"What if you could walk into a legal aid office and, by simply tapping out some answers to an on-screen questionnaire, get immediate advice, connections to social services and more? This seemingly simple scenario drives Keith Porcaro. As general counsel and head of technology and development at Social Impact Lab, a small nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., this web developer-turned-lawyer is mapping out the myriad paths and problems involved in the delivery of government and social services, and he's devising innovative, technology-driven processes to streamline it all. But before he could tackle that challenge, SIMLab sent him to rural India on a much different kind of project.

Q. You’ve been the tech arm of a project in India that started in 2014 and involves titling land in rural villages in the state of Odisha and delivering those titles to villagers. How challenging is that?
A. It’s been a challenge to navigate around really complex bureaucracy, a constantly changing process and a general lack of technology access. When we started the project, the chief digitization officer didn’t own a computer. We had to get creative—and keep being creative.
Q. Sounds like “challenging” has also been “frustrating.” Is that how you felt?
A. This is where having a technology background is helpful. It’s a little like when you’re trying to code something. You write it out, and you think it’s going to be great. But then it crashes, there’s smoke coming out of it, and it’s managed chaos. But that’s the challenge I like: trying to give structure and form to chaos. Continue Reading