Digital Bootstrapping: Future Technologies for Today's Digital Outcasts

Despite our growing potential to augment human capability through technology, the innovation curve sometimes leaves behind people who could most benefit. These “digital outcasts” then take it upon themselves to improve, empower, and sustain their success in life, mostly through personally customized solutions that otherwise would not exist. For such an important (and growing) demographic, this represents a cultural sea change of increasing significance.

This presentation will detail three case studies of digital outcasts—members of disenfranchised populations who transformed their communities through a grassroots approach to technological innovation. Individual examples will include the following: a young man living with traumatic brain injury whose customized iPad app aids his treatment; the use of virtual reality as a form of pain distraction among people with multiple sclerosis, and a nutritional support program assisting community leaders living in urban “food desert” neighborhoods.