How Steep Is That Sidewalk? A Digital Map for People With Disabilities

In order to encourage people to properly dispose of their waste, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has installed smart vending machines for recyclable waste at Connaught Place and India Gate. In return for making the sustainable waste choice, users receive monetary rewards via e-wallet.

Despite advancements in technology in most sectors of life leading to an increase to access of information about practically anything, little is still known about the ocean and its behavioral patterns. Liquid Robotics – a Silicon Valley-based company – is trying to change that. Engineers here have created the "Wave Glider," which essentially acts as a router within the ocean powered by wave energy and solar panels. This invention can transmit data on tectonic activity that has the potential to predict tsunamis.

The Send Me SFMOMA program allows people to text a number with a request based on a variable such as a object, mood, or color and receive back an image of an appropriate work in the SFMOMA collection. Through this service, which SFMOMA has made open source for other museums to use, the museum is able to connect with the public and ‘display’ a much higher percentage of its holdings.

The New York Public Library Insta Novels program makes public domain works available to be read on Instagram. Featuring engaging artwork and a user friendly format, Insta Novels make literature available to users with a smartphone and provide a path to digital engagement for the library.

Readers on the BBC website can now find out more about select stories through “Appy Helper,” a module that provides background about an ongoing, complex story. The module works through both a chat-style interface that readers navigate via prompts or a more linear timeline display.

Ameelio is a technology startup launched by Yale students to facilitate free communication between people who are incarcerated and loved ones. In their first six months, the group went from sending 300 to over 4,000 letters a week to facilities in the United States. Their initial goal was to provide a not-for-profit alternative to the oftentimes predatory prison telecommunications industry. Recently they began a voter registration initiative where they send registration instructions, a blank voter registration application, and ballot request form to people who are incarcerated and eligible to vote.

A growing number of governments, companies, and nonprofit organizations are working together with new technology and data to identify fishing vessels that are breaking laws and engaging in human rights violations. Using satellite imagery and tracking signals, for example, a philanthropic company and a nonprofit worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to help the Ghanian navy arrest four vessels for illegal fishing practices. Technology by itself won’t stop forced labor and unregulated ships, but it can be helpful for cash-strapped governments looking to increase oversight of their fisheries.

L’association Basiliade a eu l’idée de reconvertir des hôtels vides en centres d’hébergement social. Elle a nommé l'un d'entre eux la "Maison des Fées". 36 femmes exilées sont hébergées avec leurs bébés. Elles bénéficient d'une solution de garde pour leurs enfants, d'un soutien du personnel de l'hôtel et de travailleurs sociaux.

En Suisse, l’association Appartenances fait appel à 140 interprètes communautaires pour favoriser l'autonomie des personnes migrantes. Leur mission : traduire, certes, mais surtout de dissiper les méprises potentielles dues aux différences culturelles entre une personne migrante et un professionnel de santé ou du social. Ces interprètes ont tous eux-mêmes un parcours migratoire derrière eux qui permet de saisir les nuances entre le pays d’origine de la personne migrante et le pays d’accueil.

Trace the Face, un site de la Croix-Rouge, aide les migrants à localiser leurs proches perdus sur la route de l’exil. Depuis 2013, 5 731 photos de personnes recherchant quelqu’un ont été publiées sur Trace the Face et 161 personnes ont pu retrouver un proche.