Tapan Parikh (left) has proved that innovations need not be as complex as they are made out to be. Often, simple ideas make the best impact. What makes Tapan different – and Technology Review's 2007 Humanitarian of the Year – is that he saw in mobile phones an accessible opportunity for social impact.

Tapan Parikh is the founder of a company called Ekgaon Technologies. Parikh has created information systems tailored for small-business people in the developing world with the mobile phone at their core. This is made possible by the high penetration of mobile phones in developing countries.

Parikh developed Cam, a toolkit to use the capability of phones to capture images and scan documents, enter and process data, and run interactive audio and video. Parikh built a software system on top of Cam to assist self-help groups in managing their information and their operations. Without requiring the users to change their style of working or reliance on paper, Parikh’s tool uses a Cam-based application for entering and processing data, a text-messaging tool for uploading data to online databases, and a package of Web-based software for managing data and reporting it to any institution that has lent money to the self-help group.

This enables the self-help groups to bring greater efficiency and transparency to their internal operations, thus making them more stable. The software could also link the informal self-help groups to the formal financial sector, enabling them to get capital on better terms.

Parikh adopted the same approach in his work with fair-trade coffee farmers in Guatemala. Parikh devised a Cam system allowing farm inspectors to use mobile phones to photograph and document farms in order to ensure their compliance with quality and production standards, and to put those data online so that they are easily found by certifying agencies, wholesalers, and consumers.

When people point out these new technologies can widen the gap between the prosperous and the struggling, they are probably nitpicking. After all, no BOP offering has been able to make an impact across all segments. Some may argue that they cannot and even should not.

This might not be the panacea for all ills that does not exist – but is certainly a step in the right direction.

When I think about people living in the BOP, I immediately picture people in developing countries. I didn’t really picture people in the U.S. as people in the BOP. I have realized now after living for six weeks in the D.C. area that I could not be further from the truth. There is a big population in the U.S. in both rural and urban communities that live in poverty.

For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, California has over 5,000,000 people living below the poverty line, some in Third World situations without clean water, lights, sanitation, or jobs. Los Angeles County alone has over 1,000,000 people living below the poverty line.

Micro Enterprise Solar Harvest (M.E.S.H.) contacted NextBillion to tell us about the very interesting work here in the U.S. M.E.S.H. helps the poor in California start small, eco-friendly businesses with micro loans and entrepreneurial training. These green businesses in California are offered to the working poor, with annual incomes of less than $20,000.

M.E.S.H. provides small solar units to help offset light bills and to provide warm water for showers and cooking. They also offer solar cookers and other solar aids for the poor, thus enabling them to "go green." They distribute free energy saving light bulbs to anyone who is currently using incandescent bulbs but who cannot afford to purchase compact fluorescents.

Additionally, M.E.S.H. helps start community gardens and local farmers markets to provide access to healthy organic fruits and vegetables for the poor in rural and urban communities in California. As Meredith Grossland from M.E.S.H. points out, "there is no excuse for Californians to be living in Third World poverty."

This organization is an example of a BOP approach in the U.S. Interestingly, this U.S.-based approach is evidently growing. Want proof? We just heard from the BOP Protocol people at Cornell University, which has recently launched a domestic chapter,

...Another variant of the protocol – and one that we discussed at Cornell a few meetings ago –addresses the needs and opportunities of low-income communities in the U.S. Starting last fall, Michael Gordon has led a team from the University of Michigan in working with a non-profit organization, SOS Community Services, which provides housing and emergency services to homeless and near-homeless families and individuals in Southeastern Michigan. Together they have been exploring the differences between a domestic and a developing world implementation of the protocol. The team has been engaged in a variety of "opening up" activities – activities that are designed to develop trust and understanding with the local community. They have also held several community-wide events aimed at preparing the community for corporate involvement. It is now time to identify companies that would like to participate in this effort to explore, serve, and find profit-making opportunities in this domestic "base of the pyramid" community.

There is a growing need to tap these BOP markets, both domestically and abroad. It is interesting to see how these growing efforts, such as M.E.S.H. and Cornell’s BOP Protocol, are gaining momentum. I would keep an eye open for this and see how it continues to evolve…