbing. What will set organizations and campaigns apart is their ability to create new forms of engagement and participation. We need to combine our offline and online strategies to create a cohesive experience for the people we connect to. Our communications should provide an experience that engages people. And, don't forget to build and maintain those relationships - while the power of technology to enable donations and other actions is still untapped, retention rates remain low. Be creative and consistent in providing amazing experiences. Reality is the new media!

4. And when you do produce information, don't build a fortress. We often wrongly assume that information lives on our site. And of course it does. But, as Peter Fleschner argues, to be effective your information needs to live out in the world. Don't build a fortress around your organization and its website - get your voice out there. Link to twitter and Facebook. Write on blogs. Post articles on other people's sites. Join discussion groups. Become part of the conversation online and offline and create relevance for you and your work.

5. Access to technology is an equalizer. Technology, phones in particular, acts as a disruptive force, unleashing untapped creativity and productivity. Professor Iqbal Quadir talks about citizens in developing countries today and their relationship with mobile technology. In our increasingly connected and empowered global ecosystem, technology spreads quickly and surprises people. Ensure you connect to the creativity that exists in developing nations, use the power of mobile technology to build relationships with leaders in your field, and consider how you can learn from their ideas and experiences.

6. Kids today are superheroes. Are youth today video-game playing, texting zombies with zero attention span? No - they are superheroes! Their "real" lives are so integrated with technology that they are able to access, process, and index information in ways that no generation before them ever could. Youth today are actors, initiators, and users, living in a new age of networked intelligence. Keeping our organizations relevant is contingent on harnessing youth superpowers through meaningful volunteer and employment opportunities, and allowing them to be connected to their networks while working with us.

7. Scale? I'm already at scale.  A question that often gets asked of those working to change the world is "how will you take your project to scale?" In other words, how will your local project move up to "higher levels" of impact? Those innovating in the online world are already at scale. Take Small Change Fund for instance. A new online community for grassroots giving, they are at once local and global. Committed to catalyzing change at the local level, they work at the global level through an international alliance where they can tap the expertise of expert advisors around the world to strategize about how global priorities are translated to local issues.

8. Devices are pathways to emotional connection. We're at a point in time in which people are looking at screens all day, every day, and sleep with their cell phones in their hands. Katrin Verclas of Mobile Active argues that people are not attached to devices; they are attached to what the devices represent - communication and emotional intimacy with others. As changemakers, we need to look at how to fortify relationships through new media. Integrating our organization's values into multi-platform communication methods will serve us well in deepening relationships with others.

In an effort to Open Up! this article was written collaboratively by Dani LaGiglia, Mary McGrath, and Ruth Richardson of Small Change Fund who were all fortunate enough to attend Net Change 2010.