Ben Green: "Tech for Social Good" Needs to Do More

Social Impact

Ben Green, a postdoctoral scholar and assistant professor, explores the social and political impacts of government algorithms. He emphasizes the importance of problem framing in using algorithms to address social issues, noting that the success of such projects often hinges on factors beyond technical modeling 1. Ben's experience working as a data scientist for the City of Boston highlighted the disconnect between academic approaches and real-world applications, leading him to advocate for a more interdisciplinary approach to technology development 1.

The fundamental determinant of whether a project was successful or had positive or negative social impacts was not so much on the modeling side, but was much more on these other dimensions.

--- Ben Green

He encourages computer scientists to consider the sociopolitical effects of technology, advocating for new ways of framing questions to design technology for social good 2.

   

Problem Solving

Daniel Bashir highlights Ben's work as essential for anyone interacting with technology, emphasizing the need to step back from technology-driven solutions to social problems 3. Ben argues for understanding problems in their own right rather than immediately seeking technological fixes, especially for social issues that extend beyond algorithmic thinking 3.

Problems involving people in particular go way beyond the ability of technological and algorithmic thinking to even describe.

--- Daniel Bashir

He encourages a meta-level approach to research questions, urging the community to rethink the way problems are structured and addressed 4.