A look at the tech companies and people that helped with issues from COVID-19 to wildfires to Black Lives Matter in 2020
Kevin Roose / New York Times : Tweets: @tjwalha , @kimberland_1 , @cbarlerin , @nytimes , @nytimesbusiness , @mastersofscale , and @nutechventures Tweets: Tina J. Walha / @tjwalha : I love seeing @USDResponse at the very top of this roundup! @pahlkadot @alexallain @emdashry @RobinCarnahan https://www.nytimes.com/... Kim M Reynolds / @kimberland_1 : Closed out 2020 with an NYT times mention of #OurDataBodies ! Very excited to see ODB alongside of organs like Data for Black Lives as mention of grassroots work looking at how data and surveillance function as arms of white supremacy https://www.nytimes.com/... Caroline Barlerin / @cbarlerin : Delighted that @FrontlineFoods was recognized as part of @nytimes Good Tech Awards. Humbled and honored to have been part of this phenomenal team of dreamers and doers. Thanks @frankba @rsarver for turning this idea into a reality. https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimes : This year, technology did more for us than ever. And all over the world, firms big and small stepped up to help solve critical problems and keep us safe. https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimesbusiness : The most important innovation of the year wasn't really “technology” in the conventional, Silicon Valley sense of the word, @kevinroose writes. He credits the scientists at Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech, the National Institutes of Health and others. https://www.nytimes.com/... @mastersofscale : “The 2020 Good Tech Awards” by @KevinRoose is a genuinely uplifting look at tech that made the world a bit better: https://www.nytimes.com/... @RSafian talked to award-winner @USDResponse early on: https://listen.mastersofscale.com/ ... @nutechventures : Fire-fighting technology developed by @UNLincoln startup company Drone Amplified is named among the @nytimes ‘2020 Good Tech Awards.’ Read more about the technologies considered “the most humane and altruistic tech projects of the year.” ›› https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Kevin Roose's 2020 Good Tech Awards close out a year that began with tech scrambling for relevance: back in April, Bloomberg reported the industry was pivoting to pandemic remedies explicitly to repair its reputation, even as the Times separately documented how lobbying efforts were quietly advancing long-held policy goals under COVID's cover. The awards are the retrospective verdict on that pivot.
What makes this roundup more than PR is its cast: alongside Frontline Foods, USDResponse, and Drone Amplified's fire-fighting startup work, it names grassroots critics like OurDataBodies and Data for Black Lives who argue data and surveillance function as arms of white supremacy — and it credits Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech, and NIH scientists, not corporate marketing, for vaccine innovation.
First-order effects
- Named projects get a mainstream credibility stamp: USDResponse, Frontline Foods, Drone Amplified, OurDataBodies, and Data for Black Lives now carry a New York Times endorsement that aids fundraising, recruiting, and government partnerships.
- Roose's framing draws a line inside the industry itself — crediting vaccine scientists over company campaigns — implicitly judging which 2020 'help' was substance versus reputation management.
Second-order effects
- Civic-tech funders and philanthropists gain a curated shortlist from a trusted gatekeeper, shifting attention and capital toward community-driven models like the AllClear-style digital volunteerism the Times tracked through the pandemic rather than top-down corporate dashboards.
- Companies excluded from the list face pressure to show verifiable public-interest outcomes rather than announcements, since the award's mix of startups, volunteers, and activists sets the bar for what counts as 'good tech.'
Third-order effects
- If crisis-era coverage keeps rewarding distributed volunteer networks and grassroots data-justice groups alongside firms, legitimacy in tech becomes something media and civil society adjudicate — not something companies can manufacture through rapid-response PR alone.
- The inclusion of surveillance critics in a mainstream 'good tech' frame signals that data ethics has moved from the margins of tech discourse into the same publications that once amplified industry self-presentation.
The trend: Crisis response is becoming tech's legitimacy battleground, with journalists and grassroots groups increasingly arbitrating which public-interest claims earn trust.