Tech Matters: Using tech for positive social change

Clara Miller, the head of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, always has terrific insights into sector, especially in the area of funding as one might expect. She just published an article, The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money , which zeroes in on many of the problems of the sector. It's a great argument for social enterprise, because earned income can be used in the ways that for-profits would invest money for growth and infrastructure. But, Clara's article is much bigger than just that one issue. I highly recommend it!

Last month I was able to introduce Steve Case (of AOL fame) for his closing keynote at the 6th Gathering of the Social Enterprise Alliance. His remarks just appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the title Purpose and Profit Go Together. It's very exciting to see the spread of interest in social enterprise and social entrepreneurship among the community of top tech entrepreneurs. Steve's own foundation has become a major supporter of the Social Enterprise Alliance, a group I helped found five years ago to advance the movement of social enterprises. He's putting his money where his mouth is, and I'm firmly convinced that will lead to some great social benefits as hundreds of nonprofits start mission-related businesses.

Yesterday I visited Betsy Bayha, a friend of mine who is a producer for Lucasfilm, working on documentaries. Skywalker Ranch is a very cool place! I was passed by four guys in Stormtrooper gear: the publicity machine is getting ready for the release of the new Star Wars movie later this month. The environment is designed to be conducive to the creative process: I was especially impressed by the library in the main house. It's both an architectural marvel as well as an effective library supporting the creation of films. Betsy and I know each other from years of working on disability issues. One of her recent projects was Freedom Machines, the PBS documentary on the award-winning P.O.V. series, which was released last year. It's all about how adaptive technology improves the lives of people with disabilities. Well worth seeing. I especially liked it because our Open Book reading system was mentioned in the film. The last stop on my visit was for lunch in the main house...

I just had to post this email I received. A couple of the Benetech team members hold the patent on the talking GPS locator for the blind technology, and this user is using technology we helped create. Jim From: "Rich Irwin" To: "Gps-Talkusers" Hi All: Thought I would share a great GPS experience I had last week. I needed to take a 50 mile trip using several public transit systems to an area I had never been before. After a short cab ride, a Golden Gate Bus ride to San Francisco, a BART ride to Pittsburgh, I was told to take a Delta Transit bus to Oakley. Not only had I not been to Oakley before, but I had never heard of Delta Transit. I found the bus stop and the correct bus with the help of another passenger who was taking the same bus. What we both learned quickly was that this was the bus drivers first day on the route. After about a half hour of bus ride, as we left one of the stops, everyone on the bus hollered at the driver that he was going the wrong ...

I just returned from a great trip. One of my stops was to the attend the Sixth Gathering of Social Entrepreneurs, organized by the Social Enterprise Alliance , and held in Milwaukee. It was great to have roughly 600 people all getting the energy of social enterprise. The biggest supporter of the conference was Steve Case's Foundation (the founder of AOL). I was able to introduce him, and it was great to hear from his presentation how he gets social enterprise. He encouraged us to found a new sector that isn't nonprofit and isn't for profit, but is somewhere in the middle. I've heard other people advocate for a "for-benefit" sector before. Here's an article from the Milwaukee press on the event: When non-profits cash in.

I was just at the Council on Foundations meeting in San Diego, courtesy of one of our funders (and generally cool people) , the Community Technology Foundation of California . We had a session on the applications of information technology to helping communities of color. I was talking about our human rights work and had some great discussions about working for immigrant rights and against trafficking. CTFC's grant to us is enabling us to add more than 1,000 books in Spanish to Bookshare.org, and we were able to announce this (in English and Spanish) at last month's CSUN conference on adaptive technology.

Awesome announcement! Patrick Ball, our Director of Human Rights Programs, will be awarded one of EFF's Pioneer Awards next week. Since Patrick is busy working with the Truth Commission in East Timor, I think they are trying to connect him to the ceremony over the Internet! Electronic Frontier Foundation Announces Pioneer Award Winners I think this is a great recognition of Patrick's incredible contribution to the international human rights movement.