Building Tech for People Power, Not Private Profit

When I started Action Network, it was out of frustration. I had been running digital campaigns for years, and I was frustrated that the technology available for activism and campaigning always seemed to fall a little short, to be just a little off, and never really aligned with what we were trying to achieve.

As I was looking at what we could do differently, I started to see that if we relied on tech from the billionaires, we would never get what we wanted. I started Action Network as a not-for-profit because I realized that the reason tech is built matters tremendously, and tech built for returns for investors will never fully line up with what we need to build strong movements.

At Action Network, we believe technology should be about empowering people and building strong communities. Our tools are built from the ground up with a respect for the people using them and a belief in what we are trying to achieve together. So much investor-driven technology is about monetizing human interaction and extracting value from our communities but, working together, we can create tools that reach for something very different and allow us to do so much more.

We created a unique development model, working directly with campaigners and organizers constantly, the needs of campaigns informing the decisions on what to build and the tech we build informing the strategy of campaigns. Because, in the end, we are building tools, tools that must match the needs of the movement, and what matters is the work of organizers and campaigns putting them to use.

Through the years, we’ve become more convinced, not less, that our original approach was correct. As the world struggles with the effects of billionaire-driven tech platforms, we can do something different, something better. We can, together, build tools and campaigns that reach for justice, not profit, and create the future we want.

Brian Young is Founder and CEO of Action Network. 

Action Network is an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes. Find out more at ActionNetwork.org