Jim Fruchterman, Benetech

Am listening right now to Jim Fruchterman, the founder of Benetech, Bookshare and many other social-related ventures. Fascinating account of how he went from a Stanford student to found all the amazing things he has done.One initiative he has done catches my eye. Martus, something which enables human rights organizations to report human rights abuses to a centralized database.

Increasingly, I am seeing that the UnseenPeople idea needs serious changing. I am starting to envision two very different things: first, a common database standard which NGOs, and anybody can contribute to and view, which holds information about “beneficiaries”. This should be editable from computers, from mobile phones, and aggregate information.

The second is the interesting one. It is some site which references information in this database, and allows people to donate a “bounty” for NGOs to claim by filling the needs of a particular beneficiary. This creates an incentive for NGOs to use the database; it also allows donors to donate directly to the cause itself (not the NGO, but the people).

This is akin to Kiva. Kiva, on a conceptual level, basically provides information about the beneficiaries, for people to lend to. This is different because it pertains to donations (not loans), and covers not people but villages, slums, and more. This needs more thought, and will probably claim my weekend.