How You Can Make a Difference to Technology Justice

This week is Social Media Week, a global initiative where those working in the social and digital communications industries come together to focus on promoting best practice. London is one of the key locations, and you can’t spend long on Twitter at present without running into the #smwldn hashtag. I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part in a panel debate about the future of the communications industry yesterday, taking my seat alongside Deputy Editor of The New Statesman, Jon Bernstein, lifestyle blogger Eva Keogan, and European Digital Manager for Spectrum Brands, Katie McLean. But more of that another time. 

At BOTTLE we’ve taken a slightly different tack around Social Media Week. ‘Social Good’ is a phrase that has started to appear more and more over the last few months but has yet to really mean much in terms of action. We’ve been working with the charitable organisation Practical Action recently, which is focused on using technology to combat poverty. The issues are complex and wide ranging, from the technological challenges and governance issues surrounding the distribution of and access to energy, to ‘simple’ on-the-ground solutions like the Zeer Pot, a clay ‘fridge’ that can extend the life of fresh food in hot countries from four days to three weeks. 

The Issue of Technology Justice 

There are 1.4 billion people in the world today who don’t even have access to electricity, and this prevents them from working their way out of poverty. It’s a technology issue and, as such, is something that the tech and communications industry should have a natural affinity to. And that’s where Social Media Week comes in. 

With our help, Practical Action has this week called on the tech, social media, communications and PR communities to back its campaign for ‘technology justice’ in the lead up to the Rio+20 Earth summit in June. Changing Government policy is far from an easy task, but the UN has set a target of 2030 for universal energy access and, on a more immediate front, Practical Action is determined that the issue will be high on the agenda at the Rio+20 summit, and it needs a wave of awareness and support from the digital and tech community to ensure this. 

It has devised an initiative called ‘Make Your Point’ where you can graphically demonstrate your support. It’s a lovely idea that doesn’t rely on donating money or sitting in a bath of beans – it just relies on everyone who reads about it to spend 30 seconds of their life registering their support for an amazing cause. So although we don’t normally use our blog posts to push specific client projects, just this once please get involved and click here to #MakeYourPoint. Thank you.

by Paul Sutton, Head of Social Communications