I think some points tie in with what Joe said regarding building infrastructure.

This is stupid. Not every developing country is a black hole of wealth, where everyone is dying on the streets. Poverty and wealth aren’t binary; there’s a wide spectrum of people in between. There are plenty of people living in substandard conditions who have Internet access.

What does cheap, reliable communications mean for a developing country? Suddenly, there’s a cheap and viable way to improve communications infrastructure. More jobs to build it! More people can afford devices! What happens when more people have connected devices? More access to information and the ability to broadcast.

What happens when people can communicate with the world? Look at what happened in Iran. What would have happened if those people didn’t have access to the Internet? No one would have noticed. In order to have accountable government, free flow of information and reliable communications is a necessity. Otherwise, how will people know your government is committing atrocities?

But what if the government controls communications? Research a cheap, reliable, and modular communications method that can bypass that. Figure out a fast, cheap, and robust encryption scheme to stop eavesdropping. There’s tons of ways to apply your knowledge in realistic ways that can benefit people.

Communications also gives people more opportunities and greater mobility. People are stuck in bad places because they don’t have information. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know where opportunities are. They don’t know where they can get help.

Technology is neutral. It’s up to the people who use it to decide how they’re going to use it, not you. God didn’t give you your skills and passions so that you could think up ways that people who need them would abuse them. And there are far more ways your skills and passions can benefit those who are in need. You just need to think about more than the obvious causes and effects.