Tech for Public Service
The Tech for Public Service (TPS) initiative aims to spread the benefits of the tech disruption to broader communities and to harness the potential of new technologies for positive public impact. Through partnerships with NGOs and community groups, TPS connects emerging tech talents with local communities and develops tech-driven solutions for pressing challenges globally.
The Challenge
The tech disruption of the 21st century has revolutionized society in countless ways, from creating ubiquitous access to the world’s knowledge to building global marketplaces and networks overnight. Yet, even as these innovations have sprung up, their benefits have been increasingly followed by unforeseen costs, such as worsened socioeconomic inequality and widespread privacy violations. The Ivy Tech for Public Service initiative focuses on re-balancing the tech disruption to ensure that its impacts are shared more broadly with the public sector, while instilling tomorrow’s tech leaders with a mindset for public service and ethical issues.
Our Work
TPS approaches this challenge through interlinked approaches based on core values of tech ethics and public mindedness. These programs engage tech practitioners and enthusiasts at all levels, with a focus on college students.
Tech & Ethics Dialogues
As technologies like AI and drones reshape our environments, their negative impacts are becoming embedded in digital systems as technologists rush to disrupt society. TPS’s Tech & Ethics Dialogues bring together emerging tech talents to deeply consider the ethical implications of novel technologies and reshape the tech product lifecycle, so that tech ethics are a starting points—not an afterthought—of product development.
Tech for Communities
By connecting tech talents with community groups, TPS’s Tech for Communities seeks to upgrade local digital infrastructure to address specific problems, instill tomorrow’s tech leaders with a heart for public service, and develop models for channeling Silicon Valley’s talent towards the public good.
Innovators’ Mindset
Through a combination of practical workshops, speaker sessions, and experiential learning, the Innovators’ Mindset trains both technical and non-technical individuals in viewing community challenges as opportunities for tech-driven problem solving and social entrepreneurship.
Digital Literacy Toolbox
The Digital Literacy Toolbox is an evolving set of tools that empower individuals to develop and deploy tech solutions in the spirit of open-source technology. Through a network of tech partners and community NGOs, TPS also aims to multiply its impact and build stronger bridges between tech and public service opportunities across the nation.
