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Technology Benefiting Humanity and the Tech Museum Awards winners were announced earlier this month. These awards recognize and support solutions that benefit humanity and address some of the most critical issues facing our planet and its people.

The Laureates are announced each year and they can be individuals, for-profit, public or non-profit organizations and they must demonstrate that with the use of technology, they can improve the human condition in one of the five areas:

 - Evidence that a serious problem or challenge with broad significance is addressed by this use of technology
- A noteworthy contribution that surpasses previous or current solutions.
- A novel application that represents a breakthrough or a creative adaptation of an existing technology.
- The potential for this use of technology to serve as an inspiration or model for others.

Among the 2007 laureates are P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, Kiva and PATH all of which we have blogged about on NextBillion. To see the complete list of all Laureates click here.

Here on NextBillion, we have followed the Disruptive Innovations contest from Ashoka very closely, hoping that a new ‘disruptive innovation’ will provide a good idea or innovation for the BOP. The winners were announced earlier this month and truthfully, I am very disappointed. There were three winners – none of them are international, nor is there one that caters the BOP.

The competition’s objective was to find 'disruptive innovations' – as Professor Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School refers to innovations that dramatically reshape current trends. This specific competition aimed to find solutions for health and health care marketplace problems. The online competition, "Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care-Solutions People Want," was an initiative from Ashoka’s Changemakers. There were 10 finalists - I blogged about them last month - and three winners were chosen by online votes.

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The Omidyar® Network supports the conditions that enable individuals to tap their own potential to make life better for themselves and others. Since 2004, Omidyar Network has funded nonprofit and for-profit efforts in a number of areas, including microfinance, participatory media, open innovation, and transparency in government. They are recruiting a new Financial Analyst to join their team.

This position will be reporting to the director of investments, members of the investment team and, work closely with senior members of the team. The candidate will be involved in many aspects of the investment process. The primary focus of this role is conducting technical and business due diligence, market and competitive analysis, and monitoring of portfolio companies.

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My entry into the world of BOP is shockingly recent – in fact, I’ll even admit that I learned what the acronym stood for (Base or Bottom of the Pyramid – referring to a very large and often marginalized part of the global income strata) as recently as June. This was after I left academia, and had already decided to pursue a notion that very few in my graduating class would take seriously – the fusion of private sector and social interests to create logical, sustainable solutions that allow poor people to reap the benefits of their own hard work and to direct their own futures.

To the naysayers, I now say… watch out. Or rather, just watch! It’s happening, and, not surprisingly, it’s happening faster than any USAID reform package or overhaul of the UN, though perhaps not as fast as the next iPhone. But that’s a different story, and one that the New York Times will undoubtedly be covering in great detail.

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Last week I attended to a conference at Chemonics International by John Owens on mobile banking (m-banking). Almost every writer on NextBillion has written blog posts about this new approach to banking. According to John Owens -chief of party for MABS from Chemonics International- m-banking is the future of micro-finance and rural banking, especially in remote areas - and many people agree. With the increase in cell phone sales in the past years, more people have cell phones and therefore banking services have a broader market base in which to operate.

The advantages of mobile banking are many. It provides a more secure way of making transactions instead of carrying cash; it facilitates transactions such as deposits and withdrawals; and it makes operations much simpler for micro-entrepreneurs.

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NextBillion ally Chris Monasterski, editor of the excellent PSD Blog, wrote me a short e-mail this evening alerting me to the release of the 2008 Doing Business rankings.  This year marks the fifth edition of the annual rankings, which measures the ease of doing business in 178 countries worldwide.

Anyone interested in BoP business ought to pay close attention to the Doing Business reports.  After all, many companies tell NextBillion that one major impediment to launching a BoP initiative is the "business environment."  Of course, the rankings are really designed to help us understand how easy it is to create a local business in a specific country - not initiate a BoP pilot or subsidiary there.  There may be a hidden lesson in these rankings, however - if you're interested in pursuing BoP markets, your best bet might be to work with and support the local small and medium sized business community.

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"In the face of this new reality, an increasing number of forward-looking nonprofits are beginning to appreciate the increased revenue, focus and effectiveness that can come from adopting "for profit" business approaches. Increasingly, they are reinventing themselves as social entrepreneurs, combining "the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination." From "The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship" by J. Gregory Dees.

Social entrepreneurs have the motivation of making the world a better place and have a passion for a social mission through entrepreneurial, earned-income strategies commonly known as triple bottom line.

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Guest blogger Andrew Mack is the Founder and Principal of AMGlobal Consulting, and a former World Bank official. He blogs at Andy's Global View and can be reached at: contact@amglobal.com

By Andrew Mack

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Two faculty positions are open at Penn State - Delaware County University for Management Faculty.  The Assistant Professor candidates (one in Management, one in Marketing) will have the proper academic backgrounds, but Professor Raed Elaydi tells NextBillion that an interest in BoP research is a plus.

Applicants are encouraged to apply through the formal process. To apply, submit a letter of application and Curriculum Vitae. Applications must be submitted as a Microsoft Word or PDF file to ccsearch@psu.edu.

Finalists will be asked to provide a list of references. Candidates are also welcome to contact Dr. Paul deGategno at pjd15@psu.edu or (610) 892-1411.

To find more postings click here. Follow the "Faculty" link, select the Delaware County campus, and choose the two Assistant Professorships listed.

Dr. Nancy E. Landrum is Associate Professor of strategic management at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  Her teaching, research, and consulting expertise are in strategic management, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability.  Dr. Landrum received her Ph.D. from New Mexico State University.  She has authored or co-authored several journal publications and has made numerous professional presentations.

By Dr. Nancy E. Landrum

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