The Tech That Comes Next

Chapter SevenChanging Conditions for Communities

In all of our discussions about social impact organizations, technology development, funding, and policymaking, we've stressed focusing on community connection, participation, and leadership. That focus must be reinforced by supporting community members in their efforts to engage and lead; they need resources to help them build skills, design solutions, direct funding, and decide on policies. And an essential aspect of that support calls for removing barriers to community access and participation in social impact work, technology development, resource allocation, and policymaking.

As we've said before, technology is constantly changing, which creates real challenges in training for and then maintaining the technological capacity within an organization. That challenge is made even harder by the fact that communities are made up of a widely diverse range of individuals who possess a widely diverse spread of experience, training, and confidence with technology. This complicates the need to upskill a community, and illustrates the importance of supporting parallel initiatives rather than relying on simplified solutions.

The work to change our world and to build what comes next will be inherently complicated. And when things get complicated, the most influential decision we make is to define what we value. As outlined in chapter 2, so many of the values for an equitable world are central to the understanding of community—from focusing ...