Examples of ICTs promoting positive social change

Let me briefly address this question "In this digital age, what role do information and communication technologies play in respecting and promoting these values?" Embedded in this question is the assumption that ICTs do actually play a positive role in supporting these values, which is not always bourne out in the real world. I.e. ICTs can and have been used to support tyranny, censorship, surveillance, unsustainable growth, racism and intolerance. So the real question is how do we leverage the enormous potential for ICTs to bring out our "better angels"?

There are no easy answers. But here are some encouraging signposts along the way:

• Viruses that are Good for You: As digital cameras, audio and video production gets more widely available around the world, people are able to get compelling and important "viral" messages out to an audience of millions. Cool projects: WITNESS (online video human rights monitoring project), Fighthunger.org Video Contest, Stand Up Against Poverty Videos
  
• Blogs Give Voice: The explosion of blogs have given voice to millions of people around the world (Technorati currently tracks 57 million blogs for example). Blog aggregators and other social networking tools are helping to promote cultural exchanges, understanding and tolerance. Cool projects: Global Voices Online (international blog aggregator with emphasis on the developing world), Omidyar.net (online collaboration space for social change.)


• Games for Good: Computer games are a powerful medium for reaching young people around the world, from Bombay to Johannesburg. Cool projects: PeaceMaker (promoting peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians), Food Force (teaching how humanitarian action works), Global Kids (promoting international youth cooperation through virtual worlds.)

These projects indicate that there is a lot of positive energy and creativity out there waiting to tackle the global challenges of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation using the tools of new media. While no replacement for the "traditional" media of radio, television and print, these ICT tools have the virtue of being more widely available and accessible for citizens around the globe. The challenge for governments and the telecom and media industries is to create open environments where these more broad-based communications tools can be used by more people, rather than be the subject of regulation, restriction and censorship.

Thus, it falls to institutions like the United Nations to use its global convening authority to bring together innovators from civil society, the private sector, and governments to better coordinate and scale up these ICT-empowered efforts to make a real difference by 2015.