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Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
131–140 of 394 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#132[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#133Honestly, I think the most effective thing to do is find an organization doing social good, who is hiring programmers, and go work for them. There are plenty of non-profits and governments that do a ton of good, and employ developers to work on their web sites and infrastructures. A good friend of mine is a developer for the ACLU, for example. There are also organizations like Code for America that do open source wor…
This. There are many incredible organizations doing great work in the code for good space, and not solely in the non-profit or government sectors.
I’ll second the reference to Code for America. I have a colleague who did their fellowship and learned a ton while working with some great local governmental agencies. They’ve also recently launched a job board to curate high impact mission-driven jobs and jobs with local government entities: https://jobs.codeforamerica.org/.
I’d also encourage looking at B-Corps: https://www.bcorporation.net/. These are for-profit companies that include positive social impact alongside profit as determinants of success. I work at TechChange, which is a B-Corp. If education and capacity development are your passions, we at TechChange are building a SaaS learning platform that empowers organizations around the world to make their training more effective. We are working hard to push the limits of traditional online learning and are looking for talented folks to help us achieve this goal: https://www.techchange.org/careers/.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#134I work at a matchmaking platform that connects nonprofits with professionals of all kind who are willing to volunteer on projects. http://www.catchafire.org/
Sometimes our nonprofits post iOS/Android prototyping projects, for example.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an exercise left to the reader. Find groups that interest you and are effective in their mission. Ask how you can help and follow through with your commitments. Be humble and aware that initially you will be taking not giving as they expend resources to spin you up. Or as mentioned above - just donate some of that sweet, sweet cash that tech workers are making hand over fist compared to nearly every other occ…
> Yes, surely those people bear no responsibility around their personal level of civic engagement. "Those people" started this thread and asked for specifics. > Find groups that interest you and are effective in their mission. That's what the poster is doing. I don't disagree with your sentiment; the answer to "how do I do good?" isn't just going to be handed to you. I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I thin…
> I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I think somebody might otherwise confuse your comment for being a useful answer to the original topic.
Doing the lord's work, right here ...
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yes, surely those people bear no responsibility around their personal level of civic engagement. "Those people" started this thread and asked for specifics. > Find groups that interest you and are effective in their mission. That's what the poster is doing. I don't disagree with your sentiment; the answer to "how do I do good?" isn't just going to be handed to you. I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I thin…
> I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I think somebody might otherwise confuse your comment for being a useful answer to the original topic. Doing the lord's work, right here ...
> Doing the lord's work
It's called "social good" nowadays.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disrupting the taxi mafia has definitely made the world a better place.
Did the "taxi mafia" encourage a class of laborers who sleep in their cars for less than a minimum wage while depriving them of any kind of protections normally associated with employment?
...yes?
Are you really unfamiliar with how medallion owners used to treat their drivers?
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#138I had the exact same thought, a few years back. I believe there is a vast amount of untapped human potential that languishes in self-defeat. People that, with just a little help, could right themselves and unleash all sorts of good on the world.
so, I'm trying to help people make cognitive and behavioral improvements in their lives with my side project (http://willyoudidyou.com)
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#139Work as a programmer for whoever will pay you the most. Invest, and donate money to causes you care about.
This is exactly the advice a sociology professor in college gave to the sociology majors.
A sociology professor advised sociology majors to work as programmers?
That's much better advice than I'd expect from a sociology professor, if I'm to be honest.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#140I have recently started volunteering my tech skills (I'm a data scientist for a well-known tech company) to the local chapter of the ACLU and am exploring volunteering for a UN subsidiary who desperately needs the help. If you are interested in potentially working to help the UN project, message me.