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Weekly Short
7 January, 2021
The beginning of a new decade perhaps didn’t bring what everyone expected. It wasn’t all bad, though, and we’d draw your attention to the New York Times’ good tech awards, which shine a light on how ingenuity, collaboration and resilience helped tackle some of our big challenges. We’re all too familiar with the way in which technology can make things worse, so it’s good to be reminded that it is an incredibly powerful source of connectivity, innovation and inspiration.
Whether it was a group of tech workers helping states, cities and hospitals gear up against the Coronavirus for free, or tech veterans looking to match hungry frontline workers with business-hungry restaurants, tech and the kind-hearted helped our hospitals, and our society, fight the pandemic in its own way.
When wildfires grew and spread almost as violently as Covid-19, with no real modern solution to help, tech seized the opportunity. Apps were created to upgrade paper maps to digital, shared and live updated maps with evacuation routes and predict potential fire courses.
Tech helped groups communicate and organise during the BLM movement, helping to project the message not only around the US, but around the globe. It helped communities learn about how their data is collected and used, equipping them with the tools needed to defend themselves.
With all of these new inventions, we’re hoping that new tech will help make the next decade as good as it can be.
By Marie Guérinet