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Ask Slashdot: Who's the Doctors Without Borders of Technology?

Posted by timothy on from the trespassers-mostly dept.

danspalding writes I'm transitioning into full time tech work after 10 years in education. To that end, after years of tooling around with command line and vim, I'm starting a programming bootcamp in early December. I used to think I wanted to go into ed tech. But the more I think about it, the more I just want to contribute to the most important work I can using my new skills — mostly JavaScript (with a strong interest in graph databases). Ideally an organization that does bold, direct humanitarian work for the people who need it most. So where should I apply to work when I finish bootcamp next March? Who's the MSF of the tech world?

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Engineers Without Borders by Calavar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Engineers Without Borders

  2. Re:Nerds Without Borders by ZG-Rules · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.nerdswithoutborders.com/

    That's not the right website for NWB - that's some kind of tech blog with adverts.

    The correct site is: http://nerdswithoutborders.net/

  3. Check your local community first by borgasm · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm guessing that your local community probably has some needs for your skills, whether its an elementary school, charity organization, adult education program, etc....You'd be surprised how many people are held back by their lack of basic computer skills Slashdotters think they were born with.

    I share your same desire to be able to donate my skills to humanitarian organizations in need (I can't build a house with my hands, but I can sure set up networks, workstations, infrastructure, etc), but many people in the world need basic services like toilets a lot more than they need electronics.

  4. Are you looking for a Career, or a Cause? by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Informative

    The start of the summary suggested the writer was looking for a career. Nonprofits are great and all, but if you are looking for a career you might want to look elsewhere. On the other hand if the person in question just retired, or has other sources of revenue that they could depend on if things didn't pan out, then searching for a "[X] without borders" might be fine.

    Case in point, I have known several health care professionals (physicians, pharmacists, nurses, etc) who have worked with their corresponding "[X] without borders" groups at times. They were always happy to do it and to have done it, but they always had to go back to their regular jobs afterwards so that they could pay the bills.

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  5. fairtraderecycling.org by retroworks · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's an international group which helps defend falsely accused "geeks of color". Here are two recent examples of FTR projects.

    1. Ambassador program flies students and techs overseas to meet and qualify buyers of used tech who people are afraid to sell to based on "ewaste" myths. http://resource-recycling.com/...

    2. Defense and petitions of UK TV repairman and ex-pat Nigerian Joe Benson, imprisoned in UK for "e-waste crime" based on "common knowledge" that 80% of exports of used equipment to Africa are burned in primitive dumps. FairTradeRecycling got the UN to fund actual research of the containerloads in question, which revealed 91% reuse and repair, better than brand new product, and found the African geeks who buy and repair used equipment were earning 6 times average wages (Ghana, Nigeria). http://resource-recycling.com/...

    Disclosure, I'm the founder.

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