Philanthropic Movements on Web Acknowledged by TED

12.13.09 The philanthropic movement on the web is being closely watched by investors and has recently been brought to the spotlight at the famous TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment, Design). The speaker of the topic is Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and an angel investor.  In the words of Leena Rao of TechCrunch:

“Hoffman says that one of his ambitions is to be a public intellectual, to be able to influence millions of people with innovations and change. Hoffman thinks that the internet, which is scalable and low-cost, is the optimal platform for cause-based organizations. The web is more about people than technology, Hoffman asserts.

When Hoffman invests in a startup, he looks at three things: scalability, margins and the structure. These three attributes are the same things that make web-based causes or philanthropic movements more effective. Three types of cause-based organizations have developed on the web because of this potential, which are non-profits (Hoffman highlights micro-lending platform Kiva.org as an example of this), hybrid infrastructure organizations such as Mozilla or Creative Commons, and companies developing their own cause-based movements on the web.

One of the things that Hoffman finds interesting is that corporations, because they have the reach of millions of people, they can make cause-based initiatives part of their web based platform. This is exemplified by Facebook’s Causes application.

The causes that success capitalize on the internet “peer play” says Hoffman. So how do you coordinate the actions of millions of people in the world to make social change? Hoffman says that micro-groups on the internet can help organize these causes effectively.”

Without mentioning us, Reid Hoffman had just precisely described the idea behind OneVietnam Network. OneVietnam believes that the power of the micro-group and the individual, once connected together, can create a large impact for a better social change. However, there are still technical and other frontier problems that needed to be overcame before this wave can be taken off. These problems including providing the technology tools and creating a reliable network that OneVietnam is promising to deliver at its launch! so be patient and know that we are coming!

I wish that Reid Hoffman showed our OVN Cartoon at the TED talk because it would make his presentation easier to grasp! they should have done more research, show our video, and support us!