[liberationtech] Tech equivalent of Physicians for Social Responsibility?

[Jayne Cravens]

On 2013-10-15 04:07, Ringo wrote:

> I was wondering if anybody here knew of any organizations for IT
> professionals/computer repair technicians that are in the same vein as
> physicians for social responsibility? Obviously there are civil 
> advocacy
> groups like the EFF, but I was wondering if there were any more 
> specific
> orgs that are membership/profession-based? And yes, I googled it first 
> : )

Yes and no...

As has been pointed out, CPSR is now defunct. TechSoup used to be 
CompuMentor and, when it was that former entity, helped match nonprofits 
with screened IT professionals ready to donate their services to help 
with various tech issues in the SF Bay Area - it doesn't do that anymore 
(except online, via its forum - help on an ad hoc basis, and 
contributing online volunteers aren't screened). That kind of "circuit 
rider" movement lead to the creation of organizations like NTEN 
(http://www.nten.org/history), which still exists. Lasa is a social 
welfare law and tech charity based in the London, and long ran the UK 
version of Circuit Riders, but I'm not sure that exists anymore.

Internationally, there's the World Computer Exchange, which mobilizes 
tech volunteers (http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/volunteer). The 
United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) was a global 
volunteer initiative to help bridge the digital divide. UNITeS both 
supported volunteers applying information and communications 
technologies for development (ICT4D) and promoted volunteerism as a 
fundamental element of successful ICT4D initiatives. UNITeS was launched 
in 2000 by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and was hosted by the 
United Nations Volunteers programme. Its archived web site is here:
http://www.coyotecommunications.com/unites/
UNITeS is defunct, but the UN still has IT4D focused initiatives, and 
UNV still recruits and places IT volunteers for assignments.

I maintain a Twitter list called Tech4Good ICT4D that has other leads 
for you:
https://twitter.com/jcravens42/tech4good-ict4d/members


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Ms. Jayne Cravens MSc
Portland, Oregon, USA

The web site - http://www.coyotecommunications.com
The email - jc at coyotecommunications.com
Me on Twitter, other social networks, & my blog:
http://www.coyotecommunications.com/me/jayneonline.shtml
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