[wsfii-discuss] Fwd: yunus wish on IT

Sat Nov 24 02:18:07 UTC 2007

FYI...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: christopher macrae <chris.macrae at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 24 Nov 2007 02:11
Subject: yunus wish on IT
To: tav <asktav at gmail.com>, "sofia at turnupthecourage.com" <
sofia at turnupthecourage.com>, "josef at open.coop" <josef at open.coop>,
mostofa12 at yahoo.com, t at espians.com
Cc: mitchell at mo-shon.net, "mamading at gmail.com" <mamading at gmail.com>,
face at davidpinto.org, rebeccaharding at deltaeconomics.com

In his new book Muhammad Yunus makes this request for IT help/collaboration
... thought you might like to see it early. Whole Book should be with Sofia
early next week ..this extract from page 184 on

Social Business and IT Revolution

My dream is of a world in which technology is harnessed to create a better
life for everyone, not just the wealthy few. So far, it's been largely
profit-obsessive corporations who decide the uses to which technology is
put...When it comes to the new IT , "business as usual is not acceptable".
The emerging technologies are so overwhelmingly important in shaping our
future lives that we cannot leave the development of tomorrow's IT to the
board-room decisions of big business alone. Instead "social business" must
step up to take an important role in creating the next generation of IT.

I see individuals as the best bet for starting this effort, particularly
individuals who are IT enthusiasts and have a foothold in the worlds of
business, technology, science, the arts and academia. There are thousands of
brilliant idealistic people like this around the world who would like to
devote their time, energy, and talent to finding ways of using IT to help
poor people escape poverty. IT itself can bring these individuals together ,
using the internet to build a strong global force of people dedicated to
applying the power on information to the world's most serious social
problems.

I propose giving this movement a structure by creating an umbrella
organisation to embody and support it. Let's call it ISEP – Information
Solutions Ending Poverty.

How will ISEP get started? Any individual, group can start it by presenting
a mission statement on the web and asking others to join in the network.
Once it starts rolling there might be a conference (virtual or real) to
build a leadership team, and to establish an entity that can accept funds
and present the network to the public.

ISEP will probably have a group of paid staff as well as volunteers and
interns devoted to the network's programs. However, its true legitimacy and
authority will come from its membership  -high-powered imaginative people
and organisations who are committed to contributing their talents to
designing, developing, testing, implementing and marketing IT solutions for
the poor.

The money to create ISEP certainly exists. What is needed is a focus on IT
for the poor, the will to establish a worldwide network of people devoted to
that focus, and the visionary leadership of a few strong individuals to
drive the process.

I could make a long list of projects that ISEP members could spearhead. Here
are a few:

ISEP could generate ready to apply social business ideas for using It to
bring services to the poor as well as to take products and services from the
poor to the broader market. ISEP could also publish these ideas as widely as
possible.
ISEP members could develop prototypes for IT infrastucture and info systems
for anti-poverty programs and services anywhere in the world
ISEP members could study the interface between the informational needs of
the poor (especially those related to their productivity at work) and
existing IT capabilities, and then proactively create applications or system
needed to better serve the poor
ISEP could identify IT infrastructure imperatives for the delivery of
education, helath care, good governance, and legal services to the poor, and
providing consulting services to governments, NGOs and businesses that are
interested in producing te necessary infrastructure
ISEP could create informational networks based on geographical area, causes
and correlates of poverty (agriculture, product marketing, health,
education, legal , women, children, destitute, indigenous people and so on).

ISEP will be a dynamic network of institutions and persons around the globe,
all working toward common goals as articulated, defined and monitored by a
steering team. I am hoping that somewhere in the world someone reading this
book will accept the challenge of launching this ISEP initiative around the
world

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