Technology Matters

Terraso:the terraso open source software project continued active development with a team which included professional software developers, a ux designer, and a product manager. Terraso priorities rely on feedback from local leaders on the front lines of climate change, striving to build more regenerative local economies. Terraso tools support data collection, including a specialized soil identification app, mapping, and visualization, and telling place-based stories. By the end of the year, terraso had over 800 users based in more than 85 localities (landscapes).

Field building:tech matters provides a range of resources to support the wider application of technology to the social impact field broadly. This includes our no-charge brief consultations with nonprofit leaders, regular talks and articles on tech for good, and a podcast series featuring the leaders of technology nonprofits. During 2024, we worked on "technology for good," the first book on how to start nonprofit tech enterprises, with a planned publication date in 2025. We are also actively working on an initiative called the "better deal for data," a lightweight approach to responsible data use in the social sector, modeled after the open source and creative commons movements, which included user research and the publication of research papers on the topic of data governance.