Technology is for the Good

I would like to change the narrative that technology is bad. It is not inherently bad. In fact, it has the power to change the way we think, work, give back and live. Inspiring applications are being developed to address some of the most important global social and economic issues, such as disease, starvation, refugee displacement and poverty. It is time to focus on using technology for the good.

Technology is for the Good.

Information is to a business or to an individual as blood is to the body. Its foundation? Trust. Banish information, or the trust to protect it, and the world falls apart: all commerce would cease; bank accounts would have balances of zero; planes would fall out of the sky; cars would halt in their tracks; power and water would stop flowing. Information, business and life are inseparable and as indispensable as water, air and electricity.

More profoundly, information and systems are so advanced that we can begin to see our human and cognitive form in our own digital data trails. Every day we are building, brick by brick and bit by bit, a digital copy of ourselves, whether we are aware of it or not. This topic is personal, and now, inalienable from the human condition.

Data breaches, thefts and manipulations are headline news today and will not be going away anytime soon. Also, the nature of the information has changed, moving well beyond what you could find in the phone book of a decade ago. In this digital era, your modern (phone-book like) information now includes your behaviors (friends list, what you read, pictures, what you buy, etc.).

What is the real difference between a bad actor stealing 135 million people’s data from a credit aggregator or a social media company selling 85 million personal accounts to a political consulting firm? The actors are different, but the consumer impact is the same. Trust is broken, and your information is used for the bad.

I would like to offer a radical idea: that “Technology is for the Good.” And that it needs to transcend people, organizations, companies and nation states—to improve businesses and the world. This is not marketing; it is a new way of working and a new way of thinking. It starts with the premise that you own your information and it is not for sale. OpenText will never sell your information; we value your trust. And we advocate that technology—and the information that fuels it—is for the good. Our opinion has been forged through 25 years of experience and over one Exabyte of information under our management.

“Technology is for the Good” can be present in many forms. First, we can utilize data and insights to unlock the potential of people. We can also use technology to produce a more educated world by increasing college or trade degrees. On the world stage, technology can be used to eliminate extreme poverty and eradicate diseases. It begins with big ideas for change.

Consider the following: In The Data-Driven Justice Initiative, over 150 city, county and state governments are committed to disrupting the cycle of incarceration. They are using data-driven technologies to divert low-level offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and change approaches to pre-trial incarceration, so that low-risk offenders no longer stay in jail simply because they can’t afford a bond.

The report “Social Media and Forced Displacement: Big Data Analytics & Machine-Learning” summarizes the findings and lessons learned on the viability and value of social media analytics to complement understandings of the Europe Refugee Emergency.

UNHCR—Using Big Data to Understand Forced Displacement

The project, conducted by UNHCR’s Innovation Service and UN Global Pulse, focuses on how content from social media could be parsed to better understand what people think and how they feel about things affecting their lives, including the displacement and movement of large volumes of people. This content can be used by researchers to inform topics of interest and by decision makers as evidence on which to inform programmatic responses and alterations. 

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, carries a LRRK2 mutation (variants of this gene are associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s and Crohn’s diseases). While he has made significant donations to research into combating Parkinson’s disease, perhaps his most compelling contribution has been through data. While discovery in causes and cures of Parkinson’s relies on the classic method of the scientific research, Brin has taken a different approach using massive data sets and analytics. Brin is using data and algorithms to bypass the scientific method and find patterns in information that could lead to a potential cure for Parkinson’s disease. Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has expanded this approach to other long-term diseases with the creation of “Verily,” a life sciences company dedicated to deriving insights from health data.

Using technology for good is also present in building the world’s best businesses and can be leveraged to help companies develop talent, build great products, as well as improve quality, safety and efficiencies for their customers.

Our customer deployments of EIM are advancing this concept every day. 

A not-for-profit organization and advocate for the ocean is using an EIM digital asset management system to manage all information associated with the yearly International Coastal Cleanup.

Another not-for-profit has adapted the concept of crowdsourcing to analyze millions of photos and videos to identify victims of child sexual exploitation and trafficking, and facilitate rescue earlier in the law enforcement investigation.

A leading international humanitarian organization is connecting an employee base of 10,000+ across 90 countries to enable its rapid response team to share information on the ground in the first 24 hours of a crisis.

One of the world’s largest food and beverage companies is using data to create more transparency in its business ecosystem to ensure its supply chains are ethical and responsible.

I can say with confidence, whether it be governments, individuals or businesses, when they entrust you with their information—their lifeblood—it is critical to defend and protect that which is entrusted. This trust transcends your product or service. It is at the heart of your culture, ethics and purpose.

It is time to advance the narrative, as we are championing trust and information as the foundation for “Technology is for the Good.”

What examples do you have inside your organization—or even your social sphere—where you are using technology for the good?

If you like this series, read my recent book, The Intelligent and Connected Enterprise.