Introduction

As leaders of environmental activism we are often busy (seemingly more so these days). So much so that often we forget to wander, play and be amazed. Technology is moving forward and new, exciting and innovative ways to campaign present themselves. The global Greenpeace IT community had discussed moving tech into the future at its annual meet. One of the results of the Greenpeace IT Skillshare 2017 was the formation of the GP TechLab; a team to work with and discover new technologies to help save the planet in an entirely new way.

The Framework envisioned Greenpeace to become a tech-savvy and tech-efficient organization, that makes the best use of technology to help deliver our mission and organizational goals. At the IT Skillshare (Sept 2017) the IT community felt that we are not moving fast enough to learn and adopt key technologies. Also pilot islands where new technology is applied are often not known by the rest of the organization (within IT or across teams e.g. action / IT / Engagement) so that efforts are duplicated and learnings are repeated in different regions.

Project Objectives

  • Recognize the potential of emerging new technologies and promote the use in our campaigns and other work.
  • Test, trial and build proof of concepts showing the use of new technologies for campaigns and engagement.
  • Support and/or implement first-of-a-kind projects to apply & learn new technology.
  • Information broker for innovative technology-driven solutions
  • Identify, establish and flourish relationships to teams applying new technologies

Scope

As of Sept 2017 the following technologies should be the focus for testing, learning, coding, showing and sharing for the Tech Lab Team to create and showcase powerful application scenarios for Campaigns or Engagement:

  • Bots
  • Automation
  • Sensors / Internet of Things
  • VR
  • Big Data / Predictive Data Analytics / AI
  • Open Data
  • Blockchain

Since technologies move fast a list of relevant technologies in scope must be maintained and quarterly re-assessed by the Tech Lab. Especially if the team sees that a certain technology has reached a mature adoption (criteria ?) at Greenpeace it should be taken from the list.

In order to ensure campaign relevance the Tech Lab must keep close contact with campaigners / engagement and run demand-checks with potential technology application scenarios they see.

Interdependencies

  • Action tech community
  • Engagement
  • Digital community
  • R&D ?
  • Data Analytic Teams Asia (doing already much Data Analytic and Open Data work)
  • Mapping Hub

Not in Scope

  • Action tech focussed technology (e.g. drones, projections)
  • Social media content related technologies (e.g. social videos, GoPro Cameras, instagramm stories, social media templates, Video Editing SaaS, Facebook Livestreams): That is - covered broadly by current Engagement / Communication projects / initiatives
  • Architectural system roadmaps (e.g. Engagement System Roadmaps) or strategic global IT decisions: However recommendations or observations the Tech Lab comes across can be - addressed to the global IT Council (or other global committees) and is welcomed.
  • Standard project work for Global or NRO’s: While the Tech Lab may support first-of-a-kind projects to apply & learn new technology it is not an internal tech agency for internal - resourcing and thus the project sponsors will carefully watch that it does not get overloaded with operational work.
  • Using existing technology fix problems or make improvements.