IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 71

Step into the Shoes
Reflect but don't procrastinate. Begin to imagine solutions, to #UpgradeYourWorld in Microsoft-speak, leverage the technology and your knowledge to provide
positive change to the array of issues you encounter.
Act. Don't be disheartened by the sheer size or number
of issues. Begin to chip away by using IT for social
impact in collaboration with the individuals or communities in which shoes you walk. (Figure 8.)

That's IT for social impact
Woodsen [64] reminds us of Frederick Buechner's belief
that social impact, at its most basic level, is where "your
deep gladness and world's deep hunger meet." Finding
that intersection is one first step everyone can take
towards realizing your own social impact [64]. Put on
your backpack and step into those shoes.

More Scholarly Engagement Needed
This paper has attempted to elucidate the concept of
IT for social impact by exploring three knowledge
streams. First the paper considered relevant literature
to build an understanding on how various people
(researchers and practitioners) and institutions have
broadly described and defined the concept of IT for
social impact. These often interchangeable and related concepts include social impact, social impact analysis, social innovation, and social enterprise. Second,
a number of projects offered by academia and other
organizations where technology has been used to
create social impact were identified and briefly
described. Third, the paper presented a synthesis of
literature and these projects to enable a better understanding of the SUT IT for Social Impact unit of study
and more generally to answer the question: "What is
IT for Social Impact?".
At the outset it was suggested that there is a strong
need for more scholarly engagement on the subject of
humanitarian technology broadly and more specifically
technology for good projects. One particularly promising future research agenda is emerging through exploration of the Internet of Things (IoT) [14], [38], [39], [52],
[65]. The IoT is particularly relevant to technology for
good projects similar to those described here as it fulfills all the technological requirements to be successful
in developing countries: it is low power technology
(good for places with unreliable power supply), it does
not require a fast Internet connection (nodes are sending small amounts of data, and servers can be local), it
is low-cost (or getting there), and it has an immediate
impact on people's lives [66]. As Datta [14] points out, it
was promising to see particular focus given to humanitarian applications of the IoT at the 2015 IEEE Humanitarian Technology Conference [14].
DECEMBER 2017

∕

This paper has contribution towards a clearer understanding of what IT for social impact is, the value of IT
for social impact projects to individuals, communities,
and organizations, and the value of these types of projects to students. It has presented summaries of definitions, understandings, projects, and opportunities
where the power and privilege of "imagineering" how IT
can create positive social impacts on the lives of many
others who have not yet realized the benefits of this
truly amazing and transformative technology called
information technology.

Author Information
The authors are with Department of Business Technology and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne Business
School, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia.

References

[1] Alaska State Library, "The Alaska OWL Program," http://library
.alaska.gov/dev/owl.html, accessed 29-04-2016.
[2] ANZTSR, "Australian and New Zealand Third Sector Research,"
http://www.anztsr.org.au/, accessed 26-04-2016.
[3] J.N. Barraket, M. Collyer, M. O'Connor and H. Anderson, "Finding
Australia's Social Enterprise Sector: Final Report," Australian Centre
for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, June 2010.
[4] J.B. Bavelas, "Quantitative versus qualitative," Social Approaches
to Communication, pp. 49-62, 1995.
[5] BBC News, "Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'," Technology, July 1, 2010, http://www.bbc.com/news/10461048, accessed
16-06-2016.
[6] E. Brynjolfsson and A. McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work,
Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies.
Norton, 2014.
[7] H. Buckland and D. Murillo, Pathways to Systemic Change:
Inspiring Stories and a New Set of Variables for Understanding
Social Innovation. Sheffield: Greenleaf, 2013.
[8] M.F. Bull, "Shape sorting: Towards defining social enterprise in
the UK," presented at Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), Stream: Social, Environmental and Ethical Enterprise
(Glasgow, U.K.), Nov. 11-12, 2015.
[9] A. Burlacu, "Vodafone DreamLab Android app lets you help
cancer research - Here's how," Tech Times, 2015; http://www
.techtimes.com/articles/104583/20151110/vodafone-dreamlabandroid-app-lets-you-help-cancer-research-heres-how.htm, accessed
30-04-2016.
[10] Centre for Social Impact, About Social Impact, 2015, http://
www.csi.edu.au/about-social/, accessed 24-07-2016.
[11] E. Chhabra, "Google.org making tech for good a reality,"
Forbes, Feb. 19, 2015.
[12] H.M. Cooper, "The structure of knowledge synthesis," Knowledge in Society, vol. 1, pp. 104-126, 1988.
[13] B. Dann, "Harnessing the power of 'Tech for Good'," Huffington Post, U.K., 2016; http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/billy-dann/
harnessing-the-power-of-tech-for-good_b_10065232.html, accessed
24-06-2016.
[14] S.K. Datta, "The Internet of Things Activities Report [Future
Directions]," IEEE Consumer Electronics Mag.vol. 5, no. 1, pp.
26-28, 2016.
[15] G. Dees, "Enterprise Non-profits," Harvard Business Rev., vol.
76, no. 1, pp. 55-67, 1998. [Mismatch]
[16] Deloitte, Digital India: Unleashing Prosperity, 2015; https://
www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/in/Documents/technologymedia-telecommunications/in-tmt-tele-tech-2015-noexp.pdf, accessed
10-04-2016.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

http://library http://www.alaska.gov/dev/owl.html http://www.anztsr.org.au/ http://www.bbc.com/news/10461048 http://www http://www.techtimes.com/articles/104583/20151110/vodafone-dreamlab http://http:// http://www.csi.edu.au/about-social/ http://www.Google.org http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/billy-dann/ http://https:// http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/in/Documents/technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017