Melinda Gates: Tech's Responsibility to the Developing World (2351 hits)
Matt Petronzio Apr 09, 2013
Melinda Gates is no stranger to technology. After working at Microsoft in various roles for nine years, she understands tech, specifically, how it can help people overcome obstacles, disrupt the status quo and make room for global progress.
Gates is also a social good pioneer. Philanthropist, businesswoman and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she has spearheaded efforts to improve health and development around the world.
This kind of "positive disruption" was the theme of the third annual TEDxChange event last week. Gates hosted the conference and introduced seven speakers, including a theologian who discussed the balance between faith and family planning, a spoken-word poet who talked about the power of awareness, and children from the documentary Revolutionary Optimists who shared their views.
We had a chance to speak with Gates after the event, when she discussed how we can challenge and push the relationship among technology, health and development.
"You don't go into medicine without caring about changing the world," she says. "You don't go into technology without caring about changing the world."
These are the ideas and innovations that Gates believes are currently inspiring change in developing nations; ideas that we can learn from and expand on in order to improve quality of life around the world.
