Paul Braund is Co-Founder of RIOS Institute (Research and Innovation for Organizations and Societies Institute) in Berkeley and Silicon Valley, California. He has worked as an architect and award-winning industrial designer and has developed numerous patents. He has spent 20 years working in technology research and development in Silicon Valley.

He has spent the past 5 years working on social development and finding appropriate technology transfers for developing countries, particularly in communications technology. He has supported and represented the UN-World Bank at conferences and various fact finding trips and workshops in developing countries, while maintaining independent work with numerous NGOs, small community groups and academic institutions who are helping to bring more human-centered innovation to development.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul in advance of the Silicon Valley Challenge Summit, which will bring together Silicon Valley’s unique pool of talent, creativity and ambitions to further transform the region into a hub of the international network around the use of ICT for global development.

Please click "Read More" for the text of my interview with Paul Braund.

"It's a moment to balance the global with the local." - Dr. Abhay Bang, director of SEARCH

NextBillion’s news section contains 4 new items, all of which pertain to “risk” in relation to the BOP community. But this risk I am referring to is two-fold. These news items address the wrongly perceived notion by commercial banks and insurance companies that the poor are 'high risk.' But the flip side, the newsworthy aspect, is that now these companies are seeing opportunity instead of risk. In fact, they are making it their job to reduce the risk to the poor using multiple approaches.

Click "Read More" to read about these approaches...