--- description: Tech's greatest gift to social justice, how we fell behind on basic research, oversight for drones, doing business in Iran and more. title: Social Justice and the Cellphone Camera image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Social Justice and the Cellphone Camera by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 29, 2015 4:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 29, 2015 4:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**Technology’s greatest gift to social justice is the mobile phone camera.**](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/thank-god-for-cellphone-video-cameras/391688/ "undefined") By Robinson Meyer in the Atlantic **2\.** [**How did America fall so far behind on basic scientific research?**](http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-funding-decline-in-basic-research-20150428-column.html "undefined") By Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times **3\.** [**The U.S. needs a drone oversight board.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/04/oversight-targeted-killing-americans-overseas-new-model/110926/ "undefined") By David Medine and Eliza Sweren-Becker in Defense One **4\.** [**Here’s how citizen scientists discovered five new supernovas.**](http://www.space.com/29215-citizen-scientists-discover-five-supernovas.html "undefined") By Calla Cofield in Space.com **5\.** [**U.S. CEOs are eager to do business in Iran — but they’re not alone.**](http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/us-ceos-visit-iran.html# "undefined") By Barbara Slavin in Al-Monitor  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3840094/social-justice-and-the-cellphone-camera/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3840094/social-justice-and-the-cellphone-camera/"},"headline":"Social Justice and the Cellphone Camera","datePublished":"2015-04-29T16:01:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:18.385Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3840094/social-justice-and-the-cellphone-camera/","keywords":["Innovation","Iran","Cameras","Technology","Race","Research","Drones","video","social justice","riots","baltimore","Ferguson topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3840094/social-justice-and-the-cellphone-camera/","name":"Social Justice and the Cellphone Camera"}}]}] ```