Tech for Good

What does homelessness mean in our increasingly connected, so-called digital age? We’re on a journey to find out.Recent research shows that 91% of the homeless have a working mobile phone and 46% have a smartphone.How aware are we about how the homeless use technology in their everyday lives? How could it make things easier? How might it enhance our understanding of different forms of homelessness and challenge misconceptions? And how is it changing the way homeless charities and organisations work?In the second of our podcast series, we talk to Gaia Marcus, from Centrepoint and Gerard Lemos, partner in social research firm Lemos & Crane about how we can use tech to understand and tackle homelessness more powerfully.Gaia is overall Project Manager for the Google Impact Challenge-funded Youth Homelessness Databank - the UK's first open data resource which aims to end youth homelessness through gathering data and lived experience.Gerard leads the research team at Lemos&Crane and is the author of several books and reports about social policy and supporting vulnerable people including the recent report Trends and Friends: access, use and benefits of digital technology for homeless and ex-homeless people

This is the first podcast in a new series of films, podcasts and writing from Tech For Good TV that will be exploring themes of housing, home, homelessness and technology.This first episode in our podcast series started by looking at the the interconnection between technology and homelessness. We’d heard of people attaching go-pros to people sleeping on the streets to reveal the realities of their daily lives so as to build empathy of their lived experience. But it lead to us thinking about the bigger issue of homes and technology. In many ways, we’re more connected than ever before - wireless digital technology makes it easier for us to create new identities, and be active members of all sorts of different groups. It also increases our physical mobility and our sense of what it means to be part of a group… a state, a company even a family has become blurred.So how do we actually use our home today? What do we get out of it? What does it mean to be so Networked?Perhaps we don’t even need a home, although most of us think we do.And yet, home ownership is increasingly the defining mark of wealth and power, skewing our economy and creating a wealth consolidation wedge in our city. Homelessness has been a problem as long as we've had homes.This episode explores questions that the work Nearshot are doing in San Francisco to repurpose a bit of technology to dispel myths and build understanding around homelessness... with you and your neighbours.The next few episodes will look at how homeless people are using technology on a daily basis, how institutions are using technology to engage with the homeless and how technology is being used to revolutionise the way homelessness is measured and understood.

Tech for Good TV headed down the river for the Impacts of Civic Technology (TicTec) conference hosted by MySociety a few weeks ago. We wanted to find out more about what's going on in the Civic Tech space globally and how people know that the technologies they are using have an impact. We talked to MIT Media Lab's Ethan Zuckerman about how he proposes to allow people to kick the but of institutions so we can trust them once again, Catherine Bracey of Code for America about the success of their volunteer networks and Blair Glencourse of Accountability Lab about the effectiveness of some of their low-tech civic solutions in Liberia and West Africa, plus many others. We also chatted to a selection of attendees from around the world to get their perspective on civic tech and how it's working in their countries.

Has the world of commerce encroached irrevocably on our civic spaces, and how much do we care? How much is civic exclusion growing because of what participation demands or expects of us? Civic Radio is on the road, seeking out the people and organisations that are exploring these topics in different ways.

In this episode we meet Jon Alexander and Irenie Ikkeshis from the New Citizenship Project.

Civic Radio is part of the Civic Shop and is published by Tech for Good TV

This podcast covers, 'Making the Makers, young people and digital making' which happened earlier this month at the Kano offices in Whitechapel.Four great speakers talk about how they inspire the young makers of tomorrow. It is thought that in 20 years time manufacturing will once again be a big part of British industry thanks to increasing accessibility to technologies such as 3D printing, so how do we empower the children of today with the tools of the future…and why is this term ‘maker’ suddenly echoing from all corners? Plus why is 'making' important in the first place? They also answer some tough questions about how possibie it is to pass on this notion of 'good' to mini-makers and how they are thinking about new manufacturing paradigms such as the circular economy.

Civic Radio is part of the Civic Shop and is published by Tech for Good TV

Abbey Schlageter visits the Tech City International Women’s Day event for 2015, a collection of women-led ventures both in the creative and tech industries, based out of east London.

Technology is a power source, and any power source should have equality. In the general startup environment, women’s voices are often lost in a male-dominated sector. This event was about connecting with other women and others in the sector, but also to highlight to younger people and those coming into the sector that gender equality is possible and that the startup space is open to women as well.

What draws this group to technology? What is exciting about the people working in a fast moving and changing environment? How are women collaborating and working together to create a better future for us all? How does Tech help us understand ourselves and the world around ourselves?

The event featured a mix interesting and inspiring, great women. We spoke to the likes of Katy Beale from Articulate, Megan Lucero, data editor at The Times, Gilen Bodington from Body Data Space, and many more.