Help Google Invest $10 Million

John Elkington

October 3, 2009

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Google’s ‘Project 10 to the 100′ has identified social entrepreneurship as one of the top 16 ideas that will change the world. Now they are asking you to vote to help them identify the biggest opportunity for change.

Here’s how Google explains the background:

Q: What is Project 10100? A: Project 10100 (pronounced “Project 10 to the 100th”) is a call for ideas to change the world, in the hope of helping as many people as possible.

Q: Why is Google doing this? A: The short answer is that we think helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing.Here’s the long answer.

Q: How many ideas are you funding? A: We have committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by our advisory board.

Q. Why the name 10100? A: 10100 is another way of expressing the number “googol,” a one followed by one hundred zeroes. Our company’s very name expresses our goal of achieving great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact. Project 10100 is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing our users’ insights and creativity. We don’t know what ideas would help the most people. This project’s premise is that maybe you do.

If you believe in social entrepreneurship, Ashoka asks you to vote for the social entrepreneurship idea, or – failing that – vote for another of your favourite ideas. You may also nominate an organization who you feel is best placed to carry out the idea.

The categories Google is focusing on are:

  • Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
  • Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
  • Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
  • Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
  • Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
  • Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
  • Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
  • Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.

The criteria it is applying:

  • Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
  • Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
  • Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
  • Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
  • Longevity: How long will the idea’s impact last?

Google will commit $10 million to organizations to implement the top 5 ideas (as nominated by the public and an advisory board.)

Voting closes on October 8, 2009.