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a discussion at the intersection of technology and development

More Tech Salons About social enterprise

  • impact investing technology salon

    True Potential of Global Impact Investing on International Development

    San Francisco | By on August 11, 2019 | Comments Off on True Potential of Global Impact Investing on International Development

    TechSoup recently hosted a Technology Salon asking What is the True Potential of Global Impact Investing? with 30 social impact leaders from diverse backgrounds in the corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors. We discussed what impact investing means for nonprofits, philanthropists, and investors and for our ability to make change together. It was a unique chance…

  • African Entrepreneurship in Mobile Hardware Technology

    New York | By on July 8, 2013 | Comments Off on African Entrepreneurship in Mobile Hardware Technology

    At the recent Technology Salon on African-Led Mobile Innovation in Congo Brazzaville, we welcomed Verone Mankou, the head of VMK, a company in Congo Brazzaville that designs and produces the Way-C Tablet and the Elikia smart phone. The event was graciously hosted by ThoughtWorks, and Verone’s US trip was organized by Senam Beheton of EtriLabs.

  • Technology Made in Congo-Brazzaville: One Man’s Start Up Story

    Washington DC | By on May 25, 2013 | Comments Off on Technology Made in Congo-Brazzaville: One Man’s Start Up Story

    I am Anna Shaw and I recently attended a Tech Salon that really got me thinking. We spent a morning discussing, What Are the Technology Challenges in Congo Brazzaville? The conversation started out with a relatively typical examination of the challenges the ICT4D community knows all too well. The cost of mobile phones is too…

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  • Using Open Standards Can Change Everything

    San Francisco | By on April 9, 2013 | Comments Off on Using Open Standards Can Change Everything

    February’s San Francisco Technology Salon centered around current technology challenges in the developing world. What are our current needs? What’s holding technology back? What should we be looking for in a “perfect” solution?

  • iPads in Agriculture: Glitz Toys or ICT4Ag Business Tool?

    Washington DC | By on September 19, 2011 | Comments Off on iPads in Agriculture: Glitz Toys or ICT4Ag Business Tool?

    This month’s Technology Salon ICT4Ag – Enriching rural coffee farmers via iPads raised a couple of eyebrows from the outset. How can Exprima Media and Sustainable Harvest realistically improve rural coffee farming via iPads? Initially, it struck me as another attempt to use the latest and greatest technology to tackle longstanding challenges within the value…

  • ICT4Ag – Enriching Rural Coffee Farmers Via iPads

    Washington DC | By on September 2, 2011 | Comments Off on ICT4Ag – Enriching Rural Coffee Farmers Via iPads

    We all lust for iPhones, iPads, and the like, and yearn for the day the developing world can use the same cool gadgets we geek on. But did you realize that iPads could be used in remote areas today? That rural coffee farmers in Mexico, Peru, and Tanzania are enriching themselves and their communities through…

  • How Can Social Capital Expand ICT4D?

    San Francisco | By on August 11, 2011 | Comments Off on How Can Social Capital Expand ICT4D?

    A new form of capitalism is arising that recognizes our ability to direct the power and efficiency of market systems toward social impact, leading to a more balanced set of “returns”. This social capital market is real and growing, and has real impact on emerging economies. But does it impact ICT4D? How can technology companies…

  • Spice Up Your Next Proposal with Software!

    Washington DC | By on May 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Spice Up Your Next Proposal with Software!

    You’re staring down a new Request for Proposal and you know the goals can be achieved quicker, cheaper, and more effectively with the help of a software solution. You want to include your killer app in the proposal but you’re a development expert not a hacker. Where to start?

  • P2PU Brings Peer Learning to Online Higher Education

    San Francisco | By on October 20, 2010 | Comments Off on P2PU Brings Peer Learning to Online Higher Education

    At the How Peer-to-Peer University is Hacking Higher Education Technology Salon in San Francisco, Philipp Schmidt discussed his Peer 2 Peer University initiative, an innovative approach to further the reach and impact of higher education.

  • eLearning’s Promise: Will New Models Scale to Educate Youth?

    Washington DC | By on February 19, 2010 | Comments Off on eLearning’s Promise: Will New Models Scale to Educate Youth?

    Young people make up 18% of the world’s population today, or 1.2 billion in absolute terms. Of these 15-24 year-olds, 87% live in developing countries. At the same time, their basic educational needs are not being met. More than one-third of all youth around the world are not in the classroom – 73% of youth…

  • Whew, I think this was one of the most intense and contentious Technology Salons yet! After an hour of lively discussion around what “sustainability” and “scale” means to information and communication technology programs, we were just starting to pull back the layers around the topics.

    (Want to attend the next Technology Salon? Then subscribe to our meeting announcements to be invited.)

    Sustainability Means Many Things

    We quickly found that there were many definitions of sustainability and scale. Maybe too many, as these terms differed wildly across implementers and donors. It was even suggested that in the realm of ICT, development has an unbroken string of failures since none of the projects have scaled to the extent of mobile phones.

    Before we cast out the entire body of work to date, much of ICT4D is done as experimentation – there is an expectation of failure while we figure out models that would work. At least we have mobile phones to show that there are ICT models that can scale, sustainably.


  • Let’s solve his ICT4D challenges

    The Technology Salon returns to Washington DC this September 25th to explore an innovative initiative from USAID: ICT4D Challenges.

    Akin to the contests that had Lindbergh cross the Atlantic and Rutan/Branson cross into space, ICT4D challenges (contests, makeovers, and competitions) will leverage user-driven innovation to create ICT-based solutions for major development challenges, with the incentive of cash prizes and possible inclusion in a USAID project. These challenges will spur innovation at the nexus of development and technology while forging new connections between the technology and development communities.

    What better forum to explore where USAID is going with these challenges and help shape that path than the Technology Salon, our intimate and informal discussion of technology and development?