We are actively engaged in the dialogue and debates of our space: on issues of social justice, global development, and democratic innovation, and on the ethics and methodological evolution of design, mediation, and co-creation practice. More of our writing can be found at Medium.

Patrick Ainslie explains mobile money for China’s migrants in Technode. The article is an excerpt from Reboot’s recently released Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China’s Marginalized. 

Kate Krontiris will speaking at OpenGov Hub‘s brown bag lunch series tomorrow, March 13 – come say hi! OpenGov Hub is the day-to-day home to a range of people and organizations working on the open government agenda.

“The foundation of most migrant workers’ sustenance is their relationship to a laoban,” Patrick Ainslie writes in Shanghaiist. The article is an excerpt from Reboot’s recently released Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China’s Marginalized. 

In Ethnography Matters latest edition, Panthea Lee asks how to reach those living “off the grid”, such as victims of human trafficking, in the era of Big Data policy making.

Reboot’s Patrick Ainslie and Ethan Wilkes will be spending the afternoon at the 2013 Wagner Public Service Career Conference. We’re looking for exceptionally talented collaborators to help expand our team as we enter our next phase of growth. If you’ve got the right stuff, come say hi!

Reboot’s Jeremy Canfield and Ethan Wilkes will attend the World Bank‘s Urban Resilience Lab tomorrow evening. They will be meeting a 50-member World Bank delegation from the South Asia Region to exchange ideas on city management.

Reboot was thrilled to see a packed house at Green Spaces for the release of Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China’s Marginalized last night. Panthea Lee and Patrick Ainslie joined First Access’ Nicole Stubbs and Global Tech Ethnographer Tricia Wang for a wide ranging discussion on delivering services to marginalized communities the world over.  

Panthea Lee talks mobile money in international development with TechPresident for the release of Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China’s Marginalized. 

In the run-up to the release of the release of Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China’s Marginalized, Reboot’s Patrick Ainslie talks “handshakes over hetongs” in Tech in Asia’s latest on mobile money in China.

Reboot’s amazing Design Intern Meng Yan was featured at Social Media Week’s “The Greatest Idea Never Bought” panel on Friday. She delivered a pitch for her idea of “tattooing” NYC metrocards with unique designs that would fade as a rider’s credit decreased.

By understanding the lives of China’s most vulnerable, and by designing services that align with existing behaviors and networks,” Reboot’s Panthea Lee writes in the Center for Financial Inclusion’s blog, “millions of Chinese citizens can be lifted into stability.

Ethan Wilkes joined the 3rd Annual NYU Social Innovation Symposium on Friday. Themed “Rethinking Impact”, Ethan moderated the Technology for Social Good panel, which explored the increasing importance of technology on social impact.

Reboot’s Kate Krontiris was among the featured speakers tonight for Social Media Week at the Centre for Social Innovation. The event, co-organized by SPCLT Lab brought a diverse group of participants to discuss how business, design, and technology is transforming the world.

Mollie Ruskin and Ethan Wilkes of Reboot gave a talk today at the Institute for Community Living to explore the processes of designing and delivering better services.

China’s migrant workers are carrying their life savings around in their coat pockets. Reboot’s Ethan Wilkes argues it’s time to strengthen China’s informal economy through better access to financial services.

From February 8 – 10, our own Kate Krontiris will be mentoring student teams at MIT’s Scaling Development Ventures conference, and speaking on a panel about technology and social entrepreneurship at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference.  If you happen to be at either, please say hello!

Fast Company profiles Reboot’s Panthea Lee among its 11 Most Generous Designers. “For millions of people in [troubled parts of the world]…” Panthea explains, “these challenges are not simply the results of ‘intractable issues.’ Bad decisions created these problems and better decisions can help resolve them.

We’re searching for an exceptionally talented set of collaborators to help expand our team as we enter our next phase of growth. You can find out more details on our Careers page. If you think you’re an ideal candidate, or if you know someone who is, we’d like to hear from you.

Last week, Microsoft Research Fuse Labs hosted Reboot’s Panthea Lee at its annual Social Computing Symposium. This year’s symposium focused on populations and topics “off the radar.” In the era of Big Data, Panthea asked what might exist in the “negative space”? Who are we not capturing in our datasets? And how might we reach them?

We are so excited to welcome Adam Talsma as our new Program Designer. Adam comes to us by way of a diverse international background—with a recent focus on Latin America and South Asia—bringing extensive experience developing products and services in resource-constrained contexts. A trained engineer and innate maker, we’re thrilled to have Adam leading participatory design across our projects and helping us develop creative, appropriate, and locally sustainable solutions. Welcome aboard!