"Financial Solutions to the Digital Divide"

Will the global recession cause Wall Street financiers and governments to join forces in an historic effort to build the global Internet, revive world markets, and reduce poverty at the same time? That prospect drives "Financial Solutions to the Digital Divide," to be launched at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street next month. Based at CID and MIT Media Lab, the initiative develops innovative financial vehicles, spreading risks between public and private investors. The aim: to fund IT entrepreneurs and NGOs with promising models for connecting and uplifting the world's five billion have-nots. Craig Smith, who has spent the past five years developing Digital Divide initiatives at Microsoft, the United Nations and among NGOs, will briefly present the "Financial Solutions" framework. A new Fellow at CID's Information Technology Group, he will facilitate a discussion about strategies and challenges of "Financial Solutions" - and suggest how Harvard and MIT faculty and students can get involved.