Societys Backbone Blog

she will do the rest.

One of the things I really like about what’s going on in today’s technology world is that no matter what subject matter I am researching, sooner than later I find the intersection between technology, social responsibility, entrepreneurship and women.

It is just amazing to discover how much people are doing with technology to help others. And this is by no means limited to non-profit or social entrepreneurship projects.

Larry Brilliant made a very valid point it in his presentation Case for Optimism. One of his points was that, unlike the older generations who tend to become philanthropic in their later years, today’s generations are using their wealth, passions and knowledge very early on to help others.

Just a couple of examples to illustrate how delightfully pervasive the intersection between technology, social responsibility, entrepreneurship and women is:

This morning, while reading a feed from TechCrunchIT about what Twitter, the micro-blogging/text messaging and social networking service, is up to, I clicked on a link to Summize, a search engine using Twitter.

To see what Summize did, I searched for the term “social responsibility.” Now, it is important to note that Summize data comes from the micro-blogs, short entries from people on the move. The search gave me results for Twitter SocialBridges and WOW, lots of results and the third one was titled:

Women empowerment and support as the root of social change. A video clip whose main point is The Girl Effect: Invest in a girl and she will do the rest. The video site also provides a Fact Sheet about what happens when a girl gets a chance and when she doesn’t.

So what? Well, it wasn’t just the large number of results that was exciting. Two things are very encouraging about this:

1. The large amount of people who are investing time throghout their days sharing and exchanging information about social responsibility, in just this one application, and
2. The high value and quality of the content of the information they are sharing.

Considering how often many of us dismiss text messaging and the time people invest in some of these applications and tools, seeing this result list is reason for optimism. These tools are helping build a social consciousness unlike any we have seen before, and better yet, these people are from all over the world. The exchanges are also bringing diversity into the picture.

Yesterday, the path to the intersection was the opposite. While reading a feed about social responsibility, I found this post about Funding Women Entrepreneurs, which mentions Omidyar Network.

Omidyar is an investment organization created by eBay’s founder, Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam. This organization by itself is an intersection between technology, social responsibility and entrepreneurship because the Pierres founded it “based on the belief that every person has the potential to make a difference.”

But, they didn’t stop there. In addition to funding women entrepreneurs as a “normal” part of their portfolio, they are behind many non-profits and for-profits that are becoming key players delivering technology solutions to social needs, generating tremendous social changes and value, while still making money.

The concept of not doing things just as charity, which often proves to be unsustainable and costly in the long-run, is also a key aspect I find in this intersection.

But, the best part of the intersection between technology, social responsibility and entrepreneurship is that the new generations of entrepreneurs and technology gurus seem to be blind to the social rules that created the gender gap in the first place.

I hope I am right on what I am seeing, but if I am right, this new breed of business people will not only believe in The Girl Effect, but will deliver on it.

Simply put, they better deliver on it because there is no stopping this intersection from touching all aspects of our lives and it is probably the best chance we have to bridge the gender gap.