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Bored With Web 2.0? Demand Change

by kferaday | June 24, 2008 at 09:51 am | 97 views | add comment

Some interesting thoughts on the role of technology in making the world better. I disagree with a couple of Haque's contentions. Alot of money has been going into green technologies. According to Goldman Sachs investment increased from $400 billion in 2003 to $3 trillion in 2006.

There is also a role for social software in this. On the environmental front it has the potential to significantly reduce air travel. It also has applications for education, healthcare, small business, etc.

We could be doing more though, and Haque has it right when he says we need businesses, particularly publicly traded companies, need to start thinking differently about how they operate and measure wealth and what constitutes value.

In April, Umair Haque posted a manifesto on his blog on the Harvard Business Publishing web site where he called for today's investors and start-ups to start building applications to "change the world" instead of just making apps that make money. He challenged Silicon Valley to find a problem to fix that will change the world for the better and then pledged that he would help by providing free consulting. Recently, he revisited this topic which he was due to speak on at this year's Supernova conference.