Philanthropist Google

Google.org has pledged $1.1 billion to promote ventures that try to solve the problem of global poverty. The Google Foundation supports a number of organizations:

- Acumen Fund, which is a VC to help non-profits develop sustainable business models.

- TechnoServe, which promotes entrepreneural talent to turn good ideas into thriving businesses.

- Water Research, which is researching into alternatives for water purification to provide safe and healthy drinking water in Kenya.

- PlanetRead, which seeks to improve literacy in India by subtitling movies and other educational videos.

They have appointed Dr. Larry Brilliant as the Director of the Google Foundation, who has had a very wide and varied successful career, from founding companies to funding companies, starting NGOs, and Time and Wired even called him a technology visionary. Worldchanging has a neat blog on his activities. Let's see how well Google and Dr. Brilliant can live up to the vision.