Wir leben in einer vernetzten Welt, in der digitale Technologien unsere Kommunikation beschleunigen, Informationen zugänglicher machen und Produktionsprozesse transparenter werden. So die Hoffnung. Jedoch hat weltweit nur etwa die Hälfte der Menschen Zugang zum Internet und wir stehen am Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts immer noch vor großen Herausforderungen: Armut, Hunger, unzureichender Zugang zu Bildung oder Gesundheit, Konflikte und Korruption sind immer noch Alltag für viele Menschen.

Digitale Technologien können mit innovativen Lösungen dazu beitragen solche globalen Herausforderungen zu meistern. Dazu muss die digitale Zukunft gemeinsam mit Partnern aus Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika gestaltet werden.

Mit seiner wachsenden jungen Bevölkerung ist Afrika ein Kontinent der Chancen – junge Tüftler und Unternehmerinnen entwickeln innovative digitale Anwendungen - von mobilen Bezahlsystemen wie M-Pesa bis hin zu 3D-Druckern aus Elektroschrott.

Das Topic „Tech for Good“ sucht nach inspirierenden Beiträgen und fragt: Schafft die Digitalisierung Zugang zu Bildung für alle? Retten Start-ups die Welt? Wird die Landwirtschaft dank smarter Sensoren und Apps noch effizienter? Wie können beispielsweise Big Data, Blockchain oder Open Source Software-Lösungen global zu mehr Effizienz, Transparenz und Gerechtigkeit beitragen?

Die Sessions können Beispiele für Lösungsansätze und Erfolgsgeschichten aufzeigen, aber auch die Herausforderungen und Risiken, die mit dem digitalen Wandel einhergehen, diskutieren. Wir möchte gerne u.a. Visionäre, Techies, Maker, Entwickler, Experten, Innovateure und kreative Köpfe aus den Ländern Afrikas auf die Bühne holen für einen offenen Dialog zur digitalen Transformation auf der re:publica Accra und Perspektiven aus der ganzen Welt einbringen. Seid dabei und gestaltet die globale digitale Zukunft!

Die re:publica Accra und das Topic 'Tech for Good' werden durch das Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) als Hauptpartner unterstützt. Das BMZ unterstützt ebenfalls Sessions in den Topics “Female” und “Data”: HerStory - Insights from Female Leaders und Tackling Financial Crime: Open and Big Data for Investigative Journalism.

  • Research & Education
    Tech for Good
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    Ever wondered what a flea looks like up close? You want to know what kind of yeast is swimming in your craft beer? Build with us simple microscopes to explore the microscopic universe around us! We can have a look on different tiny samples under the microscope and detect bacteria and yeast in yogurt and beer. So bring some things with you which you want to examine and take part in our expedition into the micro universe.
  • Politics & Society
    Tech for Good
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    From global content moderation to overnight algorithm variation affecting news streams, Big Tech is taking full control of key aspects of our social lives and directly affecting our collective autonomy, media independence and, more generally, freedom. We will continue the conversation started on RP17 on Digital Colonialism, this time going beyond just describing the problem: we will define a footprint on how to overcome it.
  • Science & Technology
    Tech for Good
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    In this workshop we are going to talk about how to replace plastic bags and daily life packaging with biodegradable materials and learn how to make bio plastics.

  • re:publica
    Tech for Good
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    The Global Innovation Gathering's Labmobile is a mobile space for learning, hacking, making, and most of all for knowledge exchange and community building. The main goal is to have a vehicle to bring people together who would otherwise never have met. We want to share stories and our learning that connections made through co-creation are deep, impactful and lasting: We are what we create together!
  • Politics & Society
    Tech for Good
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    The absence of Net Neutrality, and the introduction of free Facebook via internet.org, was craftily exploited by the new social media army employed by the country's political candidates in the 2016 elections. Fake news and misleading headlines flourished through this, and continues to contribute to an ever growing problem of misinformation online.
  • Science & Technology
    Tech for Good
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    Amongst essential technology developments Open Source Ecology Germany is focusing on small scale forms of energy autonomy. By using modular and scalable elements like the UniProKit, the SolarBox is a key project to give maximum flexibility for mobile energy solutions. Open sourcing the development and creating OER materials means this kind of technology becomes an accelerator for innovation and empowers global tech solutions and Access to Skills and Knowledge #ASK. Let's build it together!
  • Research & Education
    Tech for Good
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    #ASKotec; the 'Access to to Skills and Knowledge Open Tech Emergency Case' is a resource kit for community trainers, created for mobile field-use where there is neither easy power nor internet connectivity such as refugee camps, low-infrastructure regions or rural areas. Intended as ‘Open Tech for Good’, #ASKotec was created through a series of hub development workshops by a community of young innovators intent on bringing skills training and peacebuilding together in the effort to end the South Sudan conflict.
  • Media & Journalism
    Tech for Good
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    The EAMLab is a short term media residency program and focuses on networking and collaboration amongst young professionals and innovators. The initiative is aimed at introducing new formats of collaboration between African media centres and local media professionals and to promote constructive and peaceful media work. This session provides an overview of diverse ideas and projects the fellows developed and realised in 2017 and gives an entertaining outlook of the upcoming activities in 2018 of the program in Africa and South-East_Asia.
  • Science & Technology
    Tech for Good
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    Facebook and Google suck up our personal data and turn it into fake news, engagement algorithms and “psychographic messaging” fed by Russian bots and digital stealth operatives trolling for Brexit and Donald Trump's election. A battle is looming over who will control this sea of data and artificial intelligence, with the needs of the public interest and private, Internet-based businesses often in conflict. What can be done to promote innovative policy approaches about the use of Big Data, and to develop a social economy for the digital age?
  • Politics & Society
    Tech for Good
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    Social/political blogging contributes to diversity of opinion across Africa. Bloggers are filling the shoes of traditional media that struggles to stand as a real pillar of democracy. In this context, blogging provides news analysis in contrast to the hysteria of social media news coverage. Away from lifestyle blogs, what is therefore the role of social/political bloggers – to provide analysis of the issues of our day, to offer an alternative voice or to remain independent/credible at all costs?
  • re:publica
    Tech for Good
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    The Queen of Typewriters clarifies why everybody needs a mechanical typewriter, explains how you find the right one, gives tips for cleaning and mainenance and presents "Lady 1337", a vintage mechanical typewriter that also serves as a USB keyboard.
  • Business & Innovation
    Tech for Good
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    See the premiere of “Digital Africa“ - a documentary film portraying different digital innovations across Africa. During a four week journey through Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana we met and interviewed founders and innovators working on local solutions to development problems.