Entrepreneurs apply tech expertise to social problems

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

[8 May 2002]

Entrepreneurs apply tech expertise to social problems

Aliza Earnshaw   

If Raj Merchant has his way, the night of Friday, May 17, will bring 
the technoscenti of Portland to a Pearl District gallery to pledge 
their time, expertise and money to leveraging the digital economy for 
the benefit of poor people all over the world. 



Merchant, the founder and principal of Strategy@work, a business 
consulting firm, is the president of the Portland chapter of Digital 
Partners, a nonprofit based in Seattle that is dedicated to bringing 
together IT (information technology) entrepreneurs and social 
entrepreneurs--that is, foundations and development organizations--to 
help alleviate poverty through market-based solutions. 

"We can't solve world hunger," said Merchant, "but we have 10 
projects ongoing, and we are aligned with universities and companies 
to implement these projects." And Digital Partners, given enough 
interest from the technology and business community, can do more. 
Merchant hopes that this month's fundraiser, along with a forum that 
Intel is holding to discuss "doing business across the so-called 
`Digital Divide,'" will help to raise not just money but awareness. 

"We need people to contribute their time, resources, and hopefully, 
funds, so that the projects we've started can be successful in 
driving change," Merchant said. 

The approach that Digital Partners advocates--using the tools of 
capitalism to help the poor create both personal and community 
benefit--is not unique. Other organizations have long worked with the 
world's poor to aid in the creation of small businesses and 
industrial groupings to enhance the general level of economic 
activity in backward economies. 

But Digital Partners' emphasis on using the tools of the digital 
economy has clearly struck a chord with some pretty significant 
players in the IT world. The nonprofit's launch and ongoing support 
have drawn a wide range of executives from tech companies, especially 
Microsoft and from many other business sectors, too. Digital Partners 
also has a number of politicians from different countries serving on 
its boards and its "brain trust." 

In conjunction with the Digital Partners fundraiser on the 17th, 
Intel Research is presenting its forum, titled "Seeds," on the 16th 
and 17th at its Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro. Speakers will include 
the executive director of Digital Partners, Akhtar Badshah; Michael 
Best of MIT's Digital Nations program; Peter Bladin of the Grameen 
Technology Center; Gary Herman from Hewlett-Packard's E-Inclusion 
initiative; Jean Canavan from Motorola Corp., and others. 

For information on the Digital Partners reception, which will feature 
an address by Executive Director Badshah, contact Raj Merchant at 
rmerchant@digitalpartners.org. For more information on Digital 
Partners, go to http://www.digitalpartners.org. 

source:
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/05/06/daily34.html