Comments on: The geeks shall rescue the Earth? http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth Confessions of a Non-Profit Executive Director Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:41:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth/comment-page-1#comment-42206 Allan Benamer Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:48:54 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth#comment-42206 It's true -- I'm a bigger fan of <a href="http://tools.google.com/gapminder/" rel="nofollow">Gapminder</a> than I am of your typical Save the Children commercial. There's a part of me that can't help it. I'm a postcolonial subject and I demand that people from the industrialized world apply the same intellectual tools to helping my relatives in the Philippines as they do to making money hand over fist every day on Wall Street. That said, many of the problems aren't always technical, especially in service delivery. However, when you start scaling upward I find that management practices need to be data-driven and have heavy operations management expertise. This is unfortunately what isn't taught to professional care providers. They know Maslow but not Six Sigma. I once showed a process flowchart to a nonprofit worker and they were like, "What is that? Chemistry?" Ugh. It’s true — I’m a bigger fan of Gapminder than I am of your typical Save the Children commercial. There’s a part of me that can’t help it. I’m a postcolonial subject and I demand that people from the industrialized world apply the same intellectual tools to helping my relatives in the Philippines as they do to making money hand over fist every day on Wall Street.

That said, many of the problems aren’t always technical, especially in service delivery. However, when you start scaling upward I find that management practices need to be data-driven and have heavy operations management expertise. This is unfortunately what isn’t taught to professional care providers. They know Maslow but not Six Sigma. I once showed a process flowchart to a nonprofit worker and they were like, “What is that? Chemistry?” Ugh.

]]> By: Peter Gulka http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth/comment-page-1#comment-42007 Peter Gulka Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:33:09 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-geeks-shall-rescue-the-earth#comment-42007 Whenever I see the numbers of people with AIDS in Africa my mind immediately starts to quantify volume of drugs, condoms, education material, and basic supplies that would be needed to eradicate the problem. Not just how to hold a telethon and feel good, but how to get rid of it altogether. It's weird - my brain just goes that way as I suspect it does for other geeks, particularly those who are involved with emerging tech in support of innovation. We see it as a challenge and it is fun to look at the pure logistics of how to solve it leaving out anything that remotely resembles an "It can't be done!" statement or sentiment. We have the tools to do it, so let's go do it. "Today I woke up and decided to cure AIDS in Africa". Well... why not? Whenever I see the numbers of people with AIDS in Africa my mind immediately starts to quantify volume of drugs, condoms, education material, and basic supplies that would be needed to eradicate the problem. Not just how to hold a telethon and feel good, but how to get rid of it altogether.

It’s weird – my brain just goes that way as I suspect it does for other geeks, particularly those who are involved with emerging tech in support of innovation. We see it as a challenge and it is fun to look at the pure logistics of how to solve it leaving out anything that remotely resembles an “It can’t be done!” statement or sentiment. We have the tools to do it, so let’s go do it.

“Today I woke up and decided to cure AIDS in Africa”.

Well… why not?

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