Tech Matters: Using tech for positive social change

The Global Social Venture Competition is a great event: bringing the talents of business school students from around the world to bear on society's pressing problems. I have been a judge twice in the last five years, and the quality of the business plans being judged has simply soared over that time period. I just found out about a matching making blog for the 2007 GSVC, where social groups can link up with students who want to work on a business plan. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there will be an in-person meeting as well on matchmaking at UC Berkeley's Haas Business School, on November 17, 2006. Here's some information on this, that I clipped from an email. Who should attend? Any social entrepreneur in the Bay Area who has at least a reasonably well-developed business idea or venture. Though there is no particular restriction on industry, the goal of the venture must include a focus on social impact as well as financial sustainability. The individual or team beh...

I'm giving a webcast on World Usability Day 2006 (November 14, 2006) entitled Access to Books for People with Print Disabilities. This kind of event showcases what the web can do for people who cannot go to the short number of conferences where these topics are discussed. And of course, accessibility means better access for more people! For those interested in attending this webcast, there's a page called How do I view a WUD webcast? The link for my session is here, and the webcast is at 1 pm California time.

Just received this photo from the nice folks at the Clinton Global Initiative. Our bold commitment at CGI was to take Bookshare.org international over the next year, finding the authors, publishers and tech company support to reach at least three countries in a significant way. We've already heard about a commitment from Microsoft that will help us meet this commitment, and we're busy working with other funders to help raise the money to make this happen. Benetech at CGI .

An article of mine just appeared in the Social Enterprise Reporter, entitled High Tech Approaches for Building Social Enterprise. The SER is one of the leading publications in the social enterprise field, and I think it's now one of the membership benefits of joining the Social Enterprise Alliance . I just got back last night from an SEA board meeting in Long Beach, California, where the next annual meeting will be held. Should be a great event (April 17-19, 2007). I'm passionate about the application of intellectual property to driving social good. This article expands on how this is not solely the province of high tech types like me. Many social organizations create valuable content, and can often reach greater mission success by leveraging that content. For example, if you have a great new method for tutoring kids, you might have a bigger impact by publicizing that method so that other people can use the improved approach. And, often this can be structured as a socia...

I am an enthusiastic support of the social enterprise movement, people who are operating enterprises that have social outcomes as a primary goal. One of the most interesting things from a recent Gathering of the Social Enterprise Alliance was having an interview with a Hong Kong film crew that was doing a piece on social enterprise. I was delighted to see the latest web site in Hong Kong about social enterprise, the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Resource Web. It's great to have this movement making an impact around the world!

I am listening to Senator Clinton right now, as the Clinton Global Initiative makes it to its last couple of hours. The conference has been very interesting: great people and speakers, and an unusual format (the demand that every attendee make a specific commitment to social change). I think it really has catalyzed commitments: Richard Branson made a 3 billion commitment yesterday in the area of climate change. Our commitment is smaller, but really exciting to me: taking Bookshare.org international. All we have to do is to raise $1.4 million and get a lot more publisher and author permissions! I was particularly impressed with Queen Rania and King Abdullah of Jordan (who spoke yesterday morning and evening respectively): very well spoken given the incredibly difficult situation in the Middle East.

Things are really hopping around Benetech today! I was just named a MacArthur Fellow and the phone is ringing off the hook and the emails are streaming in. Because the MacArthur process is secret, I don't know who to thank for this, so I'm thanking everybody! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Soon I'll be remembering everyone I should be thanking, but I should start with my family, the Benetech team (including our board and advisors) and of course our supporters, all of whom made this honor possible!