When technology makes special groups no longer special, it is the greatest goodwill of technology.
In the digital age of the whole people, technology has given a new scale of social value. Under this new scale, the logic of public welfare is undergoing tremendous changes. The original act of “donating money and materials” is becoming a technology-centric approach that integrates with the company itself. The business achieves a development model that combines "profits" with "benefits". This new model is creating new social values more efficiently, which we call "technology for good."
To improve science and technology, from a macro perspective, it must first bring convenience and dividends to most people. Social products, e-commerce products, entertainment products, Internet of Things products, etc., play a key role in solving the connection between people, people and things, and things and things. At least in the initial stage, providing convenience for use is the greatest good. Of course, the advancement of science and technology can also be expressed as concrete social actions, such as the promotion of charity by Internet public welfare, which greatly reduces the threshold for people to participate through technology. Grounding gas.
On the 5th floor of Synopsys Building, No. 926 Yishan Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, Li Renmi, deputy general manager of Cisco China R&D Center and head of corporate social responsibility, and Ye Junying, Cisco China R&D Center Supply Chain Project Manager and initiator of the Science and Technology Blindness Project, Jack Ma, the current project manager of the Science and Technology Aid for the Blind Project of Cisco China R&D Center, told the author a typical case of "technology for the good"-technology for the blind.
On November 1, 2018, Cisco and Gu Meiren Pin Disability Service Center organized a walking activity called "Hand in Hand, Walk Together". In the event, 20 volunteers from the Cisco China R&D Center thoroughly solved the difficulties experienced by the visually impaired group in their lives and were inspired. These volunteers expressed their willingness to use the power of technology to help this special group improve their lives. environment.
Just five months later, Alex, the founder of the Gu Meiren Pin Disability Service Center, who was a programmer, hoped to work with Cisco to develop an accessible software to help the visually impaired people enrich their social lives and get social support. After receiving the request for help, the Cisco R&D team immediately began to actively respond. Through the internal recruitment of volunteers, a team of engineers was formed in a short time, and the project of "Technology for the Blind" was officially launched.
According to Ye Junying, in the early stages of project implementation, I felt a lot. For example, in the process of accessibility testing, as a normal person, it is difficult to imagine the actual scene of the visually impaired group. In order to make the product closer to the visually impaired during its development, Cisco internally asked volunteers to put on blindfolds and use blind sticks to experience the actual life scenes of the visually impaired. At that time, in order to understand more needs, Cisco also invited Alex and other visually impaired people to visit the company and ask questions.
During the execution of the project, many volunteers found that the originally simple things pose great challenges to the visually impaired. For example, can you still walk in a straight line after blindfolding? How should blind people use mobile phones? It is understood that Alex gave a demonstration to Cisco volunteers at that time. He turned on his mobile phone, used a screen reading software, and then started playing Ant Forest. This was an unexpected feeling for the volunteers. After communicating with more visually impaired people, the R&D team found that as long as the accessibility services were done well enough, the visually impaired could also use the software like normal people. This inspired Design considerations for accessibility in the development of applications after Cisco.
Ma Yun said that during the implementation of the "Technology for the Blind" project, every email sent out will receive positive responses from everyone. Volunteers all expressed their hope to help the visually impaired with their own strength and provide practical and effective assistance. During the epidemic, because Cisco R&D team members came from different departments and office areas, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hefei, they communicated and cooperated through Webex software. It can be seen that combining the power of technology and design, philanthropy is constantly evolving. In terms of its nature, "Technology for the Blind" is a typical project combining technology and charity. This "bridge" project with technology as a carrier is helping more Many visually impaired people strengthen their connection with society.
In fact, science and technology is a kind of ability, and being good is a choice. Our choice of "science and technology for good" not only means unswervingly improving our technological capabilities, providing users with better products and services, but also advocating What is not done, what is done must be done.
In Li Renmi's view, the current technology is giving new directions and infinite possibilities for public welfare. First of all, with the help of technological means such as big data and intelligence, the efficiency and value of public welfare organizations are being improved. Under the new crown epidemic, non-profit organizations such as Lianquan are using online platforms to turn a 50-kilometer offline fundraising event into an online charity competition, which greatly improves efficiency. Secondly, science and technology has infinitely shortened the distance between institutions, donors and volunteers. Some technological methods that connect disadvantaged groups and volunteers, such as "science and technology for the blind", enable disadvantaged groups to obtain volunteers in the shortest time. The help of the person.
In fact, corporate social responsibility is no longer a series of sporadic incidents, nor is it simply responding to incidents such as disaster relief, nor is it simply donating money and materials. In Li Renmi's view, corporate social responsibility should be based on the enterprise itself, combined with social needs and the core capabilities of the enterprise, and systematically plan and deploy. Exploit opportunities for public welfare from the level of social needs, combine the technical capabilities of the company, and establish relevance. Starting from the core value of the enterprise itself, endowing public welfare with systemicity, and finally using technological means to give public welfare "innovation" and "sustainable" vitality, this is the ultimate connotation of "technology for good".
Under the wave of digitalization, how to build a cornerstone of trust between enterprises and society so that technology can better serve society requires joint exploration by multiple parties, including technology companies. Talking about the proposition of "Technology for Good" is not only the responsibility mission of technology companies like Cisco, but also a footnote of the social era. On this road, society needs more companies like Cisco to work together to practice "Technology for Good". The value connotation of.
