NEW YORK—The NetGain partnership, a group of five major foundations working to promote the use of the internet for social good, today committed a combined $18 million in grants to strengthen the emerging field of public interest technology, with the goal of increasing the number of people around the world who are using their technological skills to improve civil society and government at all levels. The partners also released their first report detailing opportunities and best practices for others to join the movement to build and expand public interest technology.
In a joint commitment to uncover new
ways the internet can be used to foster learning and promote justice, the Ford
Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, and the Mozilla
Foundation joined together in February 2015 to form the NetGain partnership.
Together with leaders from government, philanthropy, business, and the tech
world, the partnership aims to explore ways technology can advance the public
interest.
“Philanthropy has a responsibility
to ensure that technology makes the world more equal. For many of society’s
most disenfranchised, their relationship with technology is a virtual extension
of their exclusion,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “But
what gives me hope is that technology can be a critical ingredient in the
efforts to challenge inequality in all its forms and expand inclusion and
opportunity.”
The grants announced today include
five gifts the foundations collectively agreed to totaling $1.25 million to
support public interest technology. An additional $17 million in grants were
given by the foundation partners individually over the course of their
exploration of this emerging field. The five NetGain grants support everything
from fellowships that bring technology into the fields of journalism, science,
and public policy, to a Harvard University program that partners with civil
society organizations and government institutions to conduct scientific
experiments to learn how different technologies impact civil liberties, civil
rights, and consumer protection matters, building professional pathways for
technologists to engage these issues.
“The NetGain partnership is tackling
the paradox of the internet—working to ensure that the technologies of today
and the future maximize its great potential for good while minimizing real harm
to individuals, communities, and society,” said Julia Stasch, president of the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“Ensuring that people have the
know-how and vision to use technology to advance the common good is essential
to fostering an internet where innovation and inclusion thrive,” said Alberto
Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation. “NetGain aims to bring us closer
to this goal, helping to support and uncover the many ways that government,
business, and civil society can join the cause of digital equality.”
“NetGain is fostering future leaders
and building the skill sets of the people who have the power to change our
world for the better,” said Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla
Foundation. “By investing in a movement of technologists committed to the
public interest, we are also promoting the stature of the field, as prescribed
by our new report.”
The new report, A
Pivotal Moment: Developing a New Generation of Technologists for the Public
Interest [PDF], identifies opportunities to build the field of public
interest technology, and ways that philanthropy and other stakeholders can
invest to best support such efforts. The resource also details best practices
that will help people around the world design smarter interventions across
government and civil society to develop the talent and capacity of public
interest technologists.
“Our destiny as open societies is in
the hands of today’s and tomorrow’s technologists, and that’s why this report,
indeed this entire initiative, is so important,” said Chris Stone, president of
the Open Society Foundations. “We need to encourage the training and
development of technologists committed to the spirit of freedom and community
that gave birth to the internet.”
Strengthening the field of public
interest technology was just the first focus of the NetGain partners. The
foundations will announce the next topic of their work later in the year. The
overarching principles guiding NetGain include a commitment to:
- making the internet an open, secure, and equitable space that everyone can access and afford;
- supporting the opportunities created by a networked public sphere while guarding against potential harm;
- transforming learning to ensure that young people have the skills they need to succeed in a connected world;
- cultivating leaders in business, government, and civil society to fulfill the promise of the internet;
- enhancing data security and protect individual privacy; and
- ensuring that philanthropy leads in digital security and data ethics in its own practices.
To learn more about NetGain, visit www.NetGainPartnership.org.
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The Open Society Foundations work to
build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to
their citizens. Working with local communities in more than 100 countries, the
Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of
expression, and access to public health and education.
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