Today, Nominet Trust, the UK’s leading tech for good funder, has announced that Direct Relief has been named among the Nominet Trust 100 (NT100) for 2015 – a global celebration of the 100 most inspiring uses of digital technology for social good.
Projects featured in the NT100 use technology to tackle some of the world’s biggest social problems including support for refugees in Europe, healthcare, social inclusion and our emergency response to natural disasters.
Following a global search, Direct Relief, was selected by ten leading judging partners from the tech and charity world for its use of mapping technology to display real-time transparency into its global operations.
This year, Direct Relief is featured alongside familiar names such as Google X’s Project Loon, which aims to deliver the Internet to developing countries via large air balloons and Wayfindr, a project led by UK charity, the Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB), which allows visually impaired people to navigate via an audio smartphone app. The list also features lesser-known ventures such as Kgolagano, which utilizes TV white space to provide medical care to rural areas of Botswana remotely, and Humanitarian Open Street Maps Team, which harnesses the power of the crowd to build maps for emergency aid workers, for example during the West Africa Ebola outbreak.
Participation in the ‘tech for good’ movement continues to rise and the 2015 selection illustrates important long-term developments ranging from the bioprinting of human tissue models to eDemocracy platforms. It also features responses to more recent current affairs that have dominated news headlines, such as the huge influx of migrants to Europe.
Vicki Hearn, Director of Nominet Trust, said:
“Remarkable people all over the world are embracing technology to combat some of the most pressing social challenges we face today. This year, in particular, the resourcefulness of organisations helping those in urgent need is hugely inspirational. Initiatives supporting the communities devastated by the Ebola outbreak and the Nepal earthquake are powerful examples of how imaginative use of digital technology can enable us to respond swiftly to rapidly evolving crises.”
“Increasing accessibility to technology is helping foster communities of social tech entrepreneurs worldwide, who are transforming healthcare, access to education, sustainability and civic empowerment. The NT100 seeks to highlight these pioneers so that others may be encouraged to follow in their footsteps.”
A shortlist of 150 projects was selected from more than 500 public nominations and in-house research, and presented to a judging panel of ten tech and charity organizations, who selected the final 2015 NT100. Representatives from Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief, Creative England, Facebook, Latimer Group, Nominet, O2 Telefonica, Oxfam, Salesforce, and Society Guardian all took part in the selection process.
Information about the final projects is hosted on the Social Tech Guide (socialtech.org.uk), the world’s largest interactive index of tech for good, which now includes nearly 1,300 ventures in its database.
Follow the action @socialtechguide / #2015NT100.
