Bangalore: Technology has made the world a smaller place, and it is even smaller now especially because of its increasingly social nature. But what if we could harness this ability of technology to do good and come up with innovative solutions to everyday problems?

Here are five companies, which (according to Mashable) have used the power of digital to make a difference and are working towards changing the world:

1. Name: Kaggle

What it does: Makes Data-science a sport

How it works: Kaggle hosts competitions aimed at data scientists. Companies that want their data problems solved post them along with relevant data sets on the site. Anyone can submit a solution that they think will work, and each contestant is ranked throughout the competition on a leaderboard.

Why the idea works: According to Kaggle’s founder (and CEO) Anthony Goldbloom, “When you’re working in the context of a competition, you try a few things and get to the top of a leaderboard and you’re pretty happy with yourself. Then someone else comes along and displaces you, so you need to try something else.” Prizes run from $1,000 to $3 million, and most contests have a deadline of two to three months. Competition proves to be a catalyst in producing the best results. “This leap-frogging generally continues until nobody can get any better — it’s like squeezing a lemon until it’s dry,” explains Goldbloom. “Our hope is that people out of school will want to be data scientists coming out of school instead of hedge fund traders,” he says.