Sarah Austin

What compels you to blog? Why are you a part of this global conversation? These are the types of questions I ask before I hit the share button or upload a video. Technology definitely makes my life more functional and gives me an advantage that I’d love to share with the world. I’m compelled to open this knowledge with others so that I can give others the opportunity to have an advantage via technology.

In business, one of the most important things is to find a passion and a demand in the market. My passion comes from how technology helps people improve quality of life and do their personal best. As a reporter of technology trends for Pop17, the stories that interest me the most are how people can bring their passion to life and change the world with tech tools.

There are so many ways to use tech tools to improve the lives of others. These are the stories I like to highlight the most! For example, Kiva.org is a site that I like to support because they help to change the lives of so many entrepreneurs by allowing individuals to make micro loans to support small business. During times of disaster relief the internet has changes people’s lives through making it possible for crowd sourced fund raising. One loan can give people a step ahead and a step closer to alleviating global poverty.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are supporters of micro loans. So when my sister, Rebekah, and I made a short film about micro-loans for Hilary Clinton’s social network contests, Rebekah won the grand prize to work in China for a summer semester abroad. The exchange took place this summer, 2010, as an example of how Rebekah’s life was changed as a result of harnessing the power of the internet and technology. 

In a recent interview for a Pop17 blog series, I interviewed Tammy Camp about making change through technology. Tammy is a technology entrepreneur, speaker, and writer.

Here’s an excerpt:

Tammy: I made a Kiva loan to some lovely ladies in Dominican Republic. They need $400 more! Will visit on my next trip down. It is where I go to in Dominican Rebpublic so if the loan is complete, I will go down there and visit and see the $$ at work.
Sarah: How do you take the opportunity to be hands on when you are in the DR?
Tammy: They are female entrepreneurs, like myself. I know the country of Dominican Republic very well and understand the market segment. I’ll be able to advise them and provide insight on how they can grow their business. Plus give them encouragement.
Sarah: Since the recent earthquake there are so many people all over the world- we see their conversations on twitter- how do you keep your concerned followers up to date when you are there? What does a typical day look like for you there?
Tammy: I’ll livestream from the schools down there via Ustream, shoot video and post them on my blog here and also use Twitter to share my experience in real time.

Stories like Tammy’s are inspiring. For example, the one red paperclip guy is fascinating. This is a story of an ordinary man, Kyle MacDonald, who changed his life and the lives of others by trading his way up from a red paperclip to a house in 14 trades by using the internet. I love seeing how people can time and time again, use technology to turn lemons into lemonade. He helped others by making trades for their career advancement, like his 10th trade to Jody Gnant, who traded a record deal for her music in exchange for a year’s rent from her home in Phoenix, Arizona. The book, One Red Paperclip, is authored by Kyle who I was fortunate enough to sit down with at MIT in Massachusetts for ROFLCon.

I’m pretty much one of the biggest advocates for technology because I like to look at the people who use it and how that changes their lives. Technology is a way to change the world. If I could do anything with technology it would be opening up the lives of people to the resources technology has to offer. Everything from using the internet to find employment to aiding the disabled with tech tools that improve their lives show that change can happen with the right resources. Technology makes our lives easier and advances our quality of life.

Tags: entertaining, entertainment, technology