Hi <<First Name>>, 

Last night we hosted an awesome tech vs. coronavirus virtual meetup. It was exciting to see the energy, ideas and spirit of collaboration emerging from the participants. I’ve included a handful of initial reflections from the event below, as well as a few themes from this week’s tech news. If you have friends who may enjoy this newsletter, please forward it on! They can subscribe here. 

Yours, 

Will (Tech for Good Global Team) 

P.S. Next Friday is a Bank Holiday in the UK, so we’ll be back in your inbox in a fortnight.

What’s happened in the world of tech for good since our last newsletter:

1. Tech for Good vs. Coronavirus: What we learned from the Meetup 💪

We may be missing Toast Ale and mega-packs of cheese swirls, but our virtual event last night proved that physical presence is no barrier to awesome people sharing how tech can be used to fight the pandemic. The aim of the meetup was to map what is going on, facilitate cooperation and cast our eyes to the post-COVID future. We heard insightful speeches by Nathan Young, co-founder of the Coronavirus Tech Handbook,  Mia Millman, responsible for delivering the Techforce 19 programme, and Cat Ainsworth, Co-Founder of Dot Project. 

Ahead of the event, BGV published an article summing up the key means by which tech is being used effectively and responsibly to reduce the impact of COVID-19. One thing that became immediately apparent in conversations with attendants was the scale and speed at which people are adapting their work - or starting new projects - to address the resulting effects of of the pandemic.  

It’d be an injustice to squeeze three hours of fruitful conversation into a handful of paragraphs. Instead here is the crowdsourced Google document where people shared their activities, views, projects and announcements. For those who couldn’t attend, we’ll be releasing a video of the speeches and a follow-up article very soon.


2. Contact Tracing: Debate Developments 👁️

For the past few weeks, we have been keeping tabs on the evolving debate around contact tracing tools. The New Yorker released an overview of the debate as it takes shape in the US. The final picture remains ambiguous, but there are some new voices in the conversation. Here’s a quick summary: 

• Negative assessments

  • Exit through the app store, by the Ada Lovelace Institute, is a review on contact tracing. Their assessment: ‘There is an absence of evidence to support the immediate national deployment of  symptom tracking applications’. 

  • France and Germany rebuffed Apple and Google’s tracking proposal.

  • WIRED published an article suggesting that contact tracing apps probably won’t work, and may be worse than useless.

• Positive Assessments

  • Apple and Google have pledged that they will shut down the contact tracing functionality once the crisis passes. 

  • The European Data Protection Board has updated its health data protection laws, and this might provide a good safeguard for these tools. 

  • The UK Government made this press release justifying the need for contact tracing. 

  • The Tony Blair Institute suggests that ramped-up surveillance may be a price worth paying to beat COVID-19. 

For a deeper dive on this topic, here’s a paper from Cornell University on framing and addressing the ethical challenges relating to digital tools to fight COVID-19.

3. Coping with working under lockdown 🏡

For those of us lucky enough to still be in work, it is important to remember that we are not just working from home, we are trying to work at home during a pandemic. It is ok not to be ok. For starters, Zoom fatigue is very real, time isn’t quite what it used to be, and worker surveillance is on the rise. 

Nonetheless, tech workers have a very real privilege in being largely protected from the worst effects of the lockdown. As such, beyond helping out in the local community, there is an opportunity for new or improved tech tools to emerge that address workplace mental health during the lockdown. Whilst working on this, it is important to remember that the crisis does not affect all groups equally. Here is a resource file for learning about the intersectional impacts of the pandemic.


4. Elsewhere in tech for good 🔭

• Some people believe that lockdown is giving the internet a kinder, more retro feel, whereas others are seeing a bolstering of nasty online trends. 

• Coronavirus is causing the fast-tracking of medical AI - the tools may be here to stay. 

• National AI strategies and human rights; a review.

• Google is extending verification requirements to all of its advertisers, which will hopefully slow the spread of political misinformation.

• An interesting article on how Apple, a company that champions data privacy, can fall to the temptations of surveillance capitalism. 

• Postman assembled a COVID open API resource centre. 

• Post-COVID, tech platforms must operate for public good, says Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Centre for Humane Technology. 

Following the Open COVID pledge, the Open Data Charter released this article explaining why the virus highlights how much we need consensus on collective data rights.

📣 Opportunities 📣

1. To keep track of coronavirus-related funding opportunities, here is a live spreadsheet. 
2. Up to £50,000 in grants available for the DFiD Data Challenge for #COVIDaction (May 9th).
3. IsDB group opened $500m for digital solutions to curb the spread of COVID-19 (Jun 1st). 
4. Mozilla Foundation announced the COVID-19 Solutions Fund. It awards up to $50,000 each to open source technology projects which are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. Up to £50,000 in grant funding is available for tech for good startups via the Skoll Venture Fund (May 3). 
6. Solve MIT opened a series of challenges addressing global problems, up to $1m available in prize funding. Include a challenge on how to beat pandemics (Jun 18). They have also opened applications for their $5m Elevate Prize (Jun 29).

What’s going on? 📅

Check out the tech for good near you map. 

• Sign up here for the #StartingGood Virtual Summit - a free 10-day summit of social entrepreneurship (May 11th-20th)

Reply here to let us know what’s going on in your corner of the tech for good community. We’ll make sure to add your tech for good events onto the list.

Working in tech for good 💼

• Earwig - a worker voice platform empowering tradespeople to own their work culture - is hiring a CTO/Tech Co-founder.  
• Organise - a workplace campaigning startup - is hiring a software engineer.
• Candice Hampson is creating a tech for good startup empowering people to take more control over their journeys with cancer. She is looking for a Technical Co-Founder/CTO. You can get in touch here.
• What3Words - the team on a mission to create the global standard for communicating location - is hiring a Senior Android Developer.
• Engine Room is hiring a Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Manager (May 4th) and a Senior Leadership Consultant (May 4th).
• Tech Nation is hiring for a Learning Product Specialist and a Visa Programme Manager.

techforgood/highlights is powered by Bethnal Green Ventures.