Posted by Juliette Terzieff

The world is changing. A revolution is underway. Driven by a family of technologies that can erase barriers associated with time and distance or raise an individual voice instantaneously onto a global platform, people, organizations and governments around the world are embracing the potential changes this digital revolution can produce. Future 500’s new Tech Planet Journal initiative works to chronicle and shape positive development with broad stakeholder support.

It seems like every day there are news stories from around the world on a dizzying array of topics associated with how the Internet, broadband, microchips and software are changing the way we live and work…

Social media has become more than an outlet to discuss favorite recipes or weekend plans with friends.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube have become tools of the pro-reform masses across the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. When natural disaster strikes millions the world round turn to those same tools for damage assessments, missing persons’ pleas and donation drives.

Humanitarian agencies and NGOs have begun to look at incorporating Internet-based solutions driven by volunteer communities such as Ushahidi, CrisisMappers and OneStreetMap into existing systems of global humanitarian response. Western governments are providing millions of dollars in funding to support technological fixes to help dissenters sidestep government censorship of the Internet and restrictions to access.

Mobile telephones are evolving into more than just a replacement for traditional rotary phones – morphing into a valuable asset that overcomes infrastructure gaps in the developing world.

Across Africa mobile banking has opened up economic opportunities for the urban poor, women and agricultural communities. Farmers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa are able to avoid some of the worst climate change effects by tapping into mobile solutions to get information on weather patterns.

The field of mHealth is exploding with a huge percentage of development focused on using mobile phones to diagnose, track and deliver care. The drive to improve maternal and child health worldwide continues to draw particular focus.

If it seem like a lot, that’s because it is…and actors worldwide – whether they be individual entrepreneurs, NGOs, companies or governments – are innovating and driving additional applications every single day.

Not every innovation will solve the problem it sets out to address. Not every government embraces technology. Not every community welcomes to the openness, and scrutiny, that comes with access.

These are opportunities and challenges the world will need to address as we move through the 21st century.

The Future 500’s new Tech Planet Journal initiative is working to track and shape the revolution – in part by providing a website clearing house of case studies, organizations, tools, services, and reports that document the current and potential impacts of digital technologies on sustainability, prosperity, and democracy.

Come visit the new Tech Planet Journal site…and let us know what you think.

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