20 Inspiring Startups Aiming to Improve the World

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By Monty Munford2013-08-19 10:00:45 UTC

Many organizations and individuals have found technology to be a great medium in order to change the world for the better. With the work of foundations such as the Gates Foundation, support from initiatives such as social enterprise accelerator Wayra UnLtd and the Nominet Trust 100 and, of course, the help Internet, the future is brighter for those who were previously benighted.

Below, we look at 20 initiatives around the world making a difference in the way we live and the way we will live. From Ugandan health projects and deforestation prevention in the Amazon to Icelandic crowdsourcing, inspiring organizations are transforming the planet.

See also: 16 Ways the Internet Supercharged Viral Philanthropy

Which social good tech innovations would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

Following the example of Code.org in Silicon Valley, Code Club World wants to give every child in the world the chance to learn to code. It provides project materials and a volunteering framework that supports the running of after-school coding clubs.

This smartphone app monitors changes to skin features, initially targeting changes in moles as an early warning system for skin cancer. This turns the smartphone into a data collection device, which gives doctors more information to aid diagnosis.

In a novel use of crowdsourcing, Iceland is redrafting its constitution via the web, allowing citizens the chance to contribute to the document. The Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, will ratify the findings after two consecutive parliamentary assemblies and one general election.

Life Lens is a mobile app that more accurately analyzes blood samples for malaria, a blight that kills more than 3,000 children a day. Its use cuts down on the number of "false positives," allowing money and resources to be more effectively directed to ill children.

Image: Freecycle

Freecycle is a growing network of 9 million global members offering free goods instead of throwing them away. It's a grassroots and entirely not-for-profit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

Bookshare is the world’s largest accessible online library of copyrighted books for people with print disabilities such as blindness. The organization has a network of technology, corporate and non-profit advisors, as well as a community of donors.

This storytelling web platform helps charities create the right level of emotional attachment for long-term, trust-based relationships. Social projects can show their donors the social impact achieved with their contribution by a transparent approach to funding, showing exactly where their money is going.

ZubaBox is a solar-powered Internet hub that brings Wi-Fi to the African wilderness and provides long-term sustainable development to the world’s poorest countries. To date, it has provided more than 114,000 computers to Africa’s most isolated communities.

Blind Square is an augmented reality GPS application for the visually impaired. It obtains information about the surrounding environment from Foursquare and OpenStreetMap. It also uses its own high-quality voices in many different languages to announce information about the user's surroundings.

Hole-in-the-Wall is a free computer built into a wall to allow poor children in India to use one for the first time. Since its inception in 1999, Hole-in-the-Wall has grown from a single computer in New Delhi to more than 100 computers at various locations across India and abroad.

See also: iSchool Unlocks E-Learning in the Developing World

These are mobile, high-tech medical centers that provide medical facilities in Brazil, which were developed to take specialized, humanized and high-technology preventive medical care to communities in need. It is a leveraged non-profit organization that focuses on low-income people — the population deprived of access to quality medical care.

Moms Rising is a collection of mothers in the United States who try to make the U.S. a more family-orientated country. With more than 1 million members and counting, it amplifies the voices of women and moms to impact legislation, and promotes fair treatment for mothers and women.

This is a global movement of 55,000 individuals, communities and organizations fighting to prevent human trafficking around the world. In October 2013, this initiative will be supported by the first Counter Child Trafficking conference in London.

"The Internet for farmers without the Internet," WeFarm allows farmers to ask questions, share tips and advice via local SMS to thousands of members across the world. WeFarm uses the Internet and its unique peer translation system to share this knowledge across the platform.

Imazon is the first independent deforestation monitoring system for the Brazilian Amazon, using technical mapping and satellite imagery. Its mission is to save the Amazon from the forest floor up, and has pioneered a "Green City," a model of sustainability with a new economic approach that has seen illegal deforestation virtually halted.

Imaging the World provides ultrasound images via the web from rural maternity clinics in Uganda to centers for diagnosis. It's changing global medicine through a revolutionary concept integrating technology, training and community — bringing medical expertise and high quality healthcare to remote and underserved areas.

Image: Enable Talk

These are gloves equipped with sensors that recognize sign language, translating gestures into text on a smartphone, which converts the text to spoken words. The concept of the project consisted of one sensor on each glove and a mobile device, which conducts the recognition process.

This initiative enables secure open access to genomics data for research, and allows for huge amounts of data to be shared by researchers. It solves the problem of data privacy, since the research community has no infrastructure for sophisticated data access.

EnergyDeck is a community-based platform in the UK that helps organizations save energy costs. This initiative dovetails with the UK directive to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, and 80% by 2050.

This is an online world that helps children manage their moods and improve emotional intelligence in a fun and engaging way. It helps to alleviate mental health issues such as depression and anxiety in children and young adults, and creates a positive impact on the health community.

Image: Flickr, Black Rock Solar

Topics: apps, Apps and Software, contributor, Social Good, Startups, Tech, US & World, World