What Is IT for Social Impact?: A Review of Literature and Practices
Jason Sargent, Ashir Ahmed · IEEE Technology and Society Magazine · 2017
This article sets out to provide a timely reconceptualization of IT for social impact by exploring pragmatic, commercial, not-for-profit (NFP) and academic lead, collaborative community-based technology for good projects. We take a holistic approach because the problems communities are facing are not a single discipline. These require a holistic solution, according to Craig Weidemann, Penn State University's Vice President for Outreach, which is the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education. Also, a timely reconceptualization is needed as the notion of a digital divide and its logical implication - that social problems can be addressed through providing computers and Internet accounts - has seemed increasingly problematic. Even in its broadest sense, the digital divide implies a chain of causality: that lack of access (however defined) to computers and the Internet harms life chances.